Most Colorado schools teach state history in either the third or fourth grade. For many students, they are required to complete their first real research assignment at this time. A popular topic assigned to students is a biography of a famous Coloradan. The Denver Public Library Western History Department has begun creating biographies of important Coloradans to assist in this project. The biographies feature digitized primary sources from the Western History collection to expose young researchers to high quality, primary source material from an early age.

"Colorful Coloradans" gives students and teachers an opportunity to incorporate primary sources in an easy, accessible manner. The biographies are consistent with Common Core standards so they can be used in a classroom. Each biography contains a word bank of difficult vocabulary and critical thinking questions at the end of each biography. We are still testing with teachers and students to help improve the biographies, but when they are complete, they will be a valuable resource in and out of the classroom. Each biography has options for further research including archival material, books, and quality webpages.

Our anticipated outcome is that Colorado third and fourth grade students will have access to digitized primary sources, centered on a famous Coloradan. This will give them a quality source for their biographical reports and will spark interest in archival research from a young age. We hope that the biographies will prompt teachers to request more primary source materials, or even come into the Denver Public Library special collections area to work with primary sources in person! We hope to promote the idea that it is never too early to use primary sources or visit an archive.