The Affiliate School Program is the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s central gateway to educational resources, events, tools, and opportunities for K–12 schools teaching American history, anywhere in the world.
Teachers: Log in or create an account to access your benefits.
36,000 Schools
Free for K–12 Educators
Check back each month to discover the latest free offer for Affiliate School teachers.
A Gilder Lehrman calendar features prominently in the elementary-school classroom of social studies teacher Sergio de Alba.
Every month, the Gilder Lehrman Institute offers teachers in our Affiliate School network one or more free educational resources for classroom use.
Teachers: In order to claim this offer, you must log in or create an account.
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“The United States in the Twentieth Century” timeline focuses on landmark events from the Spanish-American War in 1898 to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
These posters celebrating the Declaration of Independence will spark conversations in your classroom.
Receive a free digital bundle of Teaching Literacy through History lesson plans, available exclusively through this offer.
Only Affiliate School teachers can join our MA in American History program with Gettysburg College, one of the most affordable graduate programs in any subject.
Bring this program into your classroom so that your students can learn about the founding era following Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s creative process.
Affiliate School teachers can participate in Teacher Seminars and the Gilder Lehrman Teacher Symposium.
Affiliate School teachers receive special pricing for our asynchronous professional development opportunities, such as Self-Paced Courses and Classroom-Ready PD Modules.
Affiliate School teachers can opt in to receive a free subscription to the Institute’s online journal, which provides the latest in American history scholarship for teachers, students, and general readers.
Students at Affiliate Schools can participate in essay competitions and book prizes as well as apply for scholarships to Marist College and Gettysburg College.
Explore our interactive web map (lasted updated October 2024). Use the filtering options to narrow your search. When you zoom in to the level of municipality, you will see schools labeled with their names. Click a school to learn more about it. Please email us at affiliates@gilderlehrman.org if you see any inaccuracies in your school’s information. You can always update your school on your profile dashboard.
The Affiliate School Program was founded in 2008 thanks in large part to a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 2016, we have shared 434,006 free, classroom-ready resources with teachers in our network.
Roughly 30% of all schools in the United States are Gilder Lehrman Affiliate Schools. Additionally, the program includes schools in 98 countries across six continents—and counting. More than 75% of the schools in our network are public schools.
Any K–12 school that teaches American history, or a homeschool group or cooperative teaching the same, is eligible to join. Membership in the Affiliate School Program is 100% FREE for K–12 educators and teacher-librarians.
No. Membership in the Affiliate School Program is 100% free for K–12 educators. There are no hidden charges, although some of our benefits are locked behind fees (for which Affiliate School teachers receive discounts).
The easiest way is to visit your profile dashboard where it will find your school’s affiliate status. You can also consult the interactive Affiliate Schools map above, although this may not include all schools as it is only updated periodically. You can also email us at affiliates@gilderlehrman.org.
Yes—when you complete the application form (or add a school to your account on your profile dashboard), you automatically register your entire school in the Affiliate School Program. You are then added to our network as an Affiliate School teacher. Any of your colleagues may also join simply by creating a gilderlehrman.org account and connecting your school to their profile dashboard.
If you are reluctant to register and sign up your whole school, we suggest speaking with your school principal or district administrator for prior clearance.
We encourage school districts to make information about the program available to their schools, but each school is advised to register individually. If you are a district administrator and would like to register all your schools in the network, please email affiliates@gilderlehrman.org and the program manager for the Affiliate School Program will contact you with steps to take to register your district en masse.
Students are not eligible to join the program but can encourage their teachers to join.
Homeschool co-ops are eligible to register for the Affiliate School Program but individual homeschoolers are not eligible.
Non-educator parents are not eligible to join the Affiliate School Program.
School librarians in K–12 schools are eligible to join the Affiliate School Program, and your school may already be an Affiliate School. Please feel free to ask us about your school’s status by emailing affiliates@gilderlehrman.org or by looking on your profile dashboard. You will want to make sure you have selected K–12 educator as your primary role in order to locate your school.
Librarians at public or university libraries are not eligible to join the Affiliate School Program.
Please create your Gilder Lehrman website account here. As you complete the registration form, make sure to choose K–12 Educator as your primary role. Follow the prompts to select your school and, if it is not affiliated yet, be sure to opt in to the program.
If you do not have a Gilder Lehrman website account, please follow the above instructions for the previous question.
If you already have an account, please visit your profile dashboard and make sure that your “primary role" is "K–12 Educator.” Next, follow the instructions to select your school and, if it is not yet affiliated, to join the program.
If you have changed schools and want to enroll your new school, you can do this through your profile dashboard. Once you update your school, you will see its affiliate status.
If your school is already affiliated, you do not need to take any further action. Otherwise, click the “Join Affiliate School Program” button if it is not yet affiliated and complete a brief form. You will continue to enjoy the benefits of this program while it is being processed.
If we already have a record of your school in our system, your application will be processed within a matter of minutes. Otherwise, it usually takes a few days to verify the school. If you submitted an application but have not heard back from us within that timeframe, please contact affiliates@gilderlehrman.org for assistance.
After confirming your status within the Affiliate School network, you can access the Monthly Offer request form at gilderlehrman.org/monthlyoffer. Only Affiliate School teachers can access this form to request that month’s free history resource. You can also access the offer at the top of this page where you see information about the recent, current, and upcoming offers.
If you are unsure of your Affiliate School status, please visit your profile dashboard or email affiliates@gilderlehrman.org for clarification; if you are an Affiliate School teacher and are having trouble accessing the form through our website or email, please contact support@gilderlehrman.org for assistance.
We tend to keep our offers open for thirty (30) days and send several email reminders during that period. For any offers that have a limited quantity, teachers will be informed via both email and the offer request form.
Physical resources (posters, publications, etc.) will usually be produced and shipped approximately two months after the offer closes. Digital resources will be distributed immediately upon request or the week after the offer closes. If the production or mailing of an item is delayed, teachers should expect a notice from the Affiliate School Program on an amended distribution period.
The Gilder Lehrman Letter of Affiliation, which certifies that you are part of our Affiliate School Program, can be downloaded from the “Applying and Enrolling” page for the MA program. Be sure to download and save it to a location where you can find it so that you can easily upload it directly to your Gettysburg College application.
No. If you are logged in to your gilderlehrman.org account, the discount should automatically be applied when you go to check out any self-paced course or classroom-ready PD module. If you think you are not seeing the correct price, please email support@gilderlehrman.org for assistance.
We would love to hear any feedback or testimonials you’d like to share about the Gilder Lehrman Institute or the Affiliate School Program. These can be related to our monthly offer resources, the use of our Teaching Literacy/Civics through History lesson plans, participation in our PD programming, or anything else provided to you by the Institute. Pictures would be especially helpful!
If you have any further questions about the Affiliate School Program, email us at affiliates@gilderlehrman.org. If you are experiencing any technical difficulties with our website, please contact support@gilderlehrman.org for assistance.
The Affiliate School Program was founded in 2008 thanks to a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The impact and growth of the Affiliate School network can be felt in 98 countries across six continents—and growing!
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this webpage and program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
