Several items in the set show young people working as helpers and leaders.

These three images offer an opportunity for students to consider how young people belong to, participate in, and can act as helpers and leaders within a community.

Before introducing the images to students, allow time to discuss what “community” can mean. Teachers might want to borrow ideas from the set’s background essay or invite students to construct their own definition. As part of defining community, help students think about different types or levels of community, such as family, classroom, school, neighborhood, and so on.

Next, distribute or show the three images: Children’s school victory gardens, Meeting of Cub Scouts, and the Editorial staff of the school paper.

Ask: What types or levels of community do they see? What makes them think that? Encourage students to describe details from the photographs that stand out and look for similarities and differences among the three images.

Students might have noticed that all three images feature young people. Ask: What are the young people doing in each of these photographs?

Students may observe that the young people are:

• helping (in a garden)
• working, talking, or writing together
• maybe trying to solve a problem or plan an activity
• listening
• supporting one another
• creating something

Encourage students to think about leaders and helpers. What behaviors, traits, or qualities come to mind? Students might identify characteristics that go beyond what they observed from the three images, however, it’s likely there will be overlap. Bring students’ attention back to the images and ask: How are these young people being leaders and helpers?

Close by inviting students to think about the different communities to which they belong. Challenge students to brainstorm ways that they can be helpers and leaders in those places and spaces.

If you are interested in more images that show young people active in their communities, take a look at some of these “lots” (groups of pictures), that the photographs used in this activity come from. Each lot shows everyday actions that give definition to the ideas of belonging to, participating in and leading communities.

• Lot 1781 Children’s School Victory Garden
• Lot 151. Ida B Wells Housing Project
• Lot 216 Washington D.C., activities in black elementary, junior high, and technical high schools

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Primary sources are excellent tools for conveying the nature and practices of science. By providing a firsthand look at the types of questions scientists pose as well as the methods and strategies they employ to answer them, primary sources humanize the scientific endeavor in ways that other materials cannot. And there may be no scientific discipline better suited to such an “inside look” than paleontology. The study of fossilized remains and what they can teach us about Earth’s history is rife with uncertainty, incomplete data sets, and an ever-evolving understanding of the subject.

A new primary source set from the Library of Congress features 18 primary sources that teachers can use to bring forward the nature of science while also addressing science content standards about paleontology, the fossil record, and geologic time. Through close looking and thoughtful analysis of these items, students can learn about significant paleontological discoveries and practice the types of thinking and questioning employed by professional paleontologists.

The set includes primary sources in diverse formats (photographs, drawings and engravings, newspaper articles, maps, diagrams, and even a piece of congressional legislation) spanning the early years of paleontology to present day. Dig in and discover:

• newspaper accounts recounting major discoveries, including Tyrannosaurus rex and fossilized dinosaur eggs!
• engravings of petrified wood and fossil skulls from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia and Charles Darwin’s Voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle.
• photographs showing how fossil remains are discovered in the field, as well as how skeletons are constructed and displayed.
• maps sharing the distributions of rocks and fossils from different geologic time periods.

The Paleontology, Past and Present primary source set also includes background information, teaching suggestions, and links for additional information and primary sources. We hope that you and your students will find it to be a helpful resource!

For example, in the primary source set, Community: People and Places, a panoramic map gives students a particular perspective of a city.

Sometimes referred to as “bird’s-eye views,” panoramic maps are great for helping students see different landscapes, street patterns, and prominent buildings. These engaging visual maps can be especially meaningful to young learners. Browse maps by state to locate panoramic maps closest to where your students live.

How teachers use panoramic maps will vary depending what aspect of community they want to explore; however, a few ideas might include:

• Identify and trace waterways shown on a map. What do students notice about the waterway? What do they see on the map that is close to the waterway? Why might it be located there?
• Encourage students to look at street patterns. What clues can students find that tell them which streets have homes or buildings? Where are these streets located on the map?
• Project a contemporary map of the same city or town that the panoramic map shows. Ask: What do they notice about how the place has changed over time? What is different and what is similar?
• Older elementary students might spend time with the map key. Encourage students to look for patterns and ask questions about what types of institutions are included in the key, what surprises them, and why.

