Online Exhibits

Emerging America’s online exhibits model engaging uses of primary and secondary sources from Western Massachusetts museums and archives. These stories serve as starting points to address major national themes and events in American history.

Each exhibit features a select set of documents, maps, artifacts, and images, placed in context through secondary sources from expert scholars. Students can dive directly into the stories, or explore dynamic maps, time lines, and multi-media. Within each exhibit, teachers can also access lesson plans, links to standards, and guidance on teaching methods.

Radical Equality: The Northampton Association of Education and Industry Designed for grades 3-7 and 8-12. Focuses on an extraordinary community of utopian abolitionists and reformers of the 1840s. (Click here for an overview of the exhibit and its sources.)

NEW! October 2012

Steamboat Barnet: Emerging Industrialism Designed for grades 8-12. Explores the 1826 voyage of the first Connecticut River steamboat into Massachusetts, opening a new era of industrial and economic expansion for this part of New England. (Click here for an overview of the exhibit and its sources.)

The Springfield Armory: Forge of Innovation Designed for grades 3-12. Demonstrates the central role of the Armory in leading the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s through innovative engineering and organization. Also examines expanded employment of women and blacks by the Federal Government in the 20th Century. (Click here for an overview of the exhibit and its sources.)