Historic Maps in K-12 Classrooms

"This resource for K-12 teachers and students developed by the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library is designed to bring historically significant map documents into your classroom. Inside are high quality images of historic map documents that illustrate the geographical dimensions of American history.

Each map is accompanied by lesson plans written for four grade levels and designed to support a variety of social studies, history, and geography curricula."

Themes

• Exploration and Encounter
• "explore the processes, technologies, and socio-cultural circumstances of the meeting of the worlds and cultures in the United States"
• Map 1: The World Columbus Knew in 1482
• "represents the perceived view of the world of Columbus and other Renaissance European explorers, and therefore serves as a rich introduction to the study of the explorations and encounters that ultimately led to the construction of the United States."
• Lesson Plans
• K-2 Reading the World, Then and Now
• 3-5 Of Maps and Worldviews
• 6-8 Finding Latitudes and Longitudes
• 9-12 Columbian Contexts
• Curator's Notes
• Resources, including supplemental images
• Map 2: An Indian Map of the Southeast, ca. 1721
• "explain[s] the way that different cultures represented spatial relationships. This map prompts discussion of the ways that natives of an area graphically represent their home to newcomers, and the reasons that a map aids people who are travelling to a new place."
• Lesson Plans
• K-2 Relationships to Others
• 3-5 Same Place/Different Map
• 6-8 Mapping an Encounter
• 9-12 Mapping Relationships in a Community
• Curator's Notes
• Resources, including supplemental images
• Migration and Settlement
• "study the movement of peoples to and within the territory of the United States and the imprint of the resulting regional and local cultures on the landscape"
• Map 6: Migration, Indian Removal and The Oklahoma Land Rush, 1890
• "Taken together, the four maps on the broadside tell a compelling story about European Americans' thirst for western lands and the displacement of American Indians that resulted."
• Lesson Plans
• K-2 Trails of Tears
• 3-5 Come West Young Man
• 6-8 The Changing Faces of Oklahoma
• 9-12 Township and Range in the Wild West
• Curator's Notes
• Resources, including supplemental images

Instructions for Teachers

• General Organization & Use of the Site
• National Standards for Geography and Social Studies
• Displaying and Printing Supplied Images and Texts
• Reading Historic Maps and General Resources on Cartography
• Permissions and Fair Use