For Educators

The Albuquerque Historical Society actively supports educators in our mission to promote and preserve all matters relating to the history of Albuquerque. Towards that end, we provide resources and incentives for Educators. These include:

Speakers Bureau

The Albuquerque Historical Society provides a Speakers Bureau as a resource for high school history and social studies teachers. Most topics are appropriate for a high school’s New Mexico history class. The teacher would need to prepare their students prior to the speaker’s presentation by having classroom discussion or student research on the topic. Volunteer speakers will provide their presentation upon request. Communication and scheduling is directly between the requesting teacher and the speaker. The speaker does not receive an honorarium. The speaker will indicate what audio visual equipment is needed. To find out what topics are currently available and to learn how to schedule a speaker, visit our Speakers Bureau page.

Source Documents

The Albuquerque Historical Society has established a source documents repository as a resource for high school history programs. Documents cover basic historical events occurring since the initiation of statehood in 1912. Creation of this information provides teachers with a readily available resource to help build lesson plans for the teaching of New Mexico history at the high school level. View our Source Documents Index page.

Teacher resource guides for Albuquerque’s Tricentennial

As part of the City’s celebration of it’s 300th anniversary, excellent resource guides were developed for teachers. Many lesson plans are available covering diverse topics such as geology, founding of Albuquerque, trade routes, land grants, civil war, the coming of the railroad, sports and many more. These are provided in grade appropriate pdfs. Download the 4th Grade Tricentennial Teacher’s Resource Guide or the 7th Grade Tricentennial Teacher’s Resource Guide.

New Mexico Magazine State Centennial Issue

New Mexico Magazine published a comprehensive thirteen page article on the History of New Mexico since 1912 in their January 2012 issue. Through the generous donations by individuals and businesses, the Albuquerque Historical Society was able to supply the January 2012 issue to all Albuquerque high schools and several other schools in the state. Now, the Editors of New Mexico Magazine have graciously allowed us to distribute this article to educators directly. Download the New Mexico Magazine January 2012 State Centennial Article.

There is also an extensive Teacher’s Guide to State Centennial Resources including sample lesson plans and classroom exercises managed by the University of New Mexico Libraries and funded by UNM’s Center for Regional Studies,

Albuquerque’s Environmental Story

The book “Albuquerque’s Environmental Story: Educating for a Sustainable Community” is an award-winning teaching resource that “was created to help students relate caringly to their local natural and human environment. A primary objective of the document is to foster a mindset in Albuquerque’s future citizens which can lead to a sustainable future for their community,” It is still used in classrooms throughout the city and includes anecdotes about the city, hands-on science activities, teacher worksheets and questions about such topics as public policy, pollution, historic preservation, the built environment, transportation, neighborhoods and downtown redevelopment.
More information.

Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps

The New Mexico Humanities Council offers high-resolution maps through its online Atlas of Historic New Mexico Maps. The website is a rich resource for New Mexico history teachers, including a large collection of first person accounts and oral histories, archival photographs and illustrations, links to full-text resources (many of which are out of print), links to community and state historical resources, audio, and video, as well as a selection of historic maps depicting major historical eras from the first European explorations through the 1920s. The New Mexico Humanities Council has also developed lesson plans to use in conjunction with these maps. The lesson plans are designed to be a sequence, but teachers can also use them individually, to illustrate a certain point, or to supplement other classroom work on an era.