Your library provides perpetual access to millions of primary sources published by AM. Use this guide to explore case studies of how instructors have used primary sources in their classroom and to find out more about the tools and services available to support you with your teaching, from cross-federated search to online student activities.
Mass Observation Online at University of Bristol
The Investigating the Social module, open to second-year Sociology students, focusses on introducing different empirical research methods as well as the planning and undertaking of research using qualitative methods. Working closely with the university’s Social Sciences librarian, course leaders were introduced to Mass Observation Online and looked to build the resource into the course.
In one example of use, students were asked to find a diary related to a topic they had already chosen for a future assignment. Students were also asked to share this diary choice with the class to discuss their experience in researching with qualitative historical data.
Read the full case study here.
The Archive of Mass-Observation, a pioneering social research organisation, has been described as a "treasure trove", "an invaluable resource for sociologists and cultural historians" and "a fascinating source of precious data for researchers across the widest range of disciplines". Mass Observation Online makes the Mass Observation Archive available to researchers in its entirety, included diaries, surveys and questionnaires that reveal everyday life in Britain between the 1930s and 1960s.
Online primary sources at University of Alberta
WRITE 297: Introduction to Nonfiction – a half-year, introductory senior course in writing literary nonfiction prose at the University of Alberta taught by Professor Christine Wiesenthal – aims to provide students with exposure to a variety of nonfiction forms and voices as students experiment with a range of basic skills, including description, narration, dialogue, analysis, character and setting. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, one assignment was built around a visit to a physical archive. As classes were moved online, “in desperation”, Professor Wiesenthal said, “I re-designed my ‘Pandemic Edition’ writing workshop to incorporate a virtual field trip to a digital archive.”
Professor Wiesenthal collaborated with AM’s Engagement team, who ran a session for the students on five online primary source collections, Migration to New Worlds, Gender: Identity and Social Change, Slavery: Abolition and Social Justice, American Indian Newspapers and Food and Drink in History. The AM Outreach Team ran a virtual session to introduce students to different material types like diaries, oral histories, cookbooks and court records, and the opportunities and challenges these material types might pose when imaginatively engaging with the past.
Read the full case study here.
Colonial America at California State University, Fullerton
How did you introduce Colonial America database to your class?
"On the first day of class, I introduced my students to Colonial America, and the strengths and weaknesses of CO 5; we looked at the website together, as a class. During the semester, I never let my students go outside of Colonial America, as one of the points I wanted to make was how the sources available to a scholar shape the questions he can ask and the answers he can come up with. CO 5 is an official, political document collection, and it was important to me that they see the benefits and limitations of working in that type of archive."
Read the full interview with Professor Jessica Stern here.
This collection comprises the complete CO 5 files from the National Archives, UK, 1606-1822. The largely manuscript materials include original correspondence between the British government and the America colonies, as well as court records, diaries, newspapers and maps.
Socialism on Film at the University of Iowa
History Matters is a course designed to get students at the University of Iowa, who do not major in history, to take a class. Many of the students were first or second-years majoring in a range of disciplines: business; psychology; chemistry; neuroscience; computer science; sports; nursing; and more.
Dr. Michael Zmolek, the lecturer running the course, had not previously taught using films from an archive as primary source materials. However, the films in Socialism on Film provided an opportunity for integration into the class programme in a way that introduced primary sources to students unfamiliar with the historical study. Using these sources, the students developed critical thinking skills and an appreciation of the long-view of Russian history.
Read the full case study here.
Sourced from the British Film Institute (BFI), this collection of documentary, newsreel and feature films reveals the world as seen by Soviet, Chinese, Vietnamese, East European, and Latin American filmmakers. Ranging from the early 20th century to the 1980s, material encapsulates the themes of war, revolution, news, current affairs, culture and society.
African American Communities and Race Relations in America at University of Central Florida
What kinds of assignments do you set for your students?
In each assignment, I introduce students to a seminal secondary work in the field and its thesis. From there students are required to explore African American Communities and Race Relations in America to locate documents that explain and create a context to their secondary reading on different eras or geographies. Through this, students demonstrate that they understand the ideas and theories in their literature reading and can apply and contextualise those ideas.
