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videos + essays
Over the next two years, Seeing America will grow to include 100 videos, 18 essays, quizzes, discussion questions and lesson plans.
Monument Avenue and the Lost Cause
A conversation that took place on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, just before the last Confederate monument on the boulevard was removed in September 2021
Tlingit sovereignty and the Proud Raven (“Lincoln”) Pole
A totem pole records Tlingit claims to land in southeastern Alaska by acknowledging the first sighting of a white man, who happens to be based on the likeness of Abraham Lincoln.
Soaring upward, Louis Sullivan and the invention of the skyscraper
A miracle on Bleecker Street, ornament, invention, and one of the great early skyscrapers
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
The critics at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago noted: "American art has made something of itself."
Teaching guide
Thomas Hovenden, The Last Moments of John Brown
John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed in using violence to destroy the violent institution of slavery. Thomas Hovenden's painting of a popular story about Brown's last moments, created 25 years after Brown's execution, promoted the righteousness of his cause at a time when state governments were stripping away the political gains made by African Americans during Reconstruction.
APUSH: KC-5.2.I.B, KC-5.3.II.C
TEKS: 113.41.(3)(C)
1877 – 1898
A period of technological and commercial success, the Gilded Age was also an era of immense social problems.
John Brown, Martyr or murderer?
John Brown has polarized political opinion from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement.
Lakota life on a beaded suitcase
This one-of-a-kind suitcase tells the surprising story of an artist, a wedding, and a people.
Light of democracy, the Statue of Liberty
Two countries honor their love of democracy with a huge statue of a woman! Neither let women vote, though.
“Leave it as it is”
In order to capture the beauty of America’s national parks, Brown faced the prejudices of the lawless West.
The first African American celebrity artist
Tanner studied in Philadelphia and Paris, and his style combined elements of American Realism and the Old Masters.
How the Other Half Lives
Riis snapped photos of the urban poor during midnight police raids—but only because he cared.
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