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News

Fighting discrimination during World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s "four basic rights," 1944

In this newly received donation to the Gilder Lehrman Collection, Eleanor Roosevelt responds to a correspondent who was apparently worried about the desegregation of restrooms and forced social interaction between the races in the...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Women's Suffrage

Government and Civics

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

In this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection , originally broadcast on October 15, 2020, our curators are joined by CherylAnne Amendola, 2017 New Jersey History Teacher of the Year, and Lauren...

Program/Event

Hamilton Education Program | About the Hamilton Education Program

In October 2015, Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Rockefeller Foundation, the NYC Department of Education, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute announced an educational partnership to provide...

Program/Event

Professional Development

The Institute offers a wide range of professional development opportunities in American history, from customized in-person training at your school with scholars and master teachers, to rigorous summer teacher seminars and online...

News

Lincoln’s Favorite Dog, Fido

Ever wonder why the name "Fido" has become synonymous with dogs? It all goes back to a very special dog belonging to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln always had a fondness for animals, and it has been speculated that he relied on his pets to...

Video

Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929–1945

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

David M. Kennedy is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University. Freedom from Fear focuses primarily on political and economic developments, recounting how presidents and citizens responded to the two great...

Program/Event

Hamilton Cast Read Alongs

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is excited to share its archive of Hamilton Cast Read Alongs. Hamilton Cast Read Alongs is a program that features Hamilton cast members reading award-winning children’s books followed...

News

Nine Ways to Assign Extra Credit with the Gilder Lehrman Institute

We know that teachers are facing extraordinary challenges this school year and the Gilder Lehrman Institute would like to help carry the load by being an aid to teachers who are trying to keep their most committed students engaged....

News

The Harlem Rattlers—African Americans in WWI

Historian Jeffrey Sammons tells the story of the Harlem Rattlers in the Great War. The 369th Regiment —a unit of African American soldiers — fought on two fronts: in the trenches of Europe and for civil rights in the military and at...

Video: Read Along

"The Voice That Won the Vote: How One Woman's Words Made History"

In August of 1920, women’s suffrage in America came down to the vote in Tennessee. If the Tennessee legislature approved the Nineteenth Amendment it would be ratified, giving American women the right to vote. The historic moment came...

News

National History Day Resources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection

National History Day engages more than half a million students around the world in historical research on a topic of their choosing. Students submit those projects at local and state/affiliate contests, with top students advancing to...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Pearl Harbor

World History

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

Originally broadcast on December 3, 2020, this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores Gilder Lehrman Collection materials relating to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,...

News

National Friendship Day: August 6

Today is National Friendship Day, and to celebrate, we’re showcasing a vivid letter from the Gilder Lehrman Collection that shows the enduring strength of friendship forged in war. In January 1784, the Marquis de Lafayette , back home...

News

Hamilton Cast Members Read Books for Kids with #EduHamReads

The Gilder Lehrman Institute is excited to announce Hamilton Cast Read Alongs , a new program that features Hamilton original and touring cast members reading award-winning children's books of their choosing. Each book selected has...

News

Revisiting the Founding Era at the National Constitution Center

On January 10 historians Carol Berkin and Denver Brunsman, community leader Farah Jimenez, and the Constitutional Sources Project’s executive director, Julie Silverbrook, gathered for a town hall at the National Constitution Center in...

News

The Boston Massacre: On This Day, March 5

On March 5, 1770, tensions in the American colonies culminated with an armed skirmish between British troops and American colonists in Boston. Although the American Revolution did not begin in earnest until five years later, the...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Checks and Balances

Government and Civics

5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Checks and Balances Executive Branch carries out the laws can veto laws can call special sessions of Congress controls enforcement of laws nominates judges can pardon people convicted of federal crimes commander in chief develops...

News

The Emancipation Proclamation: On This Day, January 1

As the nation approached the third year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are...

