Emerging America’s online exhibits model engaging uses of primary and secondary sources from Western Massachusetts museums and archives. These stories serve as starting points to address major national themes and events in American history.

Each exhibit features a select set of documents, maps, artifacts, and images, placed in context through secondary sources from expert scholars. Students can dive directly into the stories, or explore dynamic maps, time lines, and multi-media. Within each exhibit, teachers can also access lesson plans, links to standards, and guidance on teaching methods.

Radical Equality  (Coming Soon) 
Utopian Abolitionists in Western Massachusetts – Northampton Association of Education and Industry: 1842-1846

The Northampton Association of Education and Industry, an 1840s utopian industrial community, played an important role in the U.S. Abolitionist movement.  Sojourner Truth was a member.  Other characters in this story include William Lloyd Garrison, David Ruggles, Lydia Maria Child, and Frederick Douglass.  Business leaders from the community went on to make Northampton a center of silk manufacturing.  Letters between lesser-known Association members bring to life the daily activities of the community. 

Online lessons for upper elementary and high school tap this wealth of local and national primary sources to engage students with the work and thoughts of the Association. 

• 5^th Grade: A Wanderer’s Home: Sojourner Truth and the Northampton Association of Education and Industry
• 5^th Grade: Setting the Rules: A Utopian Community of the 1840s and the U.S. Constitution
• 10^th Grade: The Choicest Spirits of the Age: Radical Abolitionists of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, 1842-1846
• 10^th Grade: Building Perfection: Utopian Visions of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, 1842-46

First Steamboat to Reach Springfield: 1826