The “Additional Resources” section of the Community: People and Places primary source set includes Sanborn Maps, another type of map that could be helpful for exploring different aspects of community and place.

The Sanborn map collection includes large-scale maps of commercial, industrial, and residential sections of thousands of cities and towns in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The maps show the shape and construction of homes, commercial buildings, and factories as well as names of streets and property boundaries. You can search the collection by state and then by city or county.  A fascinating use of the Sanborn maps is to explore change over time. This essay details several examples and might inspire ideas to modify for elementary-age students.

If you are looking for maps that go beyond a local orientation of community, the Cities and Towns Collection features maps that detail places throughout the world. These maps might be helpful as students start to orient to community in a state, national, or even global context.

If you use maps from these collections with your students, we would love to hear about it! Please share your experiences and teaching recommendations in the comments.

A new primary source set, Community: People and Places, includes items related to helpers and leaders in a community. By modeling and then guiding students in a thinking routine of observing a source, reflecting on what it shows, and asking their own questions about it, teachers can support young learners’ work with primary sources and build understanding of important civic concepts such as:

• explaining the roles of important local community members;
• identifying helpers and leaders, including in their school, neighborhood, and town or city;
• describing the responsibilities of individual leaders to meet the needs of different people and communities.

Instructional Strategies

Select several sources from the set that highlight community helpers and leaders. Teachers might want to select items that reflect a range of people and places, such as:

• a health clinic in a migrant camp
• trash collectors putting trash bags into a garbage truck
• firehouse station number four
• a bus driver for a city’s transit company
• a donation box
• a meeting of the Cub Scouts 

Using these or your own selections, model how to make observations about an item. Show one item and talk through your process: What do I see? What people or objects are shown? Students might participate with you and add to your observations.

Students may naturally offer reflections about the image. Model reflecting and support their thinking with questions such as: What do I think is happening in the image? What does this image show about helping someone or something? Students may have their own reflections to share, as well as new questions.

Finally, encourage students to ask even more questions about the item. What do they wonder about? You might begin with a question you have about the item to help students get started. Students may need support in bringing their questions back to the ideas of communities, leaders, and helpers.

Teachers might follow this same process for other images or let students select an item that they want to explore. Depending on the needs and dynamics of their classroom, teachers could set up other activities that ask students to observe, reflect, and question but in different ways, such as with a gallery walk, primary source stations, and small group talks.

To close the activity, invite students to name community helpers or leaders in their school. Students could create their own source by drawing a helper or leader at work. In their drawing they should show what a person is doing (role) and how a person is helping (responsibilities).

We’ll be sharing more teaching ideas related to the Community: People and Places set in the coming weeks. If you use the set, we’d love to hear what strategies you have: Please share in the comments!

In the September 2025 issue of Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies, our “Sources and Strategies” article features Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech to both chambers of Congress and the Supreme Court on December 8, 1941. The article asks: How did the U.S. Constitution, signed on September 17, 1787, influence the nation’s reaction to an event more than 150 years later? It introduces multiple sources reflecting the reactions of the president, Congress, and the American people to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and invites students to consider how the founding document shaped the various responses.

One place to read President Roosevelt’s famous 1941 speech is in the Congressional Record (CR), Bound Edition, available from Congress.gov. The address narrates details of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and concludes with a call to action, asking “… that the Congress declare that, since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”

In addition to the speech, the Bound CR offers an almost play-by-play account of what happened in the House and Senate on December 8. Examining this record can help students learn about the specific response to the events of that historic day, the responsibilities of each branch of government, and the rules governing the work of the House and the Senate.

After the president’s address, each chamber reconvened and read joint resolutions declaring war on Japan per Roosevelt’s request, followed by statements and discussion on the floor, and then a vote in each chamber. Discussion in the Senate was brief and confined to one senator. Discussion on the floor of the House reflected the tone and direction of the final vote, with only one “No” vote against the resolution and against declaring war. Depending on the time available, assign or ask students to select one representative’s remarks, identifying the position taken and arguments presented. Before they begin, remind them that the Bound CR is a direct record of a historic event, reflects the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of a different time, and students may find the content offensive.

