Primary Source Set Alabama: Selected Library of Congress Primary Sources
-
Birmingham, Alabama, c1885 -
Along a road near Greensboro, Alabama, 1941 -
Interview with Isom Moseley, Gee's Bend, Alabama, 1941 -
Somebody Touched Me, 1939 -
Electric phosphate smelting furnace used to make elemental phosphorus in a TVA chemical plant in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals, Alabama -
![I'm going back to Alabama in the spring / Rennie Cormack [notated music]](/static/classroom-materials/usa-alabama/images/music.jpg)
I'm going back to Alabama in the spring / Rennie Cormack [notated music] -
![When it's cottin pickin' time in Alabam' / Harry Tobias [notated music]](/static/classroom-materials/usa-alabama/images/music2.jpg)
When it's cottin pickin' time in Alabam' / Harry Tobias [notated music] -
The civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 -
Poster offering fifty dollars reward for the capture of a runaway slave Stephen, 1852 -
Tuskegee, Ala. Mar. 1942. Members of the first class of Negro pilots in the history of the US Army Air Corps -
Old Alabama State Capitol, Broad Street, Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County -
Address of Booker T. Washington, principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama : delivered at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition, at Atlanta, Ga., September 18, 1895 ; with a letter of congratulation from the President of the United States.
The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
Teacher’s Guide
To help your students analyze these primary sources, get a graphic organizer and guides: Analysis Tool and Guides
Known as the Heart of Dixie, Alabama became the 22nd state in 1819. The primary sources in this set document key moments in the state’s story, and provide opportunities for students to explore that rich history further.
Use the question sets and analysis tool to deepen student engagement and thinking about these compelling, imperfect objects. Select questions such as:
- What do you see?
- Why do you think this item was made?
- What do you wonder about this item?
Or extend student learning by asking them to write a caption for the item, imagine what happened an hour before or after what the item portrays, or expand a textbook or other secondary account of history to include the item.
These primary sources can raise further questions about the time, place, or events from which they emerged, and can prompt students to further investigation of the state’s history.
