Overview

Every  event  has  both  a  temporal  and  spatial  tag. In history, we  usually  know  when  something  happened  with  a high  degree  of  certainty.  We  may  have  less  precise  knowledge  of  where  it happened.

Welcome to the Virginia Geographic Alliance’s Placing Primary Sources Story Map Collection. The quote above was shared by Dr. David Bodenhamer (author of The Spatial Humanities, and Deep Maps and Spatial Narratives)  to a group of Virginia teachers during a historical GIS (Geographic Information Systems) summer institute in 2007. Since his presentation, the accessibility and functionality of GIS has reached an all-time high.  Esri developed  ArcGIS Online and provides free organizational accounts to any U.S. K-12 school. Recognizing the many ways GIS can enhance classroom teaching, Virginia Geographic Alliance (VGA) assembled a team of practicing teachers to create a series of best practice historical GIS Story Maps. The goal of this collection is to provide K-16 teachers with interactive and dynamic classroom materials that highlight the role that geography played in shaping key events and episodes of American History.

Chris Bunin, Albemarle High School, Project Director

Developed by teachers for teachers, each story map contains carefully selected primary sources that are embedded into a multi-layered ArcGIS Online Story Map. A Teacher’s Guide and Student Guide that follows the inquiry process accompany each Story Map. We hope these resources fill a need in your classroom and make teaching the interplay between geography and history more meaningful, accessible, and exciting for you and your students. Feel free to modify or adjust any lesson plan to meet your classroom needs and realities.

Click on the titles below to access each Story Map and download student guides and lesson plans.

  Placing America's Westward Journey  

This lesson will use GIS technology and a story map format to demonstrate the rapid westward on the young United States westward to the Pacific Ocean ? Key events in America's westward expansion, the Louisiana Purchase, the annexation of Texas, the War with Mexico, and the California Gold Rush are examined through  maps and primary sources. Author: Jamie Craft

Geography's Impact on the Evolution of  U.S. Political Parties 

This lesson will allow students to explore geography’s impact on the development of political parties in the United States between 1789 and 1965. Looking at 11 separate layers, they will identify primary source documents and make inferences as to how those documents were either shaped by geography or, conversely, how they impacted the geography of their respective region. Author: Scott Mace

 The Uneasy Balance: Stepping Stones to War 

The American Civil War was a terrible, yet transformative event in the history of the United States. The following is an interactive, chronological look at some of the important factors and events that plunged the country into terrible conflict. Author: Jared Morris

 Placing U.S. Immigration 

In this lesson, students will analyze the origins and destinations of immigrants during three main eras of U.S. immigration. Through analysis of migration flows, students will gain a better understanding of why people left their home countries when they did and consider why they settled where they did in the U.S. Finally, students will be asked to consider both history and current events to draft a plan for future U.S. immigration policy. Author: Kameron Schaefer

 Global Expansion  

During the 19 ^th  century the United States was motivated by Manifest Destiny to control land from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.  However, the leaders of the young nation were not satisfied with staying within the continent.  From the Monroe Doctrine forward, the US expanded its international political and economic influence while gaining numerous territories.  Students will explore this movement of global expansion through a GIS Story Map and Library of Congress primary sources. Author: Elizabeth Mulcahy

 The Story of the American Expeditionary Force  

World War One was a conflict on a level never before seen on the planet. By the end of the war, thirty-two countries were involved on either the side of the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire) or the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, and Italy). Soldiers maimed and killed each other on an industrial level over the course of four hellish years. Initially, the conflict was largely a European affair until an impressive piece of spy work by the British intelligence community brought the United States of America into the fray - the American Expeditionary Force was born. Author: Jared Morris

 The Progressives 

This lesson might be used to introduce or extend a Progressive Era lesson.  Students will learn about important cities and regions to US History and will see how population density impacted people in the United States. The story map journal examines the growth of cities, labor reform, women's suffrage, and the conservation movement. Author: KC Jacoby

