OneHistory was originally founded with a focus on American history. More recently, we’re beginning to try to expand into finding good world history resources. We’ve only begun, but we think some of the sources we’ve found will be very helpful for teachers who want to integrate primary sources into their world history classrooms.
Ancient Civilizations at the British Museum
Lots of images of artifacts from all aspects of life in ancient civilizations, with interactive elements that provide information. Teacher information and help in “Staff Room.” Especially good for K-8.
- Ancient Egypt at the British Museum Includes: Egyptian life, geography, gods and goddesses, mummification, pharaoh, pyramids, temples, time, trades, and writing.
- Ancient Greece at the British Museum Includes: The Acropolis, Athens, daily life, festivals and games, geography, gods and goddesses, knowledge and learning, Sparta, time, war.
- Ancient India at the British Museum Includes: The Buddha, geography, early Hinduism, the Indus Valley, time, writing.
- Ancient China at the British Museum Includes: Crafts and artisans, geography, time, tombs and ancestors, writing.
- Mesopotamia at the British Museum Includes: Geography, god and goddesses, demons and monsters, time, writing
There are also sites from the British Museum for ancient Rome, Mughal India and Early Imperial China, but they are different in format.
A History of the World in 100 Objects
A 100 part series by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, exploring world history from two million years ago to the present. Fascinating articles and artifacts.
Europeana Collections
The collections on this site are huge and
rich—almost 193,736 items related to migration; 457,865 maps, globes, and
charts; 326,328 music recordings, pieces of sheet music and other music items;
513,754 items related to World War I, etc. You can search by people or topics
or time periods. You can even search their image database by color. Not
everything is in English, and there’s so much here it can be just a little
overpowering, but it’s really fun to browse, and you’re likely to find
something wonderful for your class.
World
History Resource Center
A selection of documents, maps, and images from
specific time periods and countries, from Ancient India to Postwar Japan. The
maps and images are small, but there’s a lot here and it’s easy to find.
Realm
of History
This is a commercial site, with ads, but it has
a lot of remarkable material, gathered from many different sources. A recent
browse through the site produced articles about and links to a recording of the
first known surviving English secular song, a shopping center constructed
sometime between 107-110 CE, and a Samurai scroll giving instructions on sword
fighting.
Picturing Places at the British Library
An amazing resource. “Discover the role and history of topographical views, maps and texts through over 500 examples from the British Library’s collections and beyond, with fresh research in over 100 articles and films from an academic conference hosted by the British Library and Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.”
Recommended by Students
Clothing and Fashion in Ancient Greece
This page is part of a commercial site, but it contains good information that could help students interpret primary sources from ancient Greece. It was recommended to us by a children’s world history club by way of their volunteer leader, Philip Turner.