Presidents

This month we feature sites with information on U.S. Presidents and First Ladies. (Sites in the elementary and middle school section have an easier reading level or are written specifically for students.)

Quick Links:  Elementary & Middle School | High School

Elementary & Middle School

The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden includes lesson plans for grades 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. This multimedia exhibit from the National Museum of American History includes an interactive timeline, lesson plans, a quiz and more.

America's Story from America's Library features information on Jane Addams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Washington. The site is presented by the Library of Congress.

The Seven Hat Challenge is a quiz game from Scholatic. Students explore the seven "hats" worn by the U.S. President: Chief Executive, Commander in Chief, Head of State, Director of Foreign Policy, Political Party Leader, Guardian of the Economy, and Legislative Leader. Presidents from the past will tell students about their accomplishments and invite students to identify the "hat" involved in each task. A lesson plan is also provided.

In Mr. President: Profiles of our Nation's Leaders, the Smithsonian Institution presents portraits, quotes, and interesting facts about all the presidents.

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government from the U.S. Government Printing Office for Kids introduces the executive branch and features simple information on the presidency and a list of presidents tailored for grades 3-5. A more detailed version is available for grades 6-8.

The White House provides The Presidents of the United States, with a portrait and brief history of each president.

For a fun way to learn about George Washington, try Washington's World for Kids from the Mount Vernon Ladies Association. Three online games allow students to explore a 3D Mount Vernon and meet people who lived and worked on the estate, play typical songs of the day on the harpsichord, and serve as Washington's gun captain at the siege of Yorktown.

Children in kindergarten through grade 3 can visit Truman 4 Kids to find a simple biography, a slide show of Truman's life narrated by an animated mule, games, and coloring pages.

The Eisenhower Home Virtual Tour from the Eisenhower National Historic Site presents information about President and Mrs. Eisenhower in the form of a tour of their house.

The James A. Garfield National Historic Site includes a virtual tour of Garfield's home.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site includes a biography of Abraham Lincoln, information about his home and family, and photographs and excerpts from some of his writings.

The White House Historical Association provides lesson plans on the White House and the presidency for grades K-12 as well as exhibits, including a virtual historical tour of the White House to music and a history of presidential inaugurations.

Who is Your Favorite President? from the 5th graders at Pocantico Hills School features descriptions of the job of president and a simple explanation of how the president is elected, as well as student-illustrated biographies of each president.

Students can become President for a Day to learn first-hand about the daily tasks of the presidency in this site from the PBS Kids Democracy project.

Explore the president's residence at the White House Museum. Clickable 3-D models and maps lead to historic and modern photos of almost every room in the White House. This is not an official government site, but the sources for information and photographs are well-documented.

High School

The American President, the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia presents a detailed look at the presidency. The Presidency in History section covers each president and feautures biographies, key events, information about their cabinets and policies along with photos and multimedia where available. The Presidency in Action section features information on domestic and foreign policy, legislative affairs, national security, presidential politics and the workings of the executive branch.

The Presidential Libraries contain the papers, records, and other historical materials of U.S. presidents since Herbert Hoover. This Web site provides a fascinating glimpse of the presidency by making a sample of these resources available online, such as the daily diaries of Jimmy Carter and the speeches of John F. Kennedy.

The Papers of the Presidents of the United States from Yale's Avalon Project supplies the full text of hundreds of documents related to the presidency. You'll find everything from the Gettysburg Address (November 19, 1863) to the Executive Order Establishing the Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council (October 8, 2001).

American RadioWorks' interesting site The President's Calling: The Whitehouse Tapes allows visitors to listen to presidential telephone calls to hear how Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon used one-on-one politics to shape history.

U.S. Presidents of the 20th Century from Michigan State University's Vincent Voice Library presents recordings of speeches from many presidents, from Harrison through George W. Bush.

The National Museum of the Moving Picture presents The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2008. This site features video clips of more than 250 television commercials from every election year beginning in 1952, when the first campaign ads aired.