News

Free Workshop Series & Symposium in Partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations

In partnership with World101 from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), we are pleased to offer four free digital professional development sessions and a symposium in spring 2021. On MARCH 6 the first workshop on American...

News

The Cold War Moves to the Kitchen: On This Day, 1959

On July 24, 1959, at the height of the Cold War , Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Vice President Richard Nixon held a "Kitchen Debate." Since the end of WWII, the Soviet Union and United States had been locked in a fierce battle...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Proclamation pardoning Richard Nixon, 1974

Government and Civics

"My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." Speaking half an hour after Richard Nixon submitted his resignation letter to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on August 9, 1974, and minutes after taking the oath of...

News

2018 Library Affiliate Program Grants Announced

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is pleased to announce another successful round of the Library Affiliate Program Grant. Gilder Lehrman Library Affiliates across the country applied for a $400 grant to host one K–12...

News

Meryl Streep Goes to Suffragette City

Meryl Streep’s new bio-pic, Suffragette , chronicles the adventuresome lives of the British women’s rights advocate Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters. Tired of waiting for equality, the Pankhurts’ Women’s Social and Political Union...

News

Booker T. Washington Dines with Theodore Roosevelt, Americans Outraged

In October of 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House. As the founder of the Tuskegee Institute and a respected leader of the African American community , Washington was an important...

News

Watch Luis Miranda Interviewed by Gilder Lehrman Student Advisory Council Members

siempre luis

News

New Spotlight on a Constitutional Street Brawl

This month, the Institute is spotlighting a newspaper article describing a violent street brawl between Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The New York State ratifying convention began on June 16, 1788. In July 1788, Federalists...

Video

African American Lives: An Overview

Government and Civics

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of African American History at Harvard University, speaks about the development of the African American National Biography,...

News

NPR Profiles Hamilton Education Program

The radio journalists at NPR followed some of the 20,000 New York City students who are getting a chance to see the Broadway smash Hamilton thanks to a program of The Rockefeller Foundation and the Gilder Lehrman Institute . A...

Video

Morgan: American Financier

Art, Economics, World History

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

Based on extensive research in newly opened archives, Morgan: American Financier , Jean Strouse’s portrait of J. P. Morgan, shows a man who helped transform the United States into an industrial nation, and amassed an extraordinary...

Video

Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York

Government and Civics

Historian Richard Ketchum is the author of the classic studies Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill ; The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton ; and Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War . In...

News

Counting Down to Hamilton: Week 2

We’re almost there—only two more weeks until the first student matinee of Hamilton ! This week, watch Ron Chernow, author of Alexander Hamilton — the biography that inspired the musical — discuss the Founding Father ’ s achievements...

News

The First Hamilton Student Matinee Is Here!

Today is the Hamilton Education Program ’s first student matinee! 1,300 New York City high school students are participating in the launch of the program, which includes presenting original student performances, having a special Q-and...

Lesson Plan

Making a Lens

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

K, 1, 2, 3

Introduction Benjamin Franklin was a scientist and an inventor. As he got older, he noticed he needed glasses for reading and seeing things far away. Franklin solved this problem by inventing bifocals, which were glasses made with two...

News

Hamilton Education Program Online Now Available for Schools with 6th–12th Graders

The Hamilton Education Program Online (#EduHamOnline) is now available to all schools with students in grades 6–12 in the 2020–2021 school year. Completely adaptable for remote or hybrid learning, the program encourages students to...

News

Civil War Essay Contest Deadline is February 25

The Gilder Lehrman Institute presents an annual essay contest for Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School students in grades 5–12 The Civil War Essay contest encourages students to examine the nation’s most divisive conflict using letters,...

