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.
To Make Public Our Joy: Black New Yorkers Commemorating Emancipation, 1808–1865
Explore To Make Public Our Joy: Black New Yorkers Commemorating Emancipation, 1808–1865, our new curriculum guide featuring materials from the world-renowned collections at The New York Public Library, designed to help teachers support students in grades 7–12.
Download the complete guide and discover additional Library resources and multilingual primary source documents to support and share with students in your classroom.
New! 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 offer 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: Class Tours & Teaching Resources
Learn MoreJoin us for a facilitated learning experience that focuses on the history of modern dance in the United States through the exhibition Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900–1955.
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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.