Asian American and Pacific Islander Historical Resources from the Gilder Lehrman Institute

We celebrate Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month by offering these GLI resources.

Inside the Vault Videos

Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection is a free monthly online program that highlights unique primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, led by Institute curators and special guest historians.

• Pearl Harbor and Japanese Internment
• Chinese Exclusion Act

More Free Videos

• Immigration: An American Story
• Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America
• Hamilton Cast Read Along: Grandfather’s Journey
• Hamilton Cast Read Along: Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist
• Hamilton Cast Read Along: Barbed Wire Baseball: How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII

Self-Paced Courses and Classroom-Ready Professional Development

• Chinese in the United States, led by Madeline Y. Hsu, University of Texas at Austin
• Classroom-Ready PD: Asian American History, led by Jane Hong, Occidental College

History U

History U offers free, self-paced courses in American history to high school students led by the country’s top historians.

• American Immigration History: People, Patterns, and Policy - University of Texas at Austin Professor Madeline Y. Hsu’s course enables students to better understand the terms by which immigration functions as a core aspect of US national identity.

Teacher Seminar

• History of Chinese in the United States (week of July 24), sponsored by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation

Book Breaks 

Explore Our Book Breaks archive for conversations with authors about a wide variety of AAPI history topics, all free to teachers registered in our Affiliate Schools Program or anyone with a subscription:

• Gordon Chang discussing The Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
• Jane Hong discussing Opening the Gates to Asia: A Transpacific History of How America Repealed Asian Exclusion
• Catherine Ceniza Choy discussing Asian American Histories of the United States
• Jia Lynn Yang discussing One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle over American Immigration, 1924–1965

Essays

• “Chinese American Politics in the Cold War Years” by Charlotte Brooks
• “‘The Chinese Question’—Unresolved and Ongoing for Americans” by John Kuo Wei Tchen
• “From Citizen to Enemy: The Tragedy of Japanese Internment,” by Julie Des Jardins
• “Vietnam Veterans Memorial,” by Maya Lin
• History Now, Issue 65, “Asian American Immigration and US Policy”