149 items
On September 1, 2022, our curators discussed the 1836 Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico. They were joined by Professor H. W. Brands of the University of Texas at Austin, who provided insight into the background and...
Eric Foner, Kathleen DuVal, and Lisa McGirr - "Give Me Liberty! An American History"
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University. Kathleen DuVal is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lisa McGirr is a Charles Warren Professor of American...
Inside the Vault: Dwight D. Eisenhower's Views on Vietnam in 1967 and 1968
On October 6, 2022, our curators discussed documents pertaining to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s views on Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. They were joined by Professor Michael J. Birkner of Gettysburg College, who described Eisenhower’s evolving...
Buzz Bissinger - "The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II"
Buzz Bissinger is a journalist who has won a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. Order The Mosquito Bowl at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank...
Ty Seidule - "Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner's Reckoning with the Lost Cause"
Brigadier General Ty Seidule, US Army (Retired), is the Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College and Professor Emeritus of History at the United States Military Academy at West Point Order Robert E. Lee and Me at the Gilder Lehrman...
Marc J. Selverstone - "The Kennedy Withdrawal: Camelot and the American Commitment to Vietnam"
Marc J. Selverstone, an associate professor in Presidential Studies, heads the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where he edits the secret White House tapes of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B....
Ken Burns - "Our America: A Photographic History"
Ken Burns, the producer and director of numerous film series, including The Roosevelts: An Intimate History and Country Music , founded his own documentary film company, Florentine Films, in 1976. His landmark film, The Civil War ,...
David P. Cline - "Twice Forgotten: African Americans and the Korean War"
David P. Cline is a professor of history and director of the Center for Public and Oral History at San Diego State University. Order Twice Forgotten at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every...
Beth Bailey - "An Army Afire: How the U.S. Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era"
Beth Bailey is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at The University of Kansas and the founding director of the Center for Military, War, and Society Studies. Order An Army Afire at the Gilder Lehrman...
Margaret Corbin
Margaret Corbin Revolutionary War Margaret “Molly” Corbin was the first woman in the United States to earn a military pension, based on her service at the Battle of Fort Washington. Image Source: Herbert Knotel, Twentieth-century sketch representing...
Cuffee Saunders
Cuffee Saunders Revolutionary War Born into slavery, Cuffee Saunders secured his freedom by serving during the Revolutionary War. Image Source: Benjamin Huntington, Oath certifying Cuffee Saunders's purchase of freedom, 1821, Gilder Lehrman...
Henry Knox
Henry Knox Revolutionary War Henry Knox rose through the ranks during the American Revolution to become chief of artillery in George Washington’s army. Image Source: Gilbert Stuart, Oil painting of Henry Knox, 1806, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston
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Federico Fernández Cavada
Federico Fernández Cavada Civil War Cuban-born Federico Fernández Cavada served in the Union Army during the Civil War as an engineer and topographer with the Balloon Corps, sketching Confederate forces from the air. Image Source: Mathew B. Brady,...
Pauline Cushman
Pauline Cushman Civil War Pauline Cushman served as a spy for the Union Army and is buried at San Francisco National Cemetery. She was an actress who used her skills to gather intelligence for the Union Army. Image Source: Mathew Brady Studio,...
Edward Day Cohota
Edward Day Cohota Civil War Edward Day Cohota served in the Union Army for thirty years and was one of approximately 300 Asians and Pacific Islanders who fought in the Civil War. Image Source: Photograph of Edward Day Cohota, ca. 1880-1890, Cape Ann...
Louis Santop Loftin
Louis Santop Loftin World War I Louis Santop Loftin, Hall of Fame baseball player and WWI Veteran, is buried at the Philadelphia National Cemetery. Loftin played baseball in the Negro Leagues from 1909 to 1926 and was one of the league’s first star...
Ella Osborn
Ella Osborn World War I Ella Jane Osborn, a nurse deployed to France during World War I, is buried at Wainscott Cemetery in New York. She kept a remarkable diary in 1918 and 1919 that captured her experiences during the war. Image Source: Ella Jane...
Yeiichi “Kelly” Kuwayama
Yeiichi “Kelly” Kuwayama World War II Yeiichi Kuwayama served as a platoon medic in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, composed of Japanese Americans. His unit fought in some of the fiercest World War II battles in Italy and France. Image Source:...
Joe Morris Sr.
Joe Morris Sr. World War II Joe Morris Sr. was one of four hundred “code talkers” who memorized a code that substituted traditional Navajo words for military phrases. The contributions of the Navajo code talkers were classified until 1968. Image...
Annie Fox
Annie Fox World War II Annie Fox was Station Hospital’s chief nurse during the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawai'i. On October 26, 1942, Fox became the first woman in America to be awarded the Purple Heart for her heroism during the attack. Image...
Walter Schirra Jr.
Walter Schirra Jr. Cold War After completing ninety combat missions during the Korean War, Walter Schirra Jr. was named one of seven test pilots for NASA’s Project Mercury. Image Source: Yvette Smith, Photograph of Walter Schirra emerging from the...
