1,459 items
A follow-up conversation to a 2021 Teacher Seminar program on Using Historical Content to Ground Difficult Conversations led by 2016 Ohio History Teacher of the Year Justin Emrich and 2020 Illinois History Teacher of the Year Corey...
"Let the Children March"
Told from a child’s point of view, this moving historical picture book focuses on a monumental moment in the civil rights movement: the Children’s Crusade of 1963. Thousands of African American children and teens marched through the...
Breaking Diplomatic Ties with Iran during the Hostage Crisis, 1980
On April 7, 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced the breaking of diplomatic ties with Iran as a result of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979–1981. The US had first become actively involved in Iran in 1953, when the CIA helped overthrow...
Address to the Nation Announcing Operation Desert Storm, 1991
On January 16, 1991, President George H. W. Bush announced the beginning of the military campaign to end an Iraqi occupation of neighboring Kuwait. The address was broadcast live on radio and television. It was the culmination of five...
Inside the Vault: Maps of Colonial America
While colonial era maps of North America are often inaccurate representations of the geography, they do give us insight into how Europeans viewed the Western Hemisphere. Early Dutch, French, and Spanish maps record waterways, land...
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...
"The Storyteller's Candle / La velita de los cuentos"
This is the story of librarian Pura Belpré, told through the eyes of two young children who are introduced to the library and its treasures just before Christmas. Lulu Delacre's lovely illustrations evoke New York City at the time of...
American Immigration History
Widely considered a wellspring for US greatness, immigration has also been a source and expression of our deepest conflicts. Immigrant diversity made the United States different from other countries in ways that have been essential to...
Inside the Vault: World War II Propaganda
On the October 7, 2021 session of Inside the Vault, Professor Michael Neiberg from the United States Army War College and Stacie Christensen, 2020 Idaho History Teacher of the Year, join us as we discuss World War II propaganda...
“The war ruined me”: The aftermath of the Civil War in the South, 1867
In the aftermath of the Civil War, former slaveholders struggled to adjust to the economic conditions resulting from the end of slavery as well as the destruction of plantations and markets and the population loss. Many southern...
A family torn apart by war, 1777
The Revolutionary War divided families. In 1774, eighteen-year-old Lucy Flucker married twenty-four-year-old Henry Knox. Lucy’s parents were powerful, wealthy Tories, and they were not happy with the match. Henry Knox was the son of...
“Columbia’s Noblest Sons”: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, 1865
Abraham Lincoln’s death on April 14, 1865, stunned the nation. He was the first US president to be assassinated and the third to die in office. As Americans mourned, they also began to see him as a martyr and the savior of the Union....
Japanese announcement of the attack at Pearl Harbor, 1941
In January 1941, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto began developing a plan to attack the American base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For eleven months, the Japanese continued to refine their plans while at the same time working diplomatically to...
Activist for Equality: Frederick Douglass at 200
Born to Harriet Bailey, an enslaved woman in Maryland in February 1818, Douglass lived twenty years as a slave and nearly nine years as a fugitive. From the 1840s to his death in 1895, he attained international fame as an...
A brawl between Federalists and anti-Federalists, 1788
In 1787 and 1788, debates over the ratification of the Constitution took place in towns and villages across the country. To gain support, both Federalists and anti-Federalists held meetings and marches that sometimes became violent....
Map of the Foreign-Born Population of the United States, 1900
According to the 1900 census, the population of the United States was then 76.3 million. Nearly 14 percent of the population—approximately 10.4 million people—was born outside of the United States. Drawn by America’s labor...
A frightening mission over Iwo Jima, 1945
Lieutenant Bob Stone served as a bombardier in the 431st Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 7th United States Army Air Force in the Pacific. This Spotlight is part of a series of documents detailing the experience of airmen in World War II. Click...
A soldier’s reaction to the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1945
Lieutenant Bob Stone served as a bombardier in the 431st Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 7th United States Army Air Force in the Pacific. This Spotlight is part of a series of documents detailing the experience of airmen in World War II. Click...
The World War II experience of Robert L. Stone, 1942–1945
Lieutenant Robert “Bob” Stone served as a bombardier in the 431st Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 7th United States Army Air Force in the Pacific during World War II. Born on December 19, 1921 in New York City, Bob was a nineteen-year-old...