The White House Historical Association provides lesson plans on the White House and the presidency for grades K-12 as well as exhibits, including a virtual historical tour of the White House to music and a history of presidential inaugurations.

The National Park Service's Historic Places Commemorating the Chief Executives of the United States provides historical background and a survey of many historical sites and buildings. The Biographical Sketches section groups and compares the 43 presidents covered according to their ethnic background, previous occupation, level of education, rural or urban upbringing, and so forth.

A Presidential Exploration provides brief facts and more extensive information about each president through Clinton. This site was created by high school students, and also includes interactive quizzes.

See a table of Presidential and Vice Presidential Salaries from 1879 to 2003 from the University of Michigan Government Documents Center.

Elections: The American Way from the Library of Congress provides an interactive guide to elections that covers the candidates, voters. party system, election process, and issues (Shockwave plug-in required). A version which does not require Shockwave is also available.

The Presidents Learning Page from the Library of Congress lists the presidents and links to historical documents, photographs, and information on each president from the Library's collections.

"I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations covers each of the 54 inaugurations from George Washington's in 1789 to George W. Bush's inauguration of 2001. This Library of Congress collection includes diaries and letters, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, inaugural programs, prints, photographs, and more.

Inaugurations from the Library of Congress is an illustrated history of the inaugural process.

The National Park Service's Historical Themes section presents links to many NPS sites with information on past presidents such as Adams, Carter, Eisenhower, Grant, Hoover, Kennedy, and more.

Teaching with Historic Places from the National Park Service includes lesson plans about Eisenhower, Hoover, Kennedy, Madison, Roosevelt, Taft, and Van Buren. Lessons focus on inquiry and analyzing historical photographs, maps, and texts to synthesize information and formulate conclusions. They also encourage students to understand connections between their community and the broader themes of U.S. history.

Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies from the Library of Congress includes at least one likeness of each of the forty-one presidents and most of the first ladies.

Hall of Presidents contains portraits from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

The American Experience: The Presidents from PBS offers brief information about presidents, their politics, the era in which they governed, their domestic and foreign policy, plus more extensive information on 12 featured presidents (including the Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter and Reagan). A teacher's guide for use with the video programs is included.

The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute sponsors The New Deal Network, an educational guide to the Roosevelt Administration and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Included are photographs, political cartoons, and texts, as well as features exploring New Deal topics and curriculum ideas for middle and high school teachers and students.

The Library of Congress offers The Last Days of a President: Films of McKinley and the Pan-American Exposition, 1901. It includes historic film footage of McKinley's inauguration and the site of his assassination.

POTUS features facts about each president and links to other Web sites from the Internet Public Library.

Designed to accompany a ten-program documentary series from PBS, The American President profiles the first 41 U.S. Presidents and gives lesson plans.

Offered by C-Span, American Presidents Portrait Gallery features facts about each president, as well the complete American Presidents series, viewable online.

National First Ladies Library features a photograph and of each first lady and a bibliography of sources for further study.

The Great Debate and Beyond: The History of Televised Presidential Debates from the Museum of Broadcast Communications includes a complete transcript and analysis of the first televised Presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy, as well as many video clips from 1960-1996 debates. A section titled "Memos and Spin" provides primary source documents related to the debates, and curriculum resources such as glossary items, student activities, and teacher resources are provided for Government and Politics, History, Debate and Communication based on the Illinois Learning Standards for the Social Sciences.

The President's Desk from the JFK library lets visitors virtually sit at President John F. Kennedy's desk and choose from several multimedia presentations on Johnson's family, early life and work as president. Take a look at the President's daily calendar or listen to taped phone calls with the Secretary of Defense, Attorney General and others.

American Visionary: Harry S. Truman from the National Park service highlights Truman's formative years, family, increasing stature in Washington, the presidency, and return home.

The New York Historical Society offers an online exhibition on Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America. The site includes a biography and a "document viewer" that features a look at some of Hamilton's letters and other primary source documents.

Created 10/2005
Last updated 5/11/2011