Primary Sources & Teaching Activities for World War I

You can find primary sources and online teaching activities for World War I on our DocsTeach World War I page.

Find primary sources for topics such as:

• New weapons like airplanes, trench warfare, machine guns, submarines, and tanks
• Women in WWI
• WWI Posters
• The Homefront
• Espionage, sedition, and spying
• Armistice, the Treaty of Versailles, and the end of the war
• The Harlem Hellfighters
• The 1918 Flu Pandemic

See WWI draft cards for personalities like Babe Ruth, Al Capone, Charles Hamilton Houston, and Ty Cobb. Students can use Babe Ruth’s Draft Card to identify differences between WWI America and today in the activity WWI America: Babe Ruth’s Draft Card.

Check out World War I posters to discuss propaganda techniques, food conservation, liberty loans, victory gardens, and recruiting with your students. You can also access poster-based teaching activities.

Students can practice “Decoding an Intercepted Message” in the activity The Zimmermann Telegram to learn about this important document and turning point in the war. They analyze the telegram and make an assessment about whether the United States should have entered WWI based on the telegram’s information and implications.

Other teaching activities on the DocsTeach World War I page include:

• Americans on the Homefront Helped Win World War I
• New Technology in World War I
• Comparing WWI Food Conservation Posters
• Artists Document World War I
• WWI Propaganda and Art
• Baseball on the World War I Homefront
• Baseball: A Morale Booster During Wartime?