World War II was fought in the form of physical battles as well as psychological warfare. The surviving artifacts from the front lines of these struggles provide a window onto how World War II was ...

Cleaning out my grandmother's attic, we discovered what looked like a very old quilt wrapped around a stack of paintings. It looked old and in need of some TLC. We were hoping to find some long-lost ...

The first step to genealogical research is to decide what you want to find out. You'll have the most success if you choose the branch of the family you already know best. Often it is easier to ...

Investigate the history of a building. What do we really know about any building? Is there a shady past? Do you sense a false front? It's time for your house to come clean. The inquiry will have two ...

To pin down documented facts relative to a specific historical question. Congratulations. You've just been made a Deputy History Detective. To become a full Detective, you only need to conduct a ...

Patents are used to establish the primacy of an invention or innovation. The US Patent Office was started in 1790 and has been keeping records of every great (and weird) American invention since then.

Spotlight on an engraved cane from a WWII Japanese internment camp in Arizona. Imagine this scenario: Our nation has been attacked by another country in an aggressive and shocking act of war. Several ...

In this lesson, students watch an excerpt from the episode Tumbling Tumbleweeds, in which they learn about Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers, a Western singing group famous for the song “Tumbling ...

Look for the sagittal suture – the squiggly line that runs the length of the skull – and note whether is it's completely fused. If it is, the remains are likely to be of someone older than 35. Look ...

The ultimate historical investigation, very old objects can take you on a journey that predates history itself. Many different items fall under this heading, and we have arbitrarily limited the ...

Use this lesson to help students deconstruct an episode of “History Detectives: Special Investigations.” The “Viewing Guide” allows students to map out the steps that the History Detectives follow to ...

To find scientific evidence of paper age and origin. There's more to a piece of paper than meets the eye - and paper analysis can find it. This specialized investigative process extracts historical ...