National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

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• Learn more about American history, critical literacy, inquiry, and primary source.

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Anyone who has cleaned out a family attic knows the difficulty of deciding what is worth keeping and what can be thrown away. Imagine the task of sifting through the accumulated records of a nation’s official life, one that is growing by billions of items per year, and determining what to keep and what to destroy.

This is the job of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): to judge which federal records will have continuing value, preserve them, and make them available to the American people. The National Archives was not created until 1934, but its holdings contain documents that date back to 1775. The first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, was determined to keep good records for posterity.

The National Archives preserves and maintains about 2 to 5 percent of all government documents created in any given year. That amounts to over 4 billion documents, including 15 million photographs, maps, charts, and graphs. Some of the most famous documents maintained in the rotunda at the National Archives are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

All of these items are primary source documents — including diaries, letters, drawings, and memoirs — created by those who participated in or witnessed the events of the past. They tell us things that even the best-written article or book cannot convey. The use of primary sources exposes students to important historical concepts. First, students become aware that all written history reflects an author’s interpretation of past events; primary sources can help students recognize the subjective nature of historical accounts. Primary sources also allow students to directly touch the lives of people in the past and to develop important analytical skills.

Many units of study, created by teachers across the country, can be found at the National Archives site The Digital Classroom. Each unit contains images of primary source documents. Current topics include Jackie Robinson’s career as a civil rights leader, the political poster art of WWII, the Constitution and the separation of powers, women’s suffrage, the Amistad case, and many others. More instructional units are added every six months. All of the materials available on the National Archives site are in the public domain, and therefore not coyprighted .

See in particular:

• American Originals (Examples of content: Congress’ Resolution for Independence, Eleanor Roosevelt’s letter of resignation from the DAR, the Louisiana Purchase, the police blotter from Lincoln’s assassination, and the 1868 treaty with the Sioux Indians recognizing the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation.)
• Charters of Freedom (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta - images of the originals, transcriptions, and relevant commentary and articles.)
• See similar treatment of Featured Documents on the Online Exhibits page. (Scroll down.)
• Founding Fathers (Links to biographical essays on the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.)