Best History Websites and Resources

Inventive lessons and activities integrate Asian history, art, and more

Bottom Line: It offers an in-depth look at Asia’s influence on art and history and provides lots of creative tools for educators.

Easily accessible, kid-friendly database for the littlest researchers

Bottom Line: Delightful, safe introduction to the world of research, databases, and reporting, with interesting content and stellar supports.

Powerful stories and media centralize African-American history

Bottom Line: While there aren't ready-to-go curricular materials, this modern, well-curated, and well-contextualized digital collection is sure to inspire compelling lessons.

Browse and use American history artifacts and activities

Bottom Line: This is a handy resource that, with some effort, will uncover resources for kick-starting curious learning.

Scrappy, smart elementary history curriculum builds inquiry skills

Bottom Line: The free and adaptable nature of these intriguing history lessons makes them easy additions to just about any elementary history curriculum.

Dig into famed library's collection of research goodies

Bottom Line: The Library of Congress delivers the best of America's past and present, and with teacher support it could be a reliable research resource for students.

Safe nonfiction database develops students' research skills

Bottom Line: Student-centric research site gives kids a just-right amount of information to build foundational research skills.

Extensive humanities resource offers deep well of great content

Bottom Line: The National Endowment for the Humanities has put together an outstanding place for art, history, language, and literature.

Critically acclaimed documentaries repackaged meaningfully for classrooms

Bottom Line: Top-notch documentary clips offer opportunities to expand students' perspectives, but some lesson materials might be underwhelming.

Access U.S. history with treasure trove of docs, genealogy, and other resources

Bottom Line: NARA's website wasn't designed for kids, but they can definitely use it to research and learn about history, genealogy, and the U.S. population and government.

Organized digital library features piles of useful primary resources

Bottom Line: DPLA is at the top of the list of high-grade, online primary source collections if teachers make effective use of what's on offer.

Site famous for its Lincoln assassination resources has more to offer

Bottom Line: This site can support meaningful, primary source-driven examination of some of the most important events in U.S. history, but educators will need to dig a little.

Track progress, differentiate instruction with vast content library

Bottom Line: Though it's not perfect, it's a great portal for supplementing classroom instruction and supporting personalized learning.

Students think like detectives to gather evidence, explore civics

Bottom Line: Makes the case for middle schoolers using primary sources, but this isn't gonna be a grab-and-go experience.

Search engine with filtered results leaves room for critical thinking

Bottom Line: SweetSearch supplies valid, reputable websites that can help kids learn about a variety of topics.

A wealth of resources explore racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism

Bottom Line: These valuable materials empower students to understand and address difficult ethical choices -- past and present.

Well-curated art and history site inspires curious learning

Bottom Line: A beautifully presented one-stop shop for compellingly curated and contextualized art, history, and culture resources, but it's lacking educator supports.

Historical texts, interactive activities can promote critical thinking

Bottom Line: This text-rich app encourages students to conduct their own analysis of history, but the formats and graphics may prevent them from making a thorough analysis.

Extensive resource collection supports teaching about the Holocaust

Bottom Line: As a valuable resource for anyone teaching or learning about the Holocaust, time to explore and plan is necessary in order to make the materials effective.

Resources, lessons help teach a more inclusive version of U.S. history

Bottom Line: Free downloadable resources encourage critical thinking and active learning in search of a more accurate picture of American history.

Crowd-sourced ancient history site features extensive, varied resources

Bottom Line: It's free, web-based, and regularly updated with vetted info, so classrooms can turn to this site often to kick off research projects.

High-quality resources and activities offer an in-depth study

Bottom Line: Materials and activities support a thorough study of World War II, making this a valuable resource for both teachers and students.

Philosophy podcast makes heady concepts accessible

Bottom Line: These philosophy podcasts and videos offer entertaining introductions to key concepts and thinkers, but require some smart lesson planning for deeper learning.

Extensive, highly searchable collection of the world's constitutions

Bottom Line: Quickly and easily access almost any country's constitution, locate an excerpt, or compare governments.

Academic search engine, an excellent source for credible research info

Bottom Line: This smart tool can help teens locate credible material for paper and report writing, general research, and other school projects.

History and art intersect on the Met's vast, reading-centric site

Bottom Line: This resource from the Metropolitan Museum of Art beautifully illustrates art's evolution and is great for research, but more interactivity would help balance out the text-heavy content.

Archival site is a treasure trove for New Deal researchers

Bottom Line: While it doesn't offer much specifically for teachers or students, it's a must-use site for primary source material if you have a unit on the New Deal or Great Depression.

High-quality, document-based lessons spark stellar historical inquiry

Bottom Line: A gold mine of cross-curricular literacy lessons that encourage sound, research-backed strategies for reading, analysis, and critical thinking.

Deep, complex database is challenging but a peerless research tool

Bottom Line: This is a highly academic site for better and for worse; it's filled with deep, research-backed resources and primary sources but is intimidating without clear guidance.