HERB: Resources for Teachers

Progressive Era Activists Call for Trade Unions (with text supports)

Founded in 1903, the Women’s Trade Union League (WTUL) was an organization that brought together working-class women, reformers, and women from wealthy and prominent families. The WTUL believed that the best way to help women workers was to help them organize into labor unions so that they could bargain for fair pay and safe working conditions.…

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, Labor Activism, Progressivism, Reading Supports, Women's Trade Union League
Item Type: Pamphlet
Date: 1910

Immigrants by the Numbers

In this activity, students work with quantitative data (charts, graphs, and tables) from the 1910 census and the 1911 Dillingham Commission Report to understand the lives of immigrants in the Ellis Island era. The activity includes an option designed for middle school and high school students, as well as a suggested strategy for elementary…

Tags: Common Core Reading, Gender and Sexuality, Immigration and Migration, Reading Supports, TAH
Item Type: Teaching Activity
Date: 2011

Young Women Ask Permission to Work in Lowell (with text supports)

Starting in the 1820s, a group of business owners built textile mills in New England, where for the first time, people could use machines to weave cotton into cloth. The first factories recruited women from rural New England as their labor force. Most of these young women viewed mill work as a temporary stage in live, a way to escape the limits of…

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, Lowell, Reading Supports, Work
Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: Circa 1830

Young Women Ask Permission to Work in Lowell

Starting in the 1820s, a group of business owners built textile mills in New England, where for the first time, people could use machines to weave cotton into cloth. The first factories recruited women from rural New England as their labor force. Most of these young women viewed mill work as a temporary stage in live, a way to escape the limits of…

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, Lowell, Work
Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: Circa 1830

Active Viewing: Daughters of Free Men

In this activity, students watch short clips of the ASHP documentary Daughters of Free Men to learn about the experiences of Lowell mill girls in the 1830s. Students follow the life of Lucy, a young girl working in Lowell in 1836. After each clip, students reflect on what they have just learned and predict what Lucy will do next.

Tags: Active Viewing, Gender and Sexuality, Labor Activism, Work
Item Type: Teaching Activity
Date: 2011

Analysis Worksheet: The Declaration of Sentiments

This worksheet helps students analyze the 1848 Declaration of Sentiments.

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, Reading Supports, Voting
Item Type: Worksheet
Date: 2010

A Boardinghouse Keeper Describes “Toil and Fatigue” in the California Gold Rush (with text supports)

Mary Ballou and her husband ran a boarding house in a California gold mining town. Ballou’s letter to her son, written in 1852, evokes the rough housing, violence, and high prices (from which the Ballous profited) in California during the gold rush. She also describes how the few women there provided each other with companionship and…

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, Gold Rush, Reading Supports
Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: 1852

A Boardinghouse Keeper Describes “Toil and Fatigue” in the California Gold Rush

Mary Ballou and her husband ran a boarding house in a California gold mining town. Ballou’s letter to her son, written in 1852, evokes the rough housing, violence, and high prices (from which the Ballous profited) in California during the gold rush. She also describes how the few women there provided each other with companionship and…

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, Gold Rush
Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: 1852

The Pay Envelope worksheets

These worksheets help students complete "The Play Envelope: A Role Play." The worksheets set up the role play, help students organize their characters' talking points, and help students assess the success of the final role play as it is performed.

Tags: Common Core Reading, Gender and Sexuality, Immigration and Migration
Item Type: Worksheet
Date: 2011

John Adams Explains Why Women Should Not Be Able to Vote (with text supports)

James Sullivan, a state court judge in Massachusetts and colleague of John Adams, was often sympathetic to those who thought women and non-elite men should have a voice in the new nation’s government. Adams disagreed, explaining to Sullivan why women and the poor should be excluded. Some spelling changes and edits have been made to improve…

Tags: Gender and Sexuality, John Adams, Reading Supports, Voting
Item Type: Diary/Letter
Date: 1776

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