Classroom Resources

Study Aid: Major Slave Rebellions

Economics, Government and Civics, World History

9, 10, 11, 12

New York City, 1712 Like many later revolts, this one occurred during a period of social dissension among White colonists following Leisler’s Rebellion. The rebels espoused traditional African religions. Stono Rebellion, 1739 The...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Civilian defense on the home front, 1942

Art, Government and Civics

In the early days of World War II, air raids and other attacks on populated areas in Europe generated fears that similar attacks could happen in the United States. On May 20, 1941, more than six months before the United States entered...

News

FDR Dies: On This Day, April 12

He had led the country for more than a dozen years, guiding Americans through the Great Depression and a global war. On April 12, 1945, Franklin Roosevelt, the leader that many Americans had grown up with, died at Warm Springs,...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Discovering a mass grave in Iraq, 2003

Mark Rickert wrote this email while serving as a journalist with the 372nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment in Iraq. On this day, he and his group were investigating rumors of a mass grave. The letter is written to his grandfather,...

Video: Read Along

"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...

Video: Read Along

"Grandfather's Journey"

When he was a young man, Allen Say’s grandfather left his home in Japan to explore the world. He began his journey by crossing the Pacific Ocean on a steamship, then wandered the deserts, farmlands, and cities of North America. Allen...

About page

Regina Gannon

Regina Gannon is currently the head of the insurance relationship management team for the Aladdin business at BlackRock. In this capacity, she is responsible for the overall firm-to-firm insurance client relationships across the...

Video: Read Along

"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....

Program/Event

Hamilton Education Program Online

The goal of the Hamilton Education Program Online is to help students in grades 6–12 see the relevance of the founding era by using primary sources to create a performance piece (e.g., a song, rap, poem, or scene) following the model...

Program/Event

Scholarly Fellowships

The Gilder Lehrman Institute provides annual short-term research fellowships in the amount of $3000 each to doctoral candidates, college and university faculty at every rank, and independent scholars working in the field of American...

About page

Alysha Butler

Alysha Butler is a social studies teacher at McKinley Technology High School in the District of Columbia. She has a unique gift for combining history, civics, and civics activism in her teaching. Butler has served as a department...

News

Inside the Vault: The Gettysburg Address

Read about the Gettysburg Address or watch the lecture "The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln through His Words" by Professor Ronald C. White of the University of California, Los Angeles.

Video

What Would Lincoln Do? How Lincoln’s Legacy is Used and Abused in Today’s Washington

Government and Civics

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

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. ...

News

A Civil War soldier’s sketchbook

Between battles, marches, and military exercises, Civil War soldiers spent their free time in camp playing music, writing and reading letters, and, for those with the skill, sketching scenes from the day. This unknown soldier’s...

News

Revisiting the Founding Era

The Gilder Lerhman Institute of American History has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for Revisiting the Founding Era, a three-year project that will support programs at 97 public...

News

The Gilder Lehrman History Shop Offers Mugs, Bags, Posters, and Apparel with Collection Images

The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s new History Shop features favorites from the Gilder Lehrman Collection that we hope will be of interest to our friends and supporters. Start your morning with American history with these and many other...

History Now Issue

American Poets, American History

#39 Spring 2014

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Lucy Knox

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

During the siege of Boston in 1775, 19-year-old Lucy Knox gave up everything she knew and left Boston with her husband’s sword hidden in her clothes. She would never see her parents or siblings again. Lucy’s letters to her husband,...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

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...

Video

Susan B. Anthony on Her Work and Life: Document in a Minute

Gilder Lehrman curator Beth Huffer discusses Susan B. Anthony's contribution to an autograph album. "The one purpose of my life has been the establishment of perfect equality of rights for women – civil and political – industrial and...

Video: Read Along

"Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreno Played the Piano for President Lincoln"

Government and Civics

As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside The Vault: Eleanor Roosevelt, “Four Basic Rights,” and Desegregation

Government and Civics

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

Originally broadcast on August 21, 2020, this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores a 1944 letter by Eleanor Roosevelt defending the four basic rights of all Americans and desegregation...

News

Are We in a New Gilded Age?