Even within Congress, students will notice multiple perspectives and may wonder if these congressional dialogues represented the conversations taking place across the nation. The article features a number of interviews from After the Day of Infamy: “Man-on-the-Street” Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, including:

• Bloomington, Indiana, December 10, 1941, and
• Madison, Wisconsin, December 9, 1941.

Listening to these Americans express their thoughts can help students better understand the real-life political, economic, social, and emotional consequences of Congress invoking its constitutional power to declare war at the request of the president.

The article suggests that students seek additional perspectives through historical resources in the Library’s collections, including:

• Dear Mr. President,
• Chronicling America,
• Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers,
• Ansel Adams’ Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar, and
• Veterans History Project.

Let us know what your students wonder and discover if you use any of these resources.

Each installment of “American Stories: A Reading Road” Trip will focus on a different U.S. state or territory, showcasing the profound influence that local writers, poets, and storytellers have had on the cultural identity of their region. Each program will also include iconic authors, unforgettable books, hidden-gem bookstores, amazing libraries, and the real-life locations that inspired great works.

In addition, each episode will feature items in a variety of media from the vast collections of the Library of Congress—maps, photographs, sheet music, and more—that help illustrate the stories and reveal surprising connections.

The first episode launched on September 10 and the second episode was released on September 17! They focus on Rhode Island’s and Georgia’s rich literary legacies.

Among the items from the Library’s collections that are included in the Rhode Island program are:

• A photograph of America’s first purpose-built library (1747), the Redwood Library in Newport, RI.
• A map of Rhode Island that was published in Hamburg, Germany in 1797.
• A clip from a video of Michael Harper, who was the Poet Laureate for the State of Rhode Island, reading his poetry at the Library of Congress in 1989. The complete video is available here.

Among the items from the Library’s collections that are included in the Georgia program are:

• A photograph of Erskine Caldwell signing copies of book “Tobacco Road” at a bookstore in 1936.
• A 1917 floorplan for the Carnegie Library in Atlanta, Georgia.
• Numerous photographs of Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery, the final resting place of numerous famous Georgia writers, including Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone with the Wind.”

For more of the featured items, see the Rhode Island episode page and the Georgia episode page. As each episode is released, it will be available through the Library’s series website.

Generating and investigating questions about communities — what and where they are, how they form, and who participates in them — gives young learners an opportunity to engage in meaningful inquiry about a core aspect of civic life. A new primary source set from the Library of Congress features 18 items that help students identify, connect to, and expand on aspects of what makes communities function and thrive.

The set is highly visual, making the resource more accessible for young learners. It includes a teacher’s guide with ideas for using the set to explore concepts such as:

• community helpers,
• students as leaders in their community,
• how communities have changed over time, and
• examples of community in rural, urban, and suburban places.

By observing the everyday people, places, and activities of different communities, students can reflect on the idea that they are part of and can participate in their own communities.

We hope you enjoy the set and look forward to learning how you use the resource with your students. Please share your ideas and experiences in the comments!

On Thursday, September 18, at 9:45 a.m., we’ll present a one hour session on opportunities for local history research using Library of Congress digital collections. Featured resources will include:

• the Chronicling America historic newspaper archive,
• Sanborn and panoramic map collections,
• the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey, and
• various photograph collections.

The session will demonstrate practical research strategies, tips, and shortcuts to help participants efficiently navigate the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov.

And here are some additional resources that librarians have told us are helpful:

• Teacher’s Site — resources and strategies for educators, including curated primary source sets and an educator’s blog.
• Free to Use and Reuse Sets — curated collections of digital images on a variety of topics.
• Blogs.loc.gov — additional blogs, written by experts at various library divisions, such as rare books, manuscripts, maps and more!
• Veterans History Project — Library initiative that collects, preserves, and displays the firsthand recollections of U.S. military veterans.
• National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled — a free national library program that provides braille and recorded materials to people who cannot see regular print or handle print materials.

We hope to see some of you at the conference, but whether you attend the conference or not, we hope that you’ll explore some of the free resources from the Library of Congress.

