Tennessee State Library & Archives Education Outreach

Explore primary sources, lesson plans, and other educational tools designed for social studies teachers and students. Content is organized by both historical eras and Tennessee social studies content standards.

Audience: Middle School, Educators

Primary sources such as newspaper records, historic photographs, letters, diaries, maps, political cartoons, broadsides, census records, Governors’ papers, and more that tell the story of Tennesseans and our role in the greater story of American history are available to the public at the Library & Archives. Educators and students are welcome to utilize our website or visit us in person to access these primary source materials.

In addition to primary sources, educators have access to our free and easy-to-download lesson plans. These lesson plans are created by Tennessee teachers utilizing the primary sources available digitally at the Tennessee State Library and Archives website. The activities in the lesson plans correlate to the current Tennessee curriculum standards. New lesson plans and digital collections are added frequently.

The Library & Archives hold several teacher workshops throughout the year. More information about current and upcoming workshops is available on our Upcoming Events page.