Teaching Resources
Primary Sources
- Constitute - A full-text collection of constitutions from around the world, organized to allow easy comparison.
- Yale University's Avalon Project (Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy) - Complete text of historical documents from 4000 bce to present.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society is entirely online, with lots of great resources about financial regulation.
- The Open States Project includes legislative data from all 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
- FBI Crime Statistics
- The Marchand Archive is a fantastic resource for anyone interested in teaching legal sources in historical context. It includes a huge number of primary sources (including a large number of images); it also includes documentary source problems designed around those sources.
Images
- Sociological Images - collections of contemporary images on topics including "Police, Black Americans, and U.S. Society" and "Same Sex Marriage"
- Life Magazine's photo archives (Hosted by Google, fully searchable)
Film and TV Resources
- The Prelinger Archive - Massive collection of ephemeral films (including government and corporate films). Great for the classroom - includes World War II-era films on Japanese internment; anti-communism cartoons; and films for 1940s teens on juvenile delinquency and social control. Searchable and browsable.
- The Associated Press has put a huge collection of news footage online - including a collection on crime and another on international politics and terrorism. Searchable.
- British Movietone has also put a huge collection of news footage online - including coverage of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the repeal of Prohibition. Searchable.
- WGBH Boston has an extensive archive of its coverage of the Boston busing controversy.
- Counter Histories - a series of short films commissioned by the Southern Foodways Alliance about the sit-in movement and the desegregation of lunch counters.
Resources on the U.S. Constitution
- The Founders' Constitution- Documents relating to the making and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.
- Duke University, Voices of American Law - from the website: "This Project is an initiative of the Duke University School of Law to provide high-quality educational materials to assist in studying the Supreme Court and its role in American society. We have selected important topics in American constitutional law and identified a number of critical cases. In those cases, we have prepared detailed 20-minute case documentaries focusing on interviews with the parties themselves, their lawyers, and the judges who shaped the case. These videos tell the stories of the real people behind the Court's opinions, and they present an exceptional opportunity to bring the cases alive to students in the classroom."
- The Oyez Project - from the website: "The Oyez Project at Chicago-Kent is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality tour of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices."
- Pronouncing Dictionary of the Supreme Court of the United States - Pronunciation guide for Supreme Court case names.
- C-SPAN.org - Interviews with former and current Supreme Court justices.
- The Annenberg Classroom - Videos of interviews with former and current Supreme Court justices, and videos about specific cases and issues.
Famous Trials
- Salem Witch Trials - A document collection.
- Famous Trials - compiled by Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
- Research and Writing Resources
- Julie Novkov's Prospectus Writing Guidelines - Advice for undergraduates developing workable proposals for large-scale research projects.
- The Library of Congress has the following helpful guides: How to Trace Federal Legislation and How to Trace Federal Regulations.
- Some useful help for Researching State Legislative Records (pre-1960).
- Additional Teaching Resources Provided by Disciplinary Organizations
- American Anthropological Association - For Teachers
- American Historical Association - Teaching and Learning
- American Philosophical Association - Teaching Resources
- American Political Science Association - Section on Law and Courts (Section 2)
- American Political Science Association - Section on Political Science Education (Section 29)
- American Sociological Association - Section on Sociology of Law
- American Sociological Association - Section on Teaching and Learning
- American Sociological Association's TRAILS (Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology) [membership required] - "TRAILS is an online, modular (by topic and type of teaching tool) and searchable database that reflects a major innovation in the creation and dissemination of peer-reviewed teaching resources."