Time Travel 101 Collections

"I loved the 18th century deeds, 15th and 16th century handwritten manuscripts and the Japanese WWII propaganda, particularly the sugoroku... I'm very excited about using the kits at school! I love the idea of showing a group of students actual historical documents to discuss/stimulate their reaction to a subject/area of study."

Welcome to Time Travel 101, the program that puts primary resources directly in the hands of your teachers and students!

Time Travel 101 has been created by Princeton University’s Cotsen Children's Library. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, the traveling classroom resources for Time Travel 101 are currently unavailable. Curriculum and printable digital images for all the Time Travel 101 lending collections 

Online curriculum and printable digital images for the following topics are available:

  1. Illuminate me: Students are invited to examine and compare 15th century manuscript pages to better understand how books were created, and used, in the Middle Ages.

  2. Show me the money: Beginning with a Colonial New Jersey pound note and ending with a 21st century dollar bill, this timeline of monetary artifacts demonstrates how NJ was colonized, grew, and nationalized.
  3. Selling, selling, sold!: From Carter's Iron Pills toJ.L. Weber's Carriages, learn about life in late 19th-century New Jersey by examining authentic period advertisements and colorful trade cards.
  4. Got anything to read?: Forget computer screens and cell phones...what would a kid in 19th-century New Jersey find to read around the house? You'll find the answer in these period publications and household objects. No batteries required.
  5. World War II NJ: Learn about wartime New Jersey by exploring items children encountered on the WWII home front. Ration coupons, advertisements, a draft letter, and a child's gas mask are just a few of the artifacts to explore.


Questions? Send a note to [email protected].