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The Citizenship Challenge

The Citizenship Challenge: Redesigning America’s Citizenship Test The Gilder Lehrman Institute (GLI) is launching the 2025 Citizenship Challenge: Redesigning America’s Citizenship Test contest for students in our Affiliate School network to...

MA Courses

MA Courses MA students can choose from a wide variety of courses each semester. Browse courses below to watch lecture previews, meet your professors, and see course details. Upcoming Spring Semester Deadlines Course Registration Begins: Monday,...

News

Introducing MA+15/30, a New Graduate Course Option for K–12 Educators

You’ve earned your master’s degree, but like all great teachers, you never stop looking for ways to expand your knowledge and bring deeper levels of learning to your students. The challenge is finding a high-quality, fully accredited,...

Program/Event

Summer Professional Development

Whatever your budget and your interests, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has a professional development opportunity for you. Study with world-renowned scholars, connect with other teachers from across the United States, and reinvigorate your enthusiasm...

United States Citizenship Test

The Citizenship Test Civics and American History The Gilder Lehrman Institute is proud to offer a customized version of the US citizenship exam for K–12 classrooms and learners of all ages. Citizenship is a unifying thread that connects all...

Video: Book Breaks

Kevin Weddle - "The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution"

World History

Colonel (Ret.) Kevin Weddle, PhD, is a Distinguished Fellow and the former Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies at the US Army War College. The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution won the 2021 Gilder Lehrman...

Student Contest

David McCullough Essay Prizes

David McCullough Essay Prizes Submit your entry for the 2025 contest today! High school students in our Affiliate School Program are encouraged to participate in the prestigious David McCullough Essay Prizes competition. The 2025 contest deadline is...

Historiography and Historical Methods

Historiography and Historical Methods Led by: Andrew Robertson (Lehman College and The Graduate Center, CUNY) Course Number: AMHI 698 Semesters: All semesters Image: Title page from Mercy Otis Warren’s History of the Rise, Progress and Termination...

Capstone in American History

Capstone in American History Course Number: AMHI 699 Semesters: All semesters Image: Photograph of John Quincy Adams Ward’s Stock Exchange Pediment, 1903 (The Gilder Lehrman Institute, GLC06343.038) Course Description The...

Video: Citizenship Exam

Who was the first president?

Government and Civics

Who was the first president? Explained by Denver Brunsman Associate Professor of History, George Washington University Question 70

Video: Citizenship Exam

There were 13 original states. Name three.

Geography, Government and Civics

There were 13 original states. Name three. Explained by Gema Kloppe-Santamaría Associate Research Professor of Latin American History, George Washington University Question 64

Video: Citizenship Exam

What are two rights of everyone living in the United States?

Government and Civics

What are two rights of everyone living in the United States? Explained by Monica Pelayo Lock Public Historian Question 51

Video: Citizenship Exam

Name one right only for United States citizens.

Government and Civics

Name one right only for United States citizens. Explained by Monica Pelayo Lock Public Historian Question 50

Video: Citizenship Exam

What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen?

Government and Civics

What is one promise you make when you become a United States citizen? Explained by Monica Pelayo Lock Public Historian Question 53

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Special Events

We are updating this page for 2025.

Program/Event

Self-Paced Courses

Self-Paced Courses offer graduate-level instruction in American history—led by the nation’s top historians The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s fifty Self-Paced Courses, drawn from our MA in American History, allow you to study 500 years of...

Program/Event

Scholarly Fellowships | Past Fellows

Below is a list of all recipients of Gilder Lehrman Fellowships since the program’s founding. The fellow’s name, home institution at the time of the fellowship, and project title are followed by the research archive and year of the...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Ulysses S. Grant

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Originally broadcast on May 15, 2020, this Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores the earliest known letter by Ulysses S. Grant, written when he was a 17-year-old cadet at West Point, and a political...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Two Generals: George Washington and Robert E. Lee

Government and Civics

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Originally broadcast on April 17, 2020, this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores a letter from George Washington about becoming the first President of the United States in 1789 and...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Collection

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

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...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Founding Era Propaganda

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In the May 1, 2020, Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, Kevin Cline, 2016 Gilder Lehrman National History Teacher of the Year, joined the Institute’s curators to explore Paul Revere’s engraving depicting...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: The Thirteenth Amendment and Its Significance

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation declared the end of slavery in the rebellious states, but slavery was not abolished in the United States until after the Civil War ended in 1865. What did it take to get the Thirteenth Amendment...

Lesson Plan

The Soldier's Experience: Letters from Four American Wars

7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

About This Lesson Plan Unit > Over the course of the four lessons in this unit, the students will analyze and assess letters and other documents by American soldiers who fought in the Civil War,...

Program/Event

College Fellowships in American History | Current Fellows

Cooper Austen Princeton University “Profit vs. Patriotism: Privateering and the Formation of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War” Kashish Bastola Harvard University “Dixie Is Asian: Eighteenth-Century Asian American...

Lesson Plan

9/11 and the War on Terror, 2001

Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12

About This Lesson Plan Unit > The four lessons in this unit examine Al-Qaeda’s attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, and the first days of the War on Terror. Students will read and analyze a scholarly essay,...

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