Perry Watkins
Perry Watkins Cold War Perry Watkins served fifteen years in the Army as an openly gay man. Despite this, in 1980, the Army revoked his security clearance and had him discharged because he was gay, a discharge he successfully fought in court. Image...
Grace Murray Hopper
Grace Murray Hopper Cold War Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was a naval computer scientist who held the rank of rear admiral when she retired in 1985. Image Source: Lynn Gilbert, Photograph of Grace Murray Hopper in her office in Washington, DC,...
Alan G. Rogers
Alan G. Rogers Iraq & Afghanistan Alan G. Rogers served in the Army during the Gulf and Iraq Wars. For his master’s thesis in policy management from Georgetown, Rogers wrote about the effect of the US military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on...
Jose Angel Garibay
Jose Angel Garibay Iraq & Afghanistan In 1979, Simona Garibay and her youngest son, Jose Angel Garibay, came to the United States from Jalisco, Mexico. After his death in Iraq, the US government awarded Cpl. Jose Garibay posthumous citizenship....
Ashley White-Stumpf
Ashley White-Stumpf Iraq & Afghanistan Ashley White-Stumpf served in the Army during the Afghanistan War. She was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for her service. Image Source: Photograph of the unveiling ceremony for...
Jacqueline Jones - "No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era"
Jacqueline Jones is the Ellen C. Temple Professor of Women’s History Emerita at the University of Texas at Austin and a past president of the American Historical Association. Order No Right to an Honest Living at the Gilder Lehrman...
Derek LeeBaert - "Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made"
Derek LeeBaert is the Truman Book Award winner and co-founder of the National Museum of the United States Army. Order Unlikely Heroes at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the...
Clayton Butler - "True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South during the Civil War and Reconstruction"
Clayton Butler earned his PhD in History from the University of Virginia in 2020 and was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the Nau Center for Civil War History. Order True Blue at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an...
Beverly Gage - "G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century"
Beverly Gage is a professor of twentieth-century American history at Yale and winner of the Pulitzer Prize. Order G-Man at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided....
Alice Baumgartner - "South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War"
Alice Baumgartner is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern California. Order South to Freedom at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided....
Chloe Melas - "The Luck of the Draw: My Story of the Air War in Europe"
Chloe Melas, the author of a new introduction for this edition of her grandfather’s work, is a journalist with CNN. Order Luck of the Draw at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through...
Craig L. Symonds - "Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay"
Craig L. Symonds is a professor emeritus at the US Naval Academy. Order Nimitz at War at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our...
Inside the Vault: Honoring America’s First Woman Veteran: The Revolutionary War Service of Margaret Corbin
Celebrate Veterans Day and learn about the Revolutionary War service of Margaret “Molly” Corbin! On November 2, 2023, our curators discussed Corbin’s life and legacy with Dr. Holly Mayer of Duquesne University. Margaret “Molly”...
Understanding Lincoln: First Inaugural Address (1861)
Watch this close reading of a document by Abraham Lincoln, with Dickinson College historian Matthew Pinsker.
Inside the Vault: The Overland Trail
What was life like along the Overland Trail in the 1820s? What hardships did travelers face? On March 7, 2024 our curators were joined by Dr. Sarah Keyes (University of Nevada, Reno) to discuss letters from people on the Trail. View...
"Soldier for Equality: Jose de la Luz Saenz and the Great War"
José de la Luz Sáenz (Luz) believed in fighting for what was right. Though born in the United States, Luz often faced prejudice because of his Mexican heritage. Determined to help his community, even in the face of discrimination, he...
"The Escape of Robert Smalls: A Daring Voyage Out of Slavery"
The mist in Charleston Inner Harbor was heavy, but not heavy enough to disguise the stolen Confederate steamship, the Planter, from Confederate soldiers. In the early hours of May 13, 1862, in the midst of the deadly U.S. Civil War,...
Inside the Vault: Civil War Diaries of William Woodlin, 8th USCT, & Cyrena Hammond
During the Civil War, 22-year-old William Woodlin, a musician in the 8th United States Colored Troops, and 18-year-old Cyrena Hammond, from Clarendon, New York, kept diaries about their experiences and observations. They recorded the...
Inside the Vault: Massachusetts 54th
On July 18, 1863, the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer Infantry led an assault against Battery Wagner on Morris Island, South Carolina. The battle demonstrated the bravery and fierce determination of African American soldiers even though...
Inside the Vault: Treason in the American Revolution: Benedict Arnold and John André
In September 1780, the discovery of General Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point to the British was a deeply shocking revelation. Arnold, whose name is now synonymous with the word “traitor,” was once a well-respected...
Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s
Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s. Explained by Chad L. Williams Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Brandeis University Question 72
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Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s
Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s. Explained by Chad Williams Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Brandeis University Question 78
Who was president during World War I?
Who was president during World War I? Explained by Chad Williams Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Brandeis University Question 79
Who was president during the Great Depression and World War II?
Who was president during the Great Depression and World War II? Explained by Chad Williams Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History and African and African American Studies, Brandeis University Question 80
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