Smithsonian Resources

Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies

Impacto, Influencia, Cambio

1846: Portrait of the Nation

Electronic Resources

Expansion into Oregon

Texas History

Mexican-American War

James Polk

Samuel Houston

Antonio López de Santa Anna

Online Historic Maps

These Smithsonian resources will enable your students to better understand the many contemporary economic, social, and political issues of America's borderlands. Use them to extend the historical lessons presented in this unit.

The Smithsonian Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies promotes the understanding and continuity of contemporary grassroots cultures in the United States and abroad. The following educational materials are on the borderland culture of the United States and Mexico.

Impacto, Influencia, Cambio: Science, Technology, and Invention in Latin America and the Southwestern United States
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/scitech/impacto/graphic/

Topics covered in this participating National History Day site include natural resource management projects along the Río Grande, women's contributions to the development of sustainable technology, agricultural and industrial technology in Central and South America, and profiles of aviators, astronauts, and everyday people who have changed science and technology.

Impacto, Influencia, Cambio features text in Spanish and English on most pages and can help you plan your lessons with a variety of project ideas, links to additional science and technology materials on the Smithsonian Web, and suggestions for building classroom exhibitions using primary source materials.

1846: Portrait of the Nation http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/1846/index.htm Online exhibit by the National Portrait Gallery, presenting a slice of American life in the year 1846.

Electronic Resources: Expansion into Oregon

Oregon Trail: The Trail West

http://www.nde.state.ne.us/ss/oregon.html, organized by the Oregon California Trails Association, contains numerous links to genealogical and historical resources.

Texas History

The Handbook of Texas Online

Provides detailed information on the history, geography, and culture of Texas, found at http://www.tshaonline.org/.

Mexican-American War

The U.S.-Mexican War

Bilingual Website for the PBS documentary that chronicles the warthrough multiple perspectives from both sides of the conflict. http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/

The Mexican War by David Saville Muzzey

This popular 1911 text "American History, presented here by the museum of the city of San Franciso, explained the Mexican War to school children of the early twentieth century, and told why the United States seized California in 1846, and how the U.S. ended the Texas-Mexico border dispute. This text gives insight into then-contemporary American thinking about "Manifest Destiny." This text and its revised editions were still in classroom use as late as the 1940s. http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/muzzey.html

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

An original copy of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is online from the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/ghtreaty/. The site includes multiple views of the document as well as a map used by the negotiators.

James Polk

The Presidents of the United States of America, from the White House
Polk biography
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jp11.html

People in the The West, PBS documentary
James K. Polk
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/i_r/polk.htm

Samuel Houston

Sam Houston Memorial Museum
http://www.shsu.edu/~smm_www/

People in the The West, PBS documentary
Samuel Houston
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/houston.htm

Antonio López de Santa Anna

People in the The West, PBS documentary
Antonio López de Santa Anna
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/santaanna.htm

Online Historic Maps

The University of Oregon Historical Map Archive
http://mappinghistory.uoregon.edu/

The University of Georgia Rare Map Collection
http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/expand.html