Understanding the Cosmos

This Library of Congress Student Discovery Set is here to put history into your hands. It brings together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents from the collections of the Library of Congress. Interactive tools let you zoom in for close examination, draw to highlight interesting details, and make notes about what you discover. There’s no single right answer, only new discoveries to be made.


For thousands of years, people tried to make sense of what they saw in the night sky. Some of them recorded their explanations in systematic ways—they created models of the cosmos. This set brings together maps, drawings, and diagrams that track changing ideas of the solar system and the universe from the middle ages to the twentieth century. 


This set is intended for open-ended primary source analysis by students. A Teacher’s Guide with background information, teaching ideas, and additional resources is available on the Library’s Web site for teachers, loc.gov/teachers.