The Battle of Iwo Jima: A family waits for news, 1945
Lieutenant Bob Stone served as a bombardier in the 431st Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 7th United States Army Air Force in the Pacific. This Spotlight is part of a series of documents detailing the experience of airmen in World War II. Click...
Bob Stone joins the US Army Air Forces, 1943–1944
Lieutenant Bob Stone served as a bombardier in the 431st Bomb Squadron (Heavy), 7th US Army Air Force in the Pacific. This Spotlight is part of a series of documents detailing the experience of airmen in World War II. Click here for...
Elementary
For interactive maps, lesson plans, student activity sheets, primary sources, professional development courses, and more, scroll down past the interactive timeline to the buttons below.
“Defence of Fort McHenry” or “The Star-Spangled Banner,” 1814
In September 1814, Francis Scott Key, an attorney and DC insider, watched the American flag rise over Baltimore, Maryland’s Fort McHenry from a British ship in the harbor. Key had been negotiating the release of an American captive...
Bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, 1963
On the morning of September 15, 1963, Denise McNair (age 11), Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Cynthia Wesley (age 14), and Carole Robertson (age 14) were killed when nineteen sticks of dynamite exploded at the Sixteenth Street Baptist...
Anti-Communist Trading Cards, 1951
On June 25, 1950, war broke out on the Korean peninsula when the Soviet-backed Communist forces in North Korea invaded the recently founded democratic republic of South Korea. Following a unanimous UN resolution condemning the...
Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century Immigration and Migration: Pairing Text and Visual Materials
Click to download this five-lesson unit.
Amanda Bellows - "The Explorers: A New History of the United States in Ten Expeditions"
Amanda Bellows’s writing has appeared in the New York Times , the Washington Post , and Talking Points Memo . She currently teaches at The New School in New York City. Order The Explorers at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an...
"Men of Color, To Arms! To Arms," 1863
After the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted on January 1, 1863, Black leaders including Frederick Douglass swiftly moved to recruit African Americans as soldiers. “A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual...
The Declaration at 250
“The Declaration at 250” is a multi-year, broad-based initiative by the Gilder Lehrman Institute to recognize the importance of the Declaration of Independence in the history of America, and of the world. The initiative will produce...
Infographic: The Vietnam War Military Statistics
Download Infographic as PDF Questions for Discussion In what year were the greatest number of US service members stationed in Vietnam? In what year were there the greatest number of US battle deaths in Vietnam? How many...
The Trail of Tears
Historical Background In 1830, under President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act directing the executive branch to negotiate for American Indian lands. The act set the tone for President Jackson in dealing with...
Robert W. Merry - "Decade of Disunion: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War, 1849-1861"
Robert W. Merry has authored six books, including President McKinley: Architect of the American Century and A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent . Order Decade of...
Children’s Attitudes about Slavery and Women’s Abolitionism as Seen through Anti-slavery Fairs
Overview Over two days, students will examine the attitudes that children from northern states had about slavery during the 1830s to 1860s and how abolitionists tried to change their way of thinking. They will also explore how woman...
Alex Kershaw - "Patton's Prayer: A True Story of Courage, Faith, and Victory in World War II"
Alex Kershaw is the author of The First Wave: The D-Day Warriors Who Led the Way to Victory in World War II and A venue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris ....
Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns - "Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo"
Dayton Duncan is an award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker as well as the author of fourteen books. Ken Burns has been making documentary films for almost fifty years. Order Blood Memory at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We...
Kathleen DuVal - "Native Nations: A Millennium in North America"
Kathleen DuVal is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Order Native Nations at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank...
Luke A. Nichter - "The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968"
Luke A. Nichter holds the James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies and is director of the Presidential Studies Program at Chapman University. Order The Year That Broke Politics at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We...
What did Susan B. Anthony do?
What did Susan B. Anthony do? Explained by Sara Charles Educator from New York Question 77
Who is the "Father of Our Country"?
Who is the “Father of Our Country”? Explained by Denver Brunsman Associate Professor of History, George Washington University Question 69
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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What does the judicial branch do?
What does the judicial branch do? Explained by Raymond J. Lohier Jr. Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Question 37
What is the highest court in the United States?
What is the highest court in the United States? Explained by Raymond J. Lohier Jr. Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Question 38
How many justices are on the Supreme Court?
How many justices are on the Supreme Court? Explained by Raymond J. Lohier Jr. Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Question 39
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