Observing the source

Looking at the item, I saw something that I didn’t expect. I noticed that the first column was labeled “Articles” and has twelve rows.

This surprised me given there were seven articles in the Constitution. I also found it odd that Jefferson would have tallied state votes by article.

Reflecting, more observing, and starting to question

Reflecting on prior knowledge, I remembered that the Bill of Rights as originally proposed contained twelve amendments. However, I also knew that the Bill of Rights wasn’t sent out to the states for ratification until 1789. The date on the upper right corner of the item stated [1788].

That clue brought more questions. When was this date applied? Who applied the date?

The Constitution was still in the process of being ratified in 1788, so perhaps this could be a count of votes by state. However, the number of articles was throwing me off. I double-checked Washington’s copy of the draft Constitution and his letter presenting the Constitution to the states for ratification. The sources confirmed what I thought: the original draft Constitution included seven articles and that the instructions to the state legislatures made no mention of a yay or nay vote on individual articles.

More reflecting, articulating my questions, seeking out new information

I took my observations and reflections to some colleagues. We looked at the source together, and they shared some of my questions. This process helped me identify additional information I wanted to know and where I might go to find it. A colleague reminded me I might check in with a reference specialist and the Library’s research guide on the Constitution.

Re-observing, reflecting, and questioning

Feeling more confidence in my observations that something wasn’t quite right, I went back to the source and reflected on an additional clue: the states that had voted in the affirmative.

I recalled that North Carolina and Rhode Island, the final two states to ratify the Constitution, didn’t do so until 1789. Yet, on the Jefferson vote count, both states were listed as voting in the affirmative in 1788. I summarized my observations, reflections, and questions and shared them with colleagues.

As it turned out, questioning was just the thing this source needed. It turned out that the date did indeed need to be 1789, not 1788, and that the state votes were likely for the ratification of the 12-amendment Bill of Rights, not the Constitution. We let other Library colleagues know so they could consider updating this information.

What I learned and why (I think) it matters for students

While this experience could apply to sources related to any topic or issue, it feels somewhat fitting and fulfilling that an item such as Jefferson’s notes from the 18th century can still bring new discoveries. It’s a reminder to me that we are all part of and can participate in the grand effort to examine the country’s history and contribute to its shared understanding.

You don’t have to be a library employee to explore and ask questions. For students (and teachers!), I hope this story might offer insight that the Library is both for and informed by the public. Students’ questions, no matter how practiced they are in primary source analysis, can also lead to new information, improved understanding, and ownership of their own learning process.

Note that the item record for this source may change over time to reflect new information. We encourage you to ask questions if you have them!

• features of many of the Library’s digital collection pages,
• tips for navigating and teaching with Today in History,
• suggestions for helping students use Library’s many Research Guides, and
• updates to a teacher-favorite resource, Chronicling America.

Below is an overview of each post, with an open invitation to teachers to revisit some (or all!) as you begin, or are several weeks into, a new school year.

Closer Look: Library Collections Pages 

Many of the online collections at the Library of Congress include expert guidance about what researchers, including student researchers, might find in the collection, including a summary, collection scope, highlights, and rights and access. Taking a moment to explore those expert resources can help students decide whether or not to further examine the collection, reducing frustration and improving search results.

Closer Look: Today in History

Today in History, a resource from the Library, offers teachers essays about historic events in combination with related digitized primary sources from the Library’s online collections. Entries also include additional resources and search strategies for discovering more in the collections.

Closer Look: Research Guides 

The Library’s vast digital resources offer enormous possibilities— so many that it can feel overwhelming and it can be hard to know where to start. Experienced reference staff and subject specialists at the Library create research guides that address a variety of topics to help patrons find what they are looking for.

Closer Look: Chronicling America

Chronicling America is one of many digital collection gems that the Library has to offer teachers and students. The collection gives users access to selected digitized national newspapers published through 1963. Newspapers, as a type of primary source, help students imagine what it might have been like to live in a particular time or place: consuming media of different historical eras can help to slow down the big events of history and see how they were experienced in real time.

We hope you find the Closer Look series helpful and are able to find ways to use the resources with your students!