Themed Resources
- Library of Congress Online Resources for Educators (pdf)
- Abraham Lincoln
- Art of War:
WWI and WWII Posters - Cartoon Analysis
- Childhood Lost:Child Labor During Industrial Revolution
- Coles County: Taught with Primary Sources
- Corp of Discovery:
Revealing the American West - Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources
- Illinois: Taught with Primary Sources
- Presidential Campaigns: Packaging the Presidents
- Underground Railroad:
A Path to Freedom - Verse and Chorus
- WWII
- Top Topics
Special Projects
- Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum Tools
- Classroom Activities
- Constant Motion:
The Job of Railway Post Office Clerks - Constitution Day
- Library of Congress Site Update "Cheat Sheet" (pdf)
- Lincoln Assassination CSI Activity
- Patriotic Songs
Professional Development
- Update-Summer Institute
- TPS EIU Jump-Start
- TPS in Action
(onsite workshop series) - Customized Teaching with Primary Sources Institutes
Additional LInks
- EIUTPS Google Search Tool
- National TPS Site
- Library of Congress
- loc.gov Teacher PageAbraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
EIU Teaching with Primary Sources
Preparation, Schemes and Exams
Before Boarding a Train…Preparation, Schemes & Exams Railway Post Office (RPO) clerks were considered the elite of the mail service. RPO clerks were held to the highest level of accountability and took great pride in their work. This level of performance meant spending time off studying schemes to learn exact locations of thousands of towns, villages and connecting communities.
Entrance and regularly scheduled exams called for clerks to sort 100 cards by route and location in two to three minutes demanding 95% - 97% accuracy. Some clerks sorted 600+ pieces of mail per hour into pigeon holes on a speeding train. RPO clerks memorized the names and locations of 5,000 – 10,000 post offices; this was before zip codes were established in 1963. Working in ever-changing roles, RPO clerks developed superior memorization and learning techniques and skills.
Mastering the intellectual facet of the job equipped RPO clerks for the physical demands on the train.
In their own words...
