1,547 items
Throughout his life, Benjamin Banneker was known and admired for his work in science, mathematics, and astronomy, just to name a few pursuits. But even when he was born in Maryland in 1731, he was already an extraordinary person for...
"The Bell Rang"
A young enslaved girl witnesses the heartbreak and hopefulness of her family and their plantation community when her brother escapes for freedom in this brilliantly conceived picture book by Coretta Scott King Award–winner James E....
"Ona Judge Outwits the Washingtons"
Soon after American colonists had won independence from Great Britain, Ona Judge was fighting for her own freedom from one of America’s most famous founding fathers, George Washington. George and Martha Washington valued Ona as one...
Black Lives in the Founding Era
The “Black Lives in the Founding Era” project restores to view the lives and works of a wide array of African Americans in the period 1760 to 1800. Drawing on our archive of historic documents and our network of scholars and master...
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...
"Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story"
Gittel and her mother were supposed to immigrate to America together, but when her mother is stopped by the health inspector, Gittel must make the journey alone. Her mother writes her cousin’s address in New York on a piece of paper....
Inside the Vault: The Surrender of Robert E. Lee
“I ask a suspension of hostilities pending the discussion of the Terms of surrender of this army.” —Robert E. Lee, April 9, 1865 Shortly before noon on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee sent a message to Union General...
Frank J. Cirillo - "The Abolitionist Civil War: Immediatists and the Struggle to Transform the Union"
Frank J. Cirillo is a historian of slavery and antislavery in the nineteenth-century United States. Order The Abolitionist Civil War at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the...
Tomiko Brown-Nagin - "Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality"
Tomiko Brown-Nagin is dean of Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Daniel P. S. Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School, and professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Order Civil Rights Queen at the...
Black Writers of the Founding Era: A Conversation with James Basker
Black Writers of the Founding Era: A Conversation with James Basker Recorded at Roosevelt House, Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, April 17, 2024.
This discussion of the new Library of America anthology Black Writers of the...
Matthew Davenport - "The Longest Minute: The Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906"
Matthew J. Davenport’s first book, First Over There: The Attack on Cantigny, America’s First Battle of World War I (2015), was a finalist for the 2015 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History. Davenport is a practicing attorney...
Inside the Vault: Jewish American Soldiers & Jewish Refugees after World War II
In the wake of World War II, American servicemen helped Jewish refugees come to the United States. Join us as we learn more about the servicemen’s work through primary sources. Who were these people? What are their stories? On...
James G. Basker - "Black Writers of the Founding Era"
James G. Basker is president and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute and Richard Gilder Professor of Literary History at Barnard College, Columbia University. Order Black Writers of the Founding Era at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We...
Anastasia C. Curwood - "Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics"
Anastasia Curwood is a professor of history and director of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies at the University of Kentucky. Order Shirley Chisholm at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from...
James Traub - "True Believer: Hubert Humphrey's Quest for a More Just America"
James Traub is a historian, journalist, and scholar. Order True Believer at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link provided. Thank you for supporting our programs!
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Steve Inskeep - "Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America"
Steve Inskeep is an American journalist who hosts Morning Edition and Up First on National Public Radio. Order Differ We Must at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the link...
Dylan C. Penningroth - "Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights"
Dylan C. Penningroth is Alexander F. & May T. Morrison Professor of American History & Citizenship at the University of California, Berkeley. Order Before the Movement at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate...
Inside the Vault: A 1925 Study Guide for Eighth-Grade Graduation in Iowa
Are you smarter than a (1925) eighth grader? In the 1920s, when most students did not go to high school, the eighth-grade state examinations marked the end of their formal education. Sam C. Stephenson published review books to help...
Rachel L. Swarns - "The 272: The Families Who Were Enslaved and Sold to Build the American Catholic Church"
Rachel L. Swarns is a journalism professor at New York University and a contributing writer for the New York Times . Order The 272 at the Gilder Lehrman Book Shop We receive an affiliate commission from every purchase through the...
Pilgrims, the Plymouth Colony, and Thanksgiving, 1608-1621
Click here to download this five-lesson unit.
Debating Chinese Immigration and Naturalization, 1869-1898
Click to download this three-lesson unit.
Eddie Glaude Jr. - "We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For (The W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures)"
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is an American academic, author, and pundit. He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. Order We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For...
Fergus M. Bordewich - "Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction"
Fergus M. Bordewich is the author of eight highly praised previous books, including Congress at War: How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America . Order Klan War at the Gilder...
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