The question of whether the United States has entered a new Gilded Age pops up quite frequently in magazines, op-eds, and newscasts these days. Here, historian Edward O’Donnell, author of Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality ,...

Video

Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War

Economics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Thomas G. Andrews, an associate professor of history at the University of Colorado Boulder, discusses his Bancroft Prize–winning book, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War, and the interconnection between railroads, coal,...

Video

Chat with the Curator: Amelia Earhart and Neta Snook

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

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

Curator of the Gilder Lehrman Collection, Sandra Trenholm, describes documents in the Neta Snook Collection, including letters and photographs of Amelia Earhart. Biographer Susan Butler (East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart)...

Video

New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Vassar College historian Rebecca Edwards discusses some of the complexities of the Gilded Age with Gilder Lehrman President James Basker. Professor Edwards's 2006 study, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, offers a nuanced view...

News

Common Sense Published: On This Day, January 10

Did you know that the most popular written work in American history was published before America was an actual nation of its own? On January 10, 1776, six months before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the...

News

Submit Your Hamilton Education Program Online Videos for Spring 2021!

The Gilder Lehrman Institute is pleased to announce that the national competition and lottery are now open for spring 2021 submissions for the Hamilton Education Program Online. EduHam Online is an easily adaptable, fully online...

Video: Read Along

"Gittel's Journey: An Ellis Island Story"

World History

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....

News

Counting Down to Hamilton: Week 4

There’s less than one month left until the Hamilton student matinee on April 13! This week, discover Alexander Hamilton in the American Imagination , the newest issue of History Now , Gilder Lehrman’s online journal . In five essays,...

News

Ulysses S. Grant Dies: On This Day, July 23, 1885

On July 23, 1885, Ulysses S. Grant, a Union general in the Civil War and the 18th president of the United States, died at the age of 63. He had struggled with throat cancer for a year while rushing to finish his memoirs, the proceeds...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: "Your future rests… in your hands!”

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

Keisha Rembert, Assistant Professor of Teacher Preparation, National Louis University, and Nate McAlister, History Educator at Seaman High School in Topeka, Kansas, joined the Gilder Lehrman Collection curators in this session of...

Video

Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

Government and Civics

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

Joseph J. Ellis, Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College, discusses his Pulitzer Prize–winning book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, explains the emergence of the men who led the Revolutionary War and created...

Video

Taxation and Representation: The Imperial Debate between Britain and the Americans

Government and Civics

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

Brown University historian Gordon Wood describes the British and American conceptions of representation during the eighteenth century, widely diverging points of view that were forged by radically different experiences with...

P&E Home

Programs & Events

The Gilder Lehrman Institute promotes the study and love of American history through a wide array of programs and exhibitions for teachers, students, historians, and the general public. From weeklong seminars and other professional...

Video

"Let the Word Go Forth": Symbols and Images in JFK’s Inaugural Address

Government and Civics

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

University of Virginia historian Barbara Perry describes John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, including background information on the President’s life and family, the writing of the speech, and major accomplishments of his...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

The Cold War in the classroom, 1952

Government and Civics, World History

As the Cold War pervaded domestic as well as international spheres, Duck and Cover , an educational film produced by the Federal Civil Defense Administration and Archer Productions Inc., showed children how to react in case of a...

Program/Event

Civil War Essay Contest Winners 2013

High School Division Click on the title to view a pdf of a winning essay. First Prize Clarissa Aaron , Kelso High School, Kelso, Washington "Uncle Tom’s Failure" Second Prize Farukh Saidmuratov , New Dorp High School, Staten Island,...

Video: Read Along

"Bread for Words: A Frederick Douglass Story"

Government and Civics

Frederick Douglass knew where he was born but not when. He knew his grandmother but not his father. And as a young child, there were other questions, such as Why am I a slave? Answers to those questions might have eluded him but...

