NEW YORK, NY (September 13, 2007) – The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History today announced an extension of its partnership with the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to promote American history education in five Milwaukee schools. Funded by a $200,000 grant from the Bradley Foundation, the Institute will support American history schools already in place at Alexander Hamilton High School, Milwaukee High School of the Arts, Riverside University High School, and the Wedgewood Park International School, and will fund a new program at W.E.B. DuBois High School. “This growing partnership between The Gilder Lehrman Institute and these five Milwaukee schools will create new opportunities for teachers and students to learn about our nation’s history,” said Lesley Herrmann, Executive Director of the Gilder Lehrman Institute. “Ultimately, we believe this partnership will produce not only skilled educators and committed learners, but also informed and conscientious citizens.”

The Bradley Foundation has helped fund the Institute’s educational programs since 1996. The new grant supports American history-intensive curricula in each participating school, including special elective courses, primary source document resources, field trips to historic sites, a Saturday Academy of American history, and Junior Historians’ Forums, featuring noted historians.

The program at Milwaukee School of the Arts integrates American history with the school’s arts curriculum, including a student production of a play portraying the Salem witch trials. Also offered are American history electives, taught before school, with classes beginning as early as 6:30 a.m. Alexander Hamilton High School offers hands-on courses such as American historical crafts. At W.E.B. DuBois High School, the grant will help fund a new eleventh grade American history program.

Each of the participating schools will receive American History materials and documents from the Institute, and hold teacher training workshops. The Institute will also distribute its document-based innovative series History in a Box to all five Milwaukee schools. History in a Box provides a one-stop, portable, multimedia resource on commonly taught topics in American history. Institute programs have demonstrated an ability to close the achievement gap for minority students, improve literacy, and accelerate student accomplishment.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. The Institute serves teachers, students, scholars, and the general public. It helps create history-centered schools and academic research centers, organizes seminars and programs for educators, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, sponsors lectures by eminent historians, and administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state through its partnership with Preserve America. The Institute also conducts awards including the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes, and offers fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection and other archives. The Institute maintains two websites, www.gilderlehrman.org and the quarterly, online journal www.historynow.org.

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