Celebrate Black History Month with Inside the Vault

This February Inside the Vault, the online program that highlights unique primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, celebrates Black History Month with explorations of major Black writers and orators of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

On February 4, learn about the lives of Phillis Wheatley and Elizabeth Keckley, who were both born into slavery, became free, and built lasting legacies. Phillis Wheatley (1753–1784) inspired a nation and its first president with her poetry. Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907), one of the most sought-after dressmakers in Washington DC, published her autobiography, Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, in 1868. Controversial in its time, the book begins as a slave narrative and then becomes a portrait of the Lincoln family in the White House, with special attention paid to Mary Todd Lincoln. Register to attend here.

On February 18, the Gilder Lehrman Collection vault opens to share some of its most prized pieces by the legendary and iconic Frederick Douglass. Most people know Frederick Douglass as an abolitionist, but his fight for equality did not end with the Thirteenth Amendment. We will examine four documents written by Frederick Douglass during the 1870s and 1880s that exemplify his fight against the rise of the Jim Crow era. Register to attend here.

From iconic historical treasures, such as the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Emancipation Proclamation, to personal letters that reveal the contributions of ordinary American citizens, each session of the bi-monthly Inside the Vault investigates primary sources and discusses their background, impact, and potential use in the classroom.

This event is for teachers, students, families, and everyone with an interest in American history. Learn more here.