 Island Hopping in the Pacific World War II 

This lesson will emphasize geography’s impact on United States’ strategy in fighting World War II in the Pacific.  Students, through the use of Library of Congress resources explore geography’s impact on the average soldier in the Pacific.  They will also chart the progress that the armed forces made in their attempt to hop over non-strategic islands in their attempts to get ever closer to the home islands of Japan. Author: Scott Mace

 World War II in Europe 

This Story Map will examine how the United States contributed to the Allied victory in Europe during World War II. Three major topics will be addressed: support for Europe before the U.S. declared war on on Japan and then Germany in 1941, support from the home front, and the human and historical significance of D-Day.​ Author: Georgeanne Hribar

 Placing Cold War Conflicts 

Students will explore the causes, course, and results of the direct conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  They will analyze documents, videos, photographs, drawings, and maps to understand the conflict, competition, compromises, and reactions of this worldwide event in an attempt to argue who is at fault and if the Cold War is even over. Author: Elizabeth Mulcahy

 Civil Rights 

Students will explore the spatial trends of the Civil Rights Movement, including events and people leading up to, during, and since the movement. The Story Map uses maps and primary sources to explore key events from the civil rights movement from the Emancipation Proclamation to the #MeToo movement. Author: Kameron Schaefer

•  Education Resources from the Library of Congress 
•  Chronicling America: American Historic Newspapers    provides background information, important dates,  and links to sample articles . Newspaper pages can be accessed as scrollable pdfs.  Click to view example. 
• Primary source sets. such as  Children’s Lives at the Turn of the Twentieth Century .
•  Analysis Tools and Guide 
•  Film and Video Collections at the Library of Congress 
•  Library of Congress YouTub e Channel  click to view  The First Circus, silent film.
•  The Veteran’s History Project  provides eyewitness accounts from  those who participated in America’ wars
•  Shortcuts for finding primary sources 
•  Historical Atlas of the United States ( digital and interactive) from the University of Richmond

•  Leaving Evidence of our Everyday Lives  Lesson Plan
•  What’s in Lincoln’s Pockets  Lesson Plan
•  Integrating History and Geographic Thinking 
•  Experiencing the Question Formulation Technique™ 
•  Think Historically  video of the historical thinking process

•  Reading Like a Historian Lessons  [free registration required to view the lessons and materials] Lessons for United States and World History
•  Beyond the Bubble  a series of short assessments designed to assess the historical skills of sourcing, contextualization, corroboration, use of evidence and periodization.
• Civic Reasoning
•  Teaching History  (National History  Education Clearinghouse)

•  Docs Teach   an online tool from the National Archives with links to resources, teaching tips,and activity tools to create your own interactive activity. [free registration required for create tool]
•  Historical Thinking  Matters   a project of the Roy Rozsnzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University features inquiries about the Spanish American War, the Scopes Trial, Social Security, and Rosa Parks.links to 100 milestone do0ucments of American  history from the National Archives
•  Picturing America Gallery  provides access to the images provides as posters as part of the project. Also includes vidoes explaining the pictures.

•  Rutherford B. Hayes 
•  Herbert Hoover 
•  Franklin D. Roosevelt  
•  Harry S.  Truman 
•  Dwight D. Eisenhower 
•  John F. Kennedy 
•  Lyndon B. Johnson 
•  Richard Nixon 
•  Gerald R. Ford 
•  Jimmy Carter 
•  George H.W. Bush 
•  Ronald Reagan 
•  William J. Clinton 
•  George W. Bush 
•  Barack Obama 
•  Donald J. Trump 

 Miller Center  at the University of Virginia provides in-depth background information about the lives, and foreign and domestic legacies of U.S. Presidents.

 National Historic Trails   website by the National Park Service showcases historic sites and monuments such as  Mormon Pioneer Trails  and the  Cape Henry Memorial.  

View the  interactive map of the trails  across the United States.