Classroom Resources

Community Stories Outreach Kits help bring history alive in your classroom by exploring the rich diversity of the American West. Each outreach kit in the series profiles a community in 1890 through the eyes of an actual person. Hands-on objects, photographs, videos, and other resource materials animate these carefully researched stories and actively engage students in learning. Lesson plans and activities encourage students to investigate their own family and community history.

This kit explores the experience of women in the West through the story of Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, whose letters about California in 1850 under the pen name of Dame Shirley allow a unique and personal glimpse into the Gold Rush. Excerpts from twenty-three letters to her sister "in the States" provide a first-person account of life in the mining camps, including background about mining technology, cross-cultural contact between communities, and environmental issues.

The Dame Shirley Lesson Plan

Students will discover what life after slavery was like for the African American community through the story of Ellen Cook, a midwife who sharecropped in Texas before moving to California. This kit explores the challenges, opportunities, and discrimination faced by African Americans through lessons about migration, education, oral history, and quilting.

The Ellen Cook Lesson Plan

The rich heritage of this Tejano family provides material about the Mexican-American War, vaqueros, and ranching at the turn of the 20th century. Their history in Texas can be traced back to the battle of the Alamo, where an ancestor fought on the side of the United States. Students will identify heroes in their community who have had an impact on their lives.

The Isabel Esparza Huizar Lesson Plan

Students will use primary documents, photographs, and objects to learn the story of Kelly Roth, a Jewish immigrant to California from Hungary in 1892. Lessons about immigration, citizenship, and Jewish traditions are drawn from the life of an entrepreneur with a history in Los Angeles that included owing a cigar stand downtown.

The Kelly Roth Lesson Plan

The traditions and culture of the Cahuilla people of Southern California have been recorded and preserved through the work of Katherine and Alvino Siva, respected elders in the Native community. This kit investigates the rituals, language, and art of the Cahuilla.

The Siva Family Lesson Plan

This outreach kit focuses on the experience of the Chinese community in California by highlighting the story of an herbalist who immigrated to San Francisco and Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century. Students will learn about the roles that immigration laws, discrimination, family, and cultural traditions have played in the story of Chinese people in the West.

The Tom Shee Bin Lesson Plan

This kit focuses on a Mormon trailblazer's experience of westward migration and life in the frontier. Students will be able to imagine the challenges and excitement of being a pioneer on the Mormon Trail through hands-on activities, and they will begin exploring their own family history.

The Matthew Wheelwright Lesson Plan
The Matthew Wheelwright Travel Cards

Two-week rental of $25 includes:

• Hands-on objects
• Primary-source replica materials
• Lesson plans and resources
• Pre-and post-kit materials

Community Stories Outreach Kits conform to both the California State History–Social Science Framework and local standards.

Contact the Outreach Kit Coordinator at 323.667.2000, ext. 336, or jreilly@autrynationalcenter.org to reserve your outreach kit.