Discover curricular materials inspired by our archival collections that you can easily integrate into your teaching. Stay tuned for more curriculum guides that highlight the Library’s collections and their connections to the classroom.
New! Reading Dangerously: Censorship and the Freedom to Read in 20th-Century America
How has censorship affected U.S. society over the course of the 20th century? Drawing from The New York Public Library's collections, this curriculum guide is intended to be paired with Banned: Censorship and the Freedom to Read, an online exhibition exploring the history and broad impact of censorship. It is designed to help teachers support students in grades 6–12 to explore the history of censorship and resistance to gain new insights on current events.
Teaching with the Schomburg Center's Archives
Featuring archival materials from the Library's world-renowned collections, Teaching with the Schomburg Center's Archives is an all-new curriculum series that draws on unique primary sources to help educators teach Black history, experience, and culture to students in grades 7–12.
New York City’s Rent Strikers: Jewish Activism & Housing Reform in the Progressive Era
Explore a new curriculum guide designed to help teachers support middle and high school students to analyze primary sources and explore the relationship between activism and reform in New York City’s tenement houses during the early 20th century.
New! Exhibition Guide: ‘The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S.’
Dive into the Library for the Performing Arts' current exhibition, The Joffrey + Ballet in the U.S., with our free exhibition guide for educators. The exhibition explores the challenges, ingenuity, and dedication that it took to build The Joffrey Ballet Company. The guide is designed to supplement the exhibition by offering students key information on the history of American dance and culture to help facilitate their discovery of the items on display.
To Make Public Our Joy: Black New Yorkers Commemorating Emancipation, 1808–1865
Featuring materials from NYPL's world-renowned collections, including archival sources from our research centers, this curriculum guide is designed to help teachers support students in grades 7–12 analyze primary sources and gain a richer understanding of Black political history and the end of slavery, particularly in New York City. Download the complete guide and discover additional Library resources to support and share with students in your classroom.
Reading and Archiving Against Censorship
Discover this two-part series which draws from the Library's archives to explore the history of Black resistance toward censorship, and offers ways to teach this subject in the classroom.
Teaching Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'
Explore a two-part teaching series intended to enrich the study of Mary Shelley's landmark novel Frankenstein and support students in interpreting it through a feminist lens. Plus, discover model questions and activities that can be easily integrated into your classroom and more.
How Children's Play Shaped New York City
This three-part series highlights photographs and newspaper articles on early playgrounds from collections at the Library. We hope this series provides an opportunity to reflect on how young people have changed the urban fabric of New York City and encourages students to see their rights to the city and its public spaces.
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Part 1: Where Crime Is Play
Learn MoreThis guide considers how playground organizers sought to regulate children’s behavior by moving play from the street to playgrounds.
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Part 2: Children Made Playgrounds
Learn MoreThis guide explores how children helped to found the first municipal playground in New York City and how playground supervisors and children clashed over these early spaces.
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Part 3: Segregated Playgrounds
Learn MoreThis guide analyzes segregation and racial inequities in spaces of recreation.
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The Bill of (Twelve) Rights: Contingency and the Constitution
Learn MoreExamine the historical context surrounding the drafting of the Constitution's first amendments and consider how the first ten amendments came to be known as the Bill of Rights.
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Border Crossings: In-Person Visits & Teaching Resources
Learn MoreExplore the history of modern dance in the United States through materials that were on view at the exhibition Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900–1955. Plus, learn how to schedule a special visit to see these items in person.
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Teaching Histories of Black Americans During World War II
Learn MoreExplore primary source resources available through NYPL that shed light on the experiences of Black Americans during World War II.
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Teaching Community with the Photos of Rómulo Lachatañeré
Learn MoreRómulo Lachatañeré’s sympathetic eye for the street life of his East Harlem community in the mid-twentieth century, especially children, make these photographs excellent objects of study in the classroom.
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Policing Gender, Race, and Sexuality in 20th-Century New York City (and in the Archives)
Learn MoreRead between the lines of one 1929 arrest record to explore the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, and policing.
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Helping Students Visualize the Violence of Residential Schools
Learn MoreThe history of residential boarding schools encompasses a reality Indigenous people have faced whose repercussions are still unfolding today.
Explore the Center for Educators & Schools
The New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools is devoted to making all of the Library’s resources accessible and useful for educators. You’ll find programs and services tailored for the educator community, such as book lists, credit-bearing workshops, special access to exhibitions, tips on teaching with primary source materials from our vast research collections, and much more.
This work is part of the Library’s overall commitment to our branch patrons and education programs, led by the Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Director of The New York Public Library. Major support for educational programming is provided by Merryl H. and James S. Tisch.