A selection of Library of Congress primary sources exploring LGBTQ Activism and Contributions. This set also includes a Teachers Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions. Photos, film footage, newspaper articles, interviews, and audio recordings explore LGBTQ Americans' political activism and contributions to U.S. cultural life.

Students use Library of Congress primary sources to study the working conditions of American laborers at the turn of the century.

Poster showing soldiers charging over a hill, in silhouette. Poster no. 78. Title from item.

Poster showing a lantern radiating light. Text continues: Help to sell the lamps. Apply 58 Victoria Street, S.W. Title from item.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1865 by Gibson & Co. in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)

A satire on the controversy surrounding charges of election fraud against New York State tobacco inspector James B. Glentworth and other Whigs during the election of 1838. The allegations were made two years later, in October 1840, by New York Federal District Attorney Benjamin F. Butler, a Democrat. The cartoon echoes pervasive Whig countercharges that Glentworth was used by Democrats in a last-ditch effort to win the presidential election of that year. The print's title facetiously refers to incumbent Democrat Martin Van Buren's description of the Butler inquiry as "a card yet to be played" in his reelection strategy. Glentworth stands before city recorder Robert H. Morris, saying "Let me alone for that I'll blow em sky High Harrison Hard Cider and Log Cabins. I'll tell a tough yarn and the Whigs cant defend themselves before the election." Morris was charged by Governor Seward to hear testimony in the case. One of several observers remarks "It is a lie that will last us Locos [i.e., Loco Focos or radical Democrats] till after the Election." Another, a Bowery tough in striped trousers, remarks, "I think we have the British Whigs now." Morris says, "I say Whiting [i.e., New York City District Attorney James R. Whiting] I am afraid we are barking up the wrong tree. This is Butler's great card but I fear we have turned up the Knave of Clubs." Whiting (seated at table to Morris's right) confides, "My fears are that the Whigs will turn the tables upon us." A man standing on Whiting's right, says "It goes against my religion and my conscience to charge honorable men on the testimony of such rascals but my friend Van Buren must be taken care of." This may be John W. Edmonds, an influential friend of Van Buren involved in the case. A second witness, an obviously disaffected Whig, says, "Now Glentworth give it to Seward for not re-appointing "us." Dont stand on trifles "we" will provide for you." Although the signature "Spoodlyks" is certainly pseudonymous, "The Last Card. Tip Overthrown" is evidently one in a series of satires on the Glentworth scandal, executed by the same artist. Others in this series are "Loco Foco Consternation" and "Evenhanded Justice" (nos. 1840-61 and -62).|Printed and published by H.R. Robinson, 52 Cortlandt St. New York.|Signed: Spoodlyks 1840|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Weitenkampf, p. 63.|Forms part of: American cartoon print filing series (Library of Congress)|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1840-60.

This site provides 28 films that include footage of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, President McKinley at his second inauguration, and McKinley's funeral. Two brief essays recall the politics and status of the U.S. at the turn of the century.

Poster showing soldiers gathering at a Y.M.C.A. dugout canteen. National War Work Council of the Young Men's Christian Associations of the United States. Forms part of: Willard and Dorothy Straight Collection.

Poster showing a panoramic view of the launch of the ship "Lady Janet." Caption: Sidewise launching of the 3500 ton S.S. "Lady Janet" at the Great Lakes Engineering Co. yard, Ecorse, Michigan, July 4th, 1918. Title from item.

A searing, election-year indictment of four prominent figures in the Democratic party, three of them former Confederate officers. Former New York governor and Democratic presidential nominee Horatio Seymour is portrayed as a "rioter." Standing in a burning city, he waves his hat in the air while he steps on the back of a crawling figure. In the background a corpse hangs from a lamppost. Between 1862 and 1864 Seymour had opposed Lincoln's war policies, and he was branded as instigator of the 1863 New York draft riots. (See "The Meeting of the Friends, City Hall Park," no. 1863-12.) Below the portrait are inflammatory passages from his speeches. Tennessee general Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, and infamous for his role in the massacre of surrendered Union troops at Fort Pillow, is called "The Butcher Forrest." He waves a flag labeled "No Quarter" and fires a pistol. Extracts from reports of the Pillow massacre are given below his picture. Confederate admiral Raphael Semmes is portrayed as a pirate, wielding a knife in one hand and holding aloft a flaming torch in the other. Behind him flies a flag with a skull and crossbones. To the right a family cowers in fright. Semmes was the scourge of Union shipping during the Civil War. Under his command the "Alabama," a British-built ship, captured sixty-two merchant vessels, most of which were burned. An excerpt from Semmes's July 1868 speech at Mobile, Alabama, appears below this image. Confederate cavalry officer Wade Hampton appears as a hangman. He holds his plumed hat at his side and wears a uniform embossed with a skull and crossbones and a belt inscribed "C.S.A" (Confederate States of America). In the distance three Yankee soldiers hang from a gallows. |Signed: Th. Nast.|Title appears as it is written on the item.|Published in: American political prints, 1766-1876 / Bernard F. Reilly. Boston : G.K. Hall, 1991, entry 1868-7.

When discussing the role and responsibility of government in regards to matters of public heath (Pure Food and Drug Act and the Clean Water Act), I would ask them to justify the need for current programs and policies of our current government. Also, I would ask them to question that if in 1852, there was public knowledge about the dangers of lead in consumer products, then why such a long delay in the removal of lead-based products.

Poster showing a mechanic wearing goggles, welding a part of a tank. Ordnance Recruiting Poster No. 1. U.S. Army Ordnance No. 1503-i. Text continues: For particulars apply [blank].

Exhibit poster showing two scenes in which men with double leg amputations are being taught to walk with protheses. Poster captions: After some practice these leg-less men walk as well as uninjured persons. The French soldier on the right has been fitted temporarily so that he can get about soon after his operation. The peg leg is worn while the stump is assuming final shape and the more elaborate limb is being made ; These Italian soldiers, in a school at Naples, are being taught to walk on their new legs. Exhibit of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men and the Red Cross Institute for the Blind.

Poster showing a soldier on the battlefield, collapsing and clutching his throat as a result of poison gas. Title from item.

Poster showing large coast artillery batteries firing. Ordnance recruiting poster, no. 2. Promotional goal: U.S. J22. 1919 ; U.S. B36. J2. 1919.

Poster showing soldiers in battle, firing their weapons. Third Federal Reserve District. Title from item.

Poster showing a German soldier crushed by a monumental coin. Poster no. 23. W. 6172 40M-7/15. Title from item.

Poster showing a panoramic view of the U.S. Treasury Building from the southeast. No. 7.