Our taught sessions and online resources cover a variety of time periods and places. Many contain structured investigations for use directly in the classroom. Others are more suited for research and preparation. They all allow access into our unique collections.
Showing 158 resources
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1833 Factory Act
Did it solve the problems of children in factories?
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1834 Poor Law
What did people think of the new Poor Law?
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19th century mining disaster
What happened at the Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster?
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19th century people
What can we tell from this photograph?
20sStreets – Teacher’s Notes
What can archives reveal about people’s lives in the 1920s?
Session we teach
4099 is my name (SEND)
How can we share the experiences of someone who lived in the past?
A Great Christmas Inconvenience
What can we learn from the documents about how some Victorians celebrated Christmas?
A Significant Person
Why is this person from the past remembered?
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All on board!
What can we learn from old board games?
All Work and No Play
What does this document reveal about work in the past?
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Anglo-Saxons – Gift from a King
What was Anglo-Saxon society like?
Animals in the Archives
What jobs have animals done in times of war and peace?
Archaeology in the Archives
What kinds of documents can tell us about the work of archaeologists?
Archives Ahoy!
What can we learn about pirates from our collection?
Archives Live: Windrush 75
Special live event from The National Archives
Atlas of Illustrated Feelings
How are you feeling today?
Session we teach
Black Victorians
How much can documents reveal about the lives of Black people in Victorian Britain?
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Capturing our Collections
Artworks inspired by documents found in The National Archives
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Caribbean history in photographs
What can these photographs tell us?
Case Study A – Tower Hamlets
101 Grove Road
Case Study B – Tower Hamlets
68 Grove Road
Case Study C – Wakefield
24 Thornes Lane
Case Study D – Wakefield
68 Thornes Lane Wharf
Case Study E – Accrington
38 Park Road
Case Study F – Accrington
68 Park Road
Case Study G – Falmouth
3 Lister Street
Case Study H – Falmouth
42 Lister Street
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Census detective
What can you find out?
Census Detectives
What does the census reveal about families in the past?
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Chertsey
What was Chertsey like in the Middle Ages?
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Child migration
Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
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Children’s Clothing in the Workhouse
What do the letters tell us about pauper children's clothing in the workhouse?
Session we teach
Choosing for the Archives (SEND)
How can we find out about someone from the past, using documents, images and objects?
Codes and Secret Messages
What do the documents reveal about codes and secret messages?
Session we teach
Coronations: Ceremony and Change
How can we find out about Coronations in the past? How far have Coronations changed over time?
Craft Club – Christmas Cards
Festive pop-up cards
Creating a zig-zag journey book
Refugee Week 2021
Creating an Imaginary Archive
What would you collect?
Curiosities
What is this curious object?
Dear Herbert
What can personal documents reveal about people’s lives?
Disaster at Sea
How can we find out about significant events in the past?
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Discover the Dissolution
How did the Dissolution change my local area?
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Domesday Book
What can we learn about England in the 11th century?
Session we teach
Domesday Book: medieval treasure
What can we learn about people’s lives in 1086?
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Edward the Confessor
What does the Domesday Abbreviato tells us about Edward the Confessor?
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Elizabethan propaganda
How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
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Empire Windrush: Caribbean migration
Why did people from the Caribbean travel to live and work in Britain?
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence
What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
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Empire Windrush: Life for Migrants in the 1940s and 50s
What do these documents reveal about life for Caribbean migrants to Britain in the 1940s and 1950s?
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Empire Windrush: The Notting Hill Carnival
What do the sources reveal about the significance of the Notting Hill Carnival and why it began?
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England’s Immigrants, 1330-1550
Downloads for teachers
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Evacuation to Canada
How much care was really taken?
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Evacuation to Shropshire
What happened to children who were sent away?
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Florence Nightingale
Why do we remember her?
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Food Glorious Food
What was food like for a child in the Victorian workhouse?
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Foundling Hospital
What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
Session we teach
Four days’ hard labour
What was life like for a Victorian child criminal?
Fun in the Files
What can our documents reveal about how people had fun in the past?
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God blew and they were scattered
Did God really help the English defeat the Spanish Armada?
