Primary Source Sets
The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring a variety of topics related to Minnesota’s history and culture. Using both primary and secondary sources, these sets bring together resources in new ways to help students better understand historic events in their context.
Drawing materials from libraries, archives, and museums across Minnesota, these sets use letters, photographs, advertisements, oral histories, postcards, newsletters, speeches, and more. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to twenty primary sources from the MDL collection, links to related resources, and a section called “Think Like a Historian” which offers discussion questions and classroom activities. We invite educators and researchers to use these primary source sets in their teaching and learning.
Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a work relief program started in 1933; Minnesota's 148 camps had over 70,000 workers.
Discrimination in Advertising Trade Cards
Discover advertising trade cards from the late 19th and early 20th-century used by businesses throughout America.
Minneapolis Teamsters Strike of 1934
One of the most violent labor disputes in state history took place at the height of the Depression.
New
Rondo: Before the Highway
A look at Minnesota’s first African American neighborhood from its founding through the mid-twentieth century.
New
Rondo: During and After the Highway
A look at Minnesota’s first African American neighborhood, from the construction of I-94 until present day.
Temperance to Prohibition
Learn how the national temperance movement evolved resulting in prohibition of liquor and how it played out in Minnesota.
The Minneapolis YMCA
Learn about the history and impact of the YMCA in Minneapolis, founded in 1866.
Women's Suffrage in Minnesota
Explore resources related to the women's suffrage movement in Minnesota.
World War I on the Minnesota Home Front
World War I had a profound impact of the lives of Minnesotans. Explore these resources to learn about the Minnesota home front.