Guides to help your students explore works of art as primary documents.
They are arranged by themes, which include:
- American and national identity
- work, exchange, and technology
- geography and the environment
- migration and settlement
- politics and power
- America in the world
- American and regional culture
- social structures
Each of these teaching guides includes specific works of art to help students explore works of art as primary documents.

A page about Benny Andrew’s Flag Day (1966), for example, includes a list how the video addresses important topics, a list of what students will be able to do after each lesson, and a brief lesson plan or ideas for activities. A bibliography accompanies each example.
You can also search by classroom topics, which include:
- Native America before colonization
- European colonies in the Americas
- from slavery to civil rights
- the American Revolution and Early Republic
- Native American culture, 1500–present
- Antebellum America, Civil War and Reconstruction
- The frontier, manifest destiny, and the American west
- immigration
- city and country
- Cold War, media, and popular culture
- contemporary America
- labor and leisure
Additional resources:
Read more about the Seeing America project
How have you used the Seeing America teaching resources?
Let us know in the comments!