Now That's Funny: Political Cartoons in the Classroom

Political Cartoons can be a great way to generate discussions on controversial topics in a social studies classroom. As a primary source they can help students examine essential questions and big ideas of a particular era or event.

Make sure you check out my earlier blog posts on analyzing primary sources and historical images for resources and other ideas on this topic.  

• Getting Started With Primary Sources 
• Extra Extra....Using Newspapers in The Classroom. 
• Where In Time is Little Abe? Fostering Historical Thinking with Images 

Analyze A Cartoon Document Analysis Worksheet via National Archives

The National Archives has a lot of great Document Analysis Worksheets that you can use with students on a wide variety of different primary source documents. If you are looking for a basic template to use to help foster historical thinking skills this is a good tool to use.

Teacher's Guide Analyzing Political Cartoons via The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress also has great Teacher's Guides and Analysis Tools for teacher's to use on different types of primary documents. These are also great tools to use with students to help foster historical thinking skills.

Political Cartoons Searchable Database via The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress has a very in depth collection of various political cartoons. Check out their Primary Source Sets and their Exhibitions and Presentations as a good starting place to do your search. They also provide search terms and phrases to help you in your search through their databases.

Their Political Cartoons and Public Debate page also has some great early American history cartoons to check out. You can also download an eBook on your Apple iOS device or machine.

Running For Office: Candidates, Campaigns, & The Cartoons of Clifford Berryman via The National Archives

This is an 52 page interactive website that explores the cartoons of Clifford Berryman. Many of these political cartoons ran during the early 20th Century and each page has captions and historical context for the reader. If you teach early 20th Century US History this is a fun site to use or have students navigate. If you find some you like you can also download high quality images or desktop background images to your computer.  

Welcome to the Opper Project: Using Editorial Cartoons to Teach History via Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

This website has lots of lesson plans, analysis worksheets, and digital exhibits. A good place to start is with their Lesson Plans page. 

American Caricature (1765-1865) via the University of Indiana Lilly Library 

This collection covers three distinctive eras in US History. Colony & Early Republic,  The War of 1812, and Abraham Lincoln (Which covers his two elections and The Civil War)

This site can be a little hard to navigate so make sure you click on the links and you should be able to find examples for each of these three topics.

HarpWeek.Com

Has a good collection of images from Harper's Ferry Magazine. Search their Cartoon of the Day series by Topic , People, or Places. They also have a series of lessons and collections on their main page that you can check out. These topics range from Pre-Civil War, Civil War, Reconstruction, Rise of Big Business, The Chinese Exclusion Act, and several others.

Civilization & Barbarism: Cartoon Commentary & "The White Man's Burden" (1898-1902) by Ellen Sebring via MIT Visualizing Cultures

I really like using this resource with my students during my Global Expansionism Unit. There are several examples with great insight provided on the historical context with each of these images. I typically show students the images and we look for examples of how it portrays one of these themes: Expansion of US Markets, Show of US Military Strength, or Efforts of "Civilization."

The Political Dr Seuss via Independent Lens, PBS

I really enjoy this website and using these political cartoons with my students when we examine America during the early years of World War II before Pearl Harbor. Most of my students are very familiar with Dr. Seuss but not his political opinions which were pretty racist. Business Insider has a great article on this titled Dr Seuss's Racist Ads and Open Culture has a great post titled Dr Seuss draws Anti-Japanese Durring WWII, Then Atones with Horton Hears a Who! that is worthy of bringing into your discussion with students when they look at his political cartoons.

What did I miss? 

Do you have great resources that you use with your students when working with political cartoons? I would love to hear about them in the comments section below.