Read the full interview here.
Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.
Surveys and Papers from The Amistad Research Center, 1943-1970.
Confidential Print: Middle East at Liverpool John Moores University
Undergraduate survey course Tanzimat to Tahrir: The History of the Modern Middle East is available to second-year students at Liverpool John Moores University. Most students on the course had little or no background in the history of the Middle East. Professor Katherine Harbord integrated Confidential Print: Middle East, a title in AM's Archives Direct, into her teaching in order to help students develop their primary source analysis skills and to increase their familiarity with an archive environment. Using the database on a weekly basis, students were asked to identify and contextualise a primary source pertaining to each week’s theme and write a post about it. They were asked to include details about the source’s significance, context and why they chose it, as well as a link to the document. To gain confidence in using primary sources, they used the database frequently to write short, low-stake assignments.
Read the full case study here.
This collates the Confidential Print for the countries of the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, Iran, Turkey, Egypt and Sudan. Beginning with the Egyptian reforms of Muhammad Ali Pasha in the 1830s, the documents trace the events of the following 150 years, including the Middle East Conference of 1921, the mandates for Palestine and Mesopotamia, the partition of Palestine, the 1956 Suez Crisis and post-Suez Western foreign policy, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Designed to develop students' primary source literacy and critical thinking skills, Research Skills Foundations provides the practical tools students need to understand and interact with primary sources. The learning resource can be used in classroom-based and online teaching. With practical advice and instruction from experts around the world, it provides guidance on where students can find historical documents, the questions they might want to pose of available sources, and how best to conduct their own research and analysis of materials.
The second module, Interrogating Colonial Documents and Narratives, introduces key approaches and methodologies of working with colonial documents, guiding students on how to find hidden voices in colonial documents, how to analyse and conduct research into colonial records, and the ways instructors can teach colonial history.
AM Research Methods provides the practical tools students need to understand and interact with primary sources. With practical advice and instruction from experts around the world, it provides foundational guidance on where students can find historical documents, the questions they might want to pose and how best to conduct their own research and analysis of materials.
Designed to develop students' primary source literacy and critical engagement with key topics, Interrogating Colonial Documents and Narratives introduces key approaches and methodologies of working with colonial documents.
Peer-reviewed essays, how-to guides and video interviews share the core principles and practices for understanding and using primary sources, from how to critically evaluate a source to using digital tools.
A small selection of Learning Tools in AM Research Skills:
Based on digitised sources, case studies demonstrate how to analyse, approach and interact with primary source material. Learn how subject experts work with specific types of sources.
A small selection of Case Studies in AM Research Skills:
The practice sources include hundreds of historical items drawn from more than 70 archives around the world and allow students to put the lessons from the learning tools, case studies and other content types into use. Many sources include links to relevant written and video content, along with full metadata and the ability to search handwritten or printed text.
See all practice sources here: https://www.amresearchskills.amdigital.co.uk/practice-sources
These present example cases for working with data in history from the presentation of a data set to understanding how to interrogate, interpret and use the data within.
Here are some Datasets in AM Research Skills:
This activity was developed initially for an undergraduate course on Shakespeare, but may be adapted easily to various courses in other disciplines, like history, theatre arts, and even business and medicine, to provide students with alternative points of entry to core documents.
Module learning outcomes (MLO). By completing this activity, students will be able to:
You can access the full activity online here: Curated Image Exhibition by Dr. Marissa Greenberg.
Are you looking for more primary sources to include in your classroom?
At AM Impact institutions, instructors can request free a syllabus alignment that will locate more primary source material for courses.
For a syllabus alignment, an AM collections specialist will review your syllabus and create a document suggesting 1-3 additional sources for each teaching week.
To request a syllabus alignment, please contact the AM Engagement Team.
Learn more about the themes and disciplines covered in our databases in a series of webinars featuring AM's Editorial and Engagement teams, with guest academic speakers.
Explore subjects such as: