The Library of Congress's first new Teacher Primary Source Set in the past year - "Progressive Era Reforms"

As usual, I'm just providing a sampling of the new content - use the links to access the actual primary sources and teacher guide. I have also included here repeats from some of my previous LOC posts (like access to primary source review worksheets for students). And at the bottom there are some related links to similar primary source sets, as well as a couple of websites specifically focusing on Progressive Era reforms . . .

"Progressive Era Reforms" primary source set from the Library of Congress - https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/progressive-era-reforms/?loclr=blogtea

LOC Blog article describing the new teacher set - https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2026/04/progressive-era-reforms-a-new-primary-source-set-for-educators/

Teachers' Guides and Analysis Tools - https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/

For those of you who have seen (or worked with) redlining maps in the past, this is something similar from an earlier time period - Tenement House Committee maps showing the distribution of immigrants by nationality among the sanitary districts of lower Manhattan in New York City. In some ways they reflect a government (rather than private insurance) dealing with the same kind of situation; as another LOC resource puts it, "The Tenement House Committee maps reflect not only a city facing crises of public health and overcrowding in the tenements, but also deeper fears among certain segments of society of immigration and cultural change."

So is it an effort to spur reform . . . or to drive out immigrants with gentrification? Would make for an interesting classroom discussion . . .

Other resources - either at LOC or on the topic of Progressive Era reform:

"Child Labor Primary Source Set", Library of Congress, 2026, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/child-labor/

"Classroom Materials - U.S. History Primary Source Timeline: Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929", Library of Congress, 2026, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/progressive-era-to-new-era-1900-1929/

"Jacob Riis: Revealing 'How the Other Half Lives' Exhibition", Library of Congress, 2016, https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jacob-riis/index.html THEN make sure you click on the Section Tabs - that's where all the content and primary sources are located

"Making Sense of the Tenement House Committee Maps" (blog article), Library of Congress, Dec 2021, https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2021/12/making-sense-of-the-tenement-house-committee-maps/

"PRIMARY SOURCES LESSON PLAN for High School" (focusing on the Lower East Side between 1870 and 2010), Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 2019, https://www.tenement.org/lesson_plans/teaching-with-primary-resources/ AND https://www.tenement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Primary-Source-Lesson-Plan-High-School.pdf

Tenement Museum Lesson Plans, Lower East Side Tenement Museum, 2026, https://www.tenement.org/lesson_plans/teaching-with-primary-resources/ I particularly like their 'Teaching With Objects" and "Teaching With Oral Histories" lesson plans for Upper Elementary and Middle School

"Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era", Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History (in partnership with the History Channel), https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/curriculum/theodore-roosevelt-and-progressive-era