Primary Source Replicas Your Students Can Hold

Help students think like historians through museum-quality replicas of the documents that shaped American history and the National Council for History Education's History's Habits of Mind. Students examine document replicas connected to major topics in American history, including the Salem Witch Trials, the Founding Era, westward expansion, women’s suffrage, the World Wars, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Nine classroom-ready lessons featuring replica documents, ready-to-teach activities, and digital resources. Everything you need to bring inquiry-based history to life.

Turn Students into Historians

History feels more real when students can hold it in their hands.

When students examine a replica of Thomas Jefferson's handwritten ice cream recipe, the Louisiana Purchase treaty, or Rosa Parks’ police report, they’re no longer simply learning about history. They're thinking like historians.

Each unit centers on a museum-quality replica of an authentic historical document, giving students the opportunity to analyze evidence, ask questions, and make interpretations. This hands-on approach transforms history from something students memorize into something they discover.

Ready-to-Teach Primary Source Lessons

Teaching with primary sources shouldn’t require hours of preparation. Every unit includes everything you need for a meaningful classroom lesson:

• A museum-quality replica of a primary source document
• A student-friendly transcript with vocabulary support
• Historical background reading that builds context
• Inquiry and discussion questions that encourage deeper thinking
• Ready-to-use classroom activities
• A teacher answer key with sample responses and teaching notes
• Digital versions of every resource for projection or printing

Designed to fit into a single class period with minimal preparation.

Flexible Enough for Every Classroom

Physical + Digital

Receive beautifully printed replica documents for hands-on learning, plus digital versions you can project, print, and share with every student.

Teach It Your Way

Teach the lessons in order, select the topics that fit your pacing guide, or incorporate individual lessons into your existing curriculum.

Standards-Aligned

Flexible enough to meet your state’s education and skills and standards.

Inquiry at the Center

Rather than memorizing facts, students evaluate evidence, consider multiple perspectives, and develop the historical thinking skills used by historians.

Developed in Partnership with the National Council for History Education

The National Council for History Education (NCHE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing history education and supporting the professionals who teach it. Through professional development, community, and advocacy, NCHE helps educators bring the past to life in classrooms across the country.

This curriculum is built around NCHE's History's Habits of Mind—a framework that develops the historical thinking skills students need to move beyond memorizing facts and toward understanding the past through evidence, context, and inquiry.

Each lesson is intentionally paired with one of these Habits of Mind:

• Past Shapes the Present – Connect historical events to the world students live in today.
  
• Historical Empathy - Perceive past events and issues as they might have been experienced by the people of the time, with historical empathy rather than present-mindedness.
  
• Critical Reading – Analyze historical documents closely, using evidence to support conclusions.
• Interrogating Sources – Evaluate evidence, identify bias, and determine credibility.
• Evolving Narrative - Recognize that history is an evolving narrative constructed from available sources, cogent inferences, and changing interpretations.
• Diversity of Cultures – Explore how different cultures, beliefs, and experiences shape history.
• Understanding Impact – Examine how historical events create lasting consequences.
• Decisions and Choices – Consider the difficult decisions people faced and the consequences that followed.
• Complex World – Recognize that historical events rarely have simple causes or solutions.
  
• Patient Reflection – Reflect thoughtfully before forming conclusions, recognizing that historical understanding develops over time.

Together, these Habits of Mind help students build the curiosity, analytical skills, and historical perspective they'll use long after the lesson ends.