Getting Started

Welcome to DocsTeach!

When we ask students to work with and learn from primary sources, we transform them into historians. That's the idea behind DocsTeach.

Rather than passively receiving information from a teacher or textbook, students engage in the activities of historians — making sense of the stories, events and ideas of the past through document analysis.

On DocsTeach you can:

Explore Primary Sources

Access thousands of letters, photographs, speeches, posters, political cartoons, maps, patents, videos, audio recordings, graphs, legislation, telegrams, court documents, amendments, draft cards, executive orders, citizenship documents, census records, and more — covering a wide variety of historical topics, all saved for the American people at the National Archives.

Search or browse through Documents now.

Discover and Create Online Activities

Borrow from an ever-expanding collection of document-based activities built by the National Archives education staff and teachers around the country. Use or modify ready-made activities. Follow our Guide to Creating Your DocsTeach Activity to create your own using the online Tools:

Engage Students

With hands-on access to primary sources and analysis techniques, students will form a connection to historical evidence and deepen their understanding of the past. Involve your whole class in an activity, or assign students to complete activities individually or in small groups – and turn their work in to you – on DocsTeach.org or the DocsTeach App for iPad. Activities align with Bloom’s Taxonomy and National History Standards.

Register for a Free Account

With a DocsTeach account, you can save and share the primary sources you discover. You can also create, save and share activities. And you gain access to hundreds of additional activities created by fellow educators. You can even copy and modify these activities to fit your needs.

Register. Then manage and organize your documents and activities in My Account.