Primary Source Analysis

Looking for free U.S. history primary source analysis activities, document analysis worksheets, or historical source questions? The History Forge collection includes classroom-ready resources that help students examine speeches, letters, laws, photographs, political cartoons, newspaper excerpts, maps, government documents, and other primary sources from across American history.

Activities may ask students to identify historical context, determine an author’s purpose and point of view, consider intended audience, analyze bias and limitations, make inferences, cite evidence, compare perspectives, and connect a source to larger historical events and ideas. Resources may include printable worksheets, editable Google Docs, teacher editions, answer keys, source-based questions, quick writes, and document-analysis activities designed to help students move beyond simply reading a source and begin using evidence to think like historians.