130 items
"In the history of the world," Ralph Waldo Emerson declared in 1841, "the doctrine of Reform had never such scope as at the present hour." [1] Not much a joiner of causes himself, Emerson had in mind a remarkable flowering of reform...
Admiration and Ambivalence: Frederick Douglass and John Brown
John Brown did not make it easy for people to love him—until he died on the gallows. Frederick Douglass, from his first meeting with Brown in 1847, through a testy but important relationship in the late 1850s, had long viewed the...
History Times: A Nation of Immigrants
Coming to the Land of Opportunity Throughout American history, millions of people around the world have left their homelands for a chance to start a new life in this country—and they continue to come here to this day. People who come...
Inside the Vault: Abraham Lincoln
Originally broadcast on November 12, 2020, this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores Gilder Lehrman Collection materials relating to the life of Abraham Lincoln, both before and after he...
Inside the Vault: John Brown
On October 1, 2020, the Gilder Lehrman Collection team was joined by Nate McAlister, 2010 National History Teacher of the Year, and Colby Lewis from Hamilton to discuss John Brown in this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from...
Inside the Vault: George Washington and Slavery
For the August 7, 2020, session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection , the Gilder Lehrman curators were joined by Darnell Abraham from Hamilton , Jeanette Providence, an educator at Grant Union High...
Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Collection
In the first session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection on April 3, 2020, Collection Director Sandy Trenholm, Assistant Curator Allison Kraft, Curatorial Assistant Laura Hapke, and Hamilton Education...
Inside the Vault: Primary Sources about Enslaved People
While conducting research for the film Twelve Years a Slave , director Steve McQueen and his team came to the Gilder Lehrman Collection to view original primary sources. In this session, Antuan Raimone from Hamilton and Corey...
Inside the Vault: Frederick Douglass: Advocate for Equality
Most people know Frederick Douglass as an abolitionist, but his fight for equality did not end after the Thirteenth Amendment. In the February 18, 2021 session of Inside the Vault, educator Mandel Holland and Hamilton cast member...
War between Neighbors: The Coming of the Civil War
Edward L. Ayers is Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia where he is also the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History. Here he looks at the Civil War’s impact on the lives of people in...
Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
Ira Berlin is a professor of history at the University of Maryland and winner of the 1999 Bancroft Prize in American History. His talk draws upon Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America in tandem with...
Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World
Pulitzer Prize–winner and Yale historian David Brion Davis discusses his 2006 book, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. In his opening remarks, delivered at the New-York Historical Society in January 2007,...
American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation
James G. Basker (Barnard College, Columbia University) discusses his latest book, American Antislavery Writings: Colonial Beginnings to Emancipation (The Library of America, 2012). Basker, who is also the president of the Gilder...
Lincoln at Cooper Union
Author Harold Holzer discusses his book, Lincoln at Cooper Union: The Speech That Made Abraham Lincoln President.
The Formation of Slave Culture
Historian Ira Berlin briefly discusses the evolution of slave culture based on African and American experiences of the enslaved.
Slavery and the Constitution
Historian James Oliver Horton briefly examines the protections for slavery embedded in the US Constitution.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life
Lori D. Ginzberg, professor of history and women’s studies at Pennsylvania State University, discusses her 2010 biography, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: An American Life.
A Teacher’s Tour of Ford’s Theatre
Historian Matthew Pinsker (Dickinson College) leads a tour of Ford’s Theatre campus, including the main building, the Petersen House, and the Center for Education and Leadership, to explore how history teachers can use the site’s...
What Would Lincoln Do? How Lincoln’s Legacy is Used and Abused in Today’s Washington
During the partial government shutdown of 2013, an expert panel of historians and policy analysts convened in Washington, DC, to discuss the presence of Abraham Lincoln’s legacy in contemporary politics.
...
A Teacher’s Tour of the Battle of Gettysburg
Historian Matthew Pinsker leads a virtual teacher’s tour of the Battle of Gettysburg, highlighting key moments and individuals to illustrate the broad story of the battle, its implications for the Civil War, and its legacy in...
Roundtable discussion on American Antislavery Writings
On December 2, 2014, four scholars joined Gilder Lehrman president and Barnard College professor James G. Basker for a roundtable discussion on American antislavery writings. The panel included Elizabeth Alexander (Yale), Christopher...
Historians Now: The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes
James Oakes discusses his book, The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics.
Historians Now: Lincoln’s Selected Writings edited by David S. Reynolds
David S. Reynolds talks about editing the Norton Critical Edition of Lincoln's Selected Writings. The volume not only includes an wide range of annotated texts, but perspectives on Lincoln's writings from his contemporaries and...
"Your Late Lamented Husband": A Letter from Frederick Douglass to Mary Todd Lincoln
On March 4, 1865, Frederick Douglass attended President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration. Standing in the crowd, Douglass heard Lincoln declare slavery the "cause" and emancipation the "result" of the Civil War. Over the crisp...
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