Encourage your students to start their research for this year’s National History Day with primary sources from the Library of Congress. Whether students are interested in examining a historic revolution, exploring social reactions to a particular event or idea, research the origins of a reform movement, or identify a topic that includes elements of all three Rs, the Library has online resources to support their project.
Students might start with our Primary Source Sets. The sets feature selected items from the Library’s digital collections that highlight and reveal aspects of a particular topic. Sources in each set reflect a range of formats, such as photographs, films, newspapers, manuscripts, interviews, and maps. Primary source sets also include a background essay that expands on major themes and ideas that items in the set help to convey. Sets also feature a list of additional resources from the Library that are relevant to the topic, including links to a particular collection, a Library exhibition, or essays written by subject matter experts at the Library.

Below is a sampling of primary source sets with possible connections to this year’s National History Day theme.
Primary Source Sets
- Alexander Hamilton (Plan of new government, Federalist Papers)
- Child Labor (Labor reforms, anti-child labor)
- Civil Rights Movement (Civil rights reforms, reactions to reforms)
- Civil War: Nation Moves Toward War, 1850-61 (Reactions to pro/anti-slavery movements, abolition, efforts at political reform)
- Constitution (Creating new government and debates about)
- The Great Migration (Reactions to demographic changes in the United States)
- Immigration Challenges for New Americans (Reactions to changes in immigrant populations)
- Industrial Revolution in the United States (Wide-reaching change in how the economy works and how society is organized)
- Informational Text (Sources showing reactions to different historical events and ideas)
- Inventions and Innovations (Changes to how things work and reaction to changes)
- Inventive Wright Brothers (Changes to how things work, ideas about how things work)
- Japanese American Internment (Reactions to and experiences of internment)
- Jim Crow and Segregation (Calls for reform, reaction to reform efforts)
- LGBTQ Activism and Contributions (Calls for reform, reaction to reform efforts)
- Mass Persuasion Campaigns (Campaigns representing reaction to an event/issue, including calls for reform)
- NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom (Calls for reform, reaction to reform efforts)
- The New Deal (Government reform, in reaction to economic conditions)
- Political Cartoons and Public Debates (Campaigns representing reactions to an event or issue, including calls for reforms)
- Reconstruction (Calls for and examples of reform, rebuilding, reaction to reform efforts)
- Rosa Parks (Civil rights reforms, roles of individuals and groups)
- Transportation (Reforms and efforts to improve)
- Women’s Suffrage (Voting reforms, reaction to proposed reforms)
- World War I (Social reactions to aspects of WWI)
For even more exposure to the Library’s vast resources, students might consult one of our many Research Guides, created by reference librarians and subject matter experts.

The range and scope of guides could be overwhelming to students new to using the Library. Students might start with guides from the History, Humanities, and Social Sciences Reading Room (research center), which feature many topics relevant to revolution, reform, and reaction including:
Students can also search in other reading rooms (research centers) of the Library. Categories and topics of reading rooms vary; some are format-based and others are organized by content or region. A few research centers that students may find helpful include:
- Geography and Maps
- Prints and Photographs
- Manuscript
- American Women: Resources from the Manuscript Collections/Reform and Activism
- Hispanic
- Asian
- African and Middle Eastern
- Local History and Genealogy
Finally, another category of research guides that students might consult can be found within the digital collections of Chronicling America: Topics in Chronicling America.

These guides follow a formula that consists of an introduction and timeline, selected essays and search strategies within the historical newspapers collection.
We hope these ideas are helpful to you and your students. We’d love to learn more about how you use materials from the Library in National History Day projects: Please share your ideas and experiences in the comments!