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Going to School in the Workhouse
How was school for pauper children different, and what was the same?
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Gordon Ford’s story
What was it like to be an airman in the Second World War?
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Government posters
How did Britain encourage people at home to help win the war?
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Great Fire of London: how London changed
What happened?
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Great Plague of 1665-1666
How did London respond to it?
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Gunpowder Plot
Can you uncover the plans of the plotters?
Session we teach
Henry VIII: image of a king
Was appearance everything for a ruler in the 16th century?
Session we teach
Henry’s royal rules (SEND)
What were the rules of daily life for a king in Tudor times?
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Holding History
What is 'The National Archives'?
Holidays are Here!
What can our documents reveal about how families enjoyed summer holidays during the Second World War?
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How we were taught
What was school like 100 years ago?
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Introduction
What is The National Archives?
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Life aboard the Titanic
Who travelled on the fateful maiden voyage?
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Life in 1950s Britain
What can we find out about life in 1950s Britain using documents from the time?
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Life in 1960s Britain
What can we find out about life in 1960s Britain using documents from the time?
Living under canvas
What can this document tell us about the experience of a group of refugee children?
Session we teach
Living under canvas: Child refugee stories
What can we learn from documents about the experiences of Basque child refugees?
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Magna Carta teacher’s resources
Downloads for teachers
Session we teach
Mapping London
How and why does an area change over time?
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Murder at Kirk o’ Field
What happened in 1567?
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Past pleasures
How did the Victorians have fun?
Propaganda
How can art be used to convey a message?
Session we teach
Propaganda: the art of persuasion
How did the British government encourage people to support the war?
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Queen Anne
How can we find out about her?
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Rebecca riots
What happened during them?
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Rob Roy
A Victorian railway accident
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Role of a Queen – Mary I and Anne
What can we find out about the roles of Queen Mary I and Queen Anne?
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Role of a Queen – Matilda and Elizabeth I
How has the role of Queen changed from the past?
Samuel Pepys
What does his will reveal?
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Say ‘cheese’: a portrait of Queen Victoria’s family
What can Queen Victoria's family photographs tell us?
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Selling the Victorians
Victorians for sale! Has advertising changed from Victorian times?
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
What can an object reveal about its owner and life in Medieval England?
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Significant Events
What happened then?
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Significant People
Who is who?
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Significant Places
What's in a place?
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Spirit of Invention: Explore, design, create!
What can the Victorians teach us about how to be an inventor?
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Sugar
What can original documents tell us about the history of sugar?
The Beautiful Game
What can our documents reveal about an incredible sports match?
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The Great Seal
What can it tell us?
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The Home Front
How did people prepare for the war at home?
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The King, the Crown and the Colonel
How did Thomas Blood try to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671?
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The Search for ‘Terra Australis’
What did Captain Cook’s secret mission involve?
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The Sinking of the Titanic
Why were so many lives lost in the disaster?
The Yellow Bicycle
A story of migration
Time Travel Club Activities
Discovering The National Archives
Session we teach
Travel smart through time (SEND)
How and why have people travelled around in the past and how have they done it safely?
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Treasures
What 'treasures' are there at The National Archives?
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Trimdon
What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
TTTV: Refugee Week 2021
What can we learn from documents about Basque children’s experiences in refugee camps?
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Tudor Entertainment
What was the effect of the early playhouses?
Tudors: Image of a King
How did monarchs present an ‘image’ of themselves in the past?
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Uncovering the past
How can we use photographs to find out about the past?
Session we teach
Unmasking a spy
Who was Karel Richter?
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Victorian children in trouble with the law
Did the punishment fit the crime?
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Victorian family history
How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
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Victorian Food and Drink
What do old adverts reveal?
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Victorian homes
Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Victorian lives
How was life different in Victorian times?
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Victorian Railways
Did they create more crime?
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Walter Tull
How can we use sources to find out about him?
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What is a Jubilee?
What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
Session we teach
What is history?
How do historians know what to believe?
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Who was Noor Khan?
What can documents reveal about her role during the Second World War?
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William Shakespeare
What can we find out about his life?
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Workhouse Voices Creative Writing
Stories inspired by letters from the past