Video: Read Along

"A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story"

A Ride to Remember tells how a community came together—both Black and White—to make a change. When Sharon Langley was born in the early 1960s, many amusement parks were segregated, and African American families were not allowed entry...

Program/Event

Flagship Schools

Gilder Lehrman Flagship Schools are high-performing high schools that offer students a rigorous four-year curriculum in American history. These schools provide a unique, American history and literacy-focused education that emphasizes...

Video

America’s Emergence as a Global Power

Geography, World History

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Jeremi Suri, a historian at the University of Texas at Austin, argues that Americans have never been isolated from international politics and military conflicts, but rather have projected power on the world stage since before the...

Program/Event

November Affiliate School Offer Lesson Plans

Click the images below to access the lesson plans offered to Affiliate School teachers this month. Teaching With Documents: Colonial America to Reconstruction: A Selection of Units for Elementary School American Symbols: The Flag, the...

News

Announcing the Dear George Washington Contest winners for 2018–2019

The Dear George Washington Contest is an annual writing contest for Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School students in grades 2–5. The contest introduces students to the issues facing early Americans and encourages them to think critically...

Program/Event

Traveling Exhibitions | Alexander Hamilton: Immigrant, Patriot, Visionary

Alexander Hamilton: Immigration, Patriot, Visionary explores the founding era through the life of one of its most influential figures, Alexander Hamilton. As one of our country’s founding fathers, Hamilton played a central role in...

News

Holiday Dinner with the Nuclear Family

As the winter holidays draw close and Americans everywhere travel to celebrate with their loved ones, it is important to remember how one should act when having dinner with family. The 1950 Encyclopedia Britannica film A Date with...

News

Bert the Turtle Ducks and Covers

Today’s school children are familiar with fire drills, earthquake drills, tornado drills, and even tsunami drills. Filing out-doors to athletic fields or hiding under desks from imaginary natural disaster debris is expected, scheduled...

Video: Inside The Vault

Inside the Vault: Jackie Robinson

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

Originally broadcast on May 29, 2020, this session of Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection explores a comic book about Jackie Robinson’s rookie year and letters written by Richard Nixon and Robert Kennedy...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Civilian Conservation Corps poster, 1938

Art, Economics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Civilian Conservation Corps directly addressed two of the most pressing problems during the Depression: male youth unemployment and environmental degradation. The CCC, based on a military model of everyday life, put thousands of...

Video: Read Along

"Goin' Someplace Special"

Through moving prose and beautiful watercolors, an award-winning author-illustrator duo collaborates to tell the poignant tale of a spirited young girl who comes face to face with segregation in her southern town. Read by Morgan Wood...

News

Attack on Pearl Harbor: On This Day, December 7

Shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack against US armed forces in Hawaii. The Japanese targeted the Army, Navy, and Marine airfields before bombing the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The...

News

Announcing a Veterans Day Student Photography Contest

In coordination with our 2017 Calendar of World War II and to commemorate Veterans Day, we’re inviting teachers to submit photographs of military monuments or memorials taken by K–12 students in their classes. Up to ten winners will...

Program/Event

Professional Development | World War I Centennial Workshop Series

To commemorate the centennial of World War I, we are pleased to offer free professional development sessions in forty cities across the country. These sessions will focus on different aspects of the war and how to effectively bring...

News

2016 Teacher Seminar Application Now Open!

Each summer, the Gilder Lehrman Institute offers academically rigorous seminars for K–12 educators and National Park Service interpreters. Held at colleges and historic sites across the US and abroad, the weeklong seminars offer...

News

Celebrate 25 Years with GLI and Send Us Your #MyGLI25 Story

Send Us Your #MyGLI25 Story! Are you a teacher, student, administrator, scholar or history buff who has benefited from or been involved in the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History? Be it through gaining new knowledge or...

News

Professional Development through the Gilder Lehrman Institute

We’re excited to announce that the Gilder Lehrman Institute is now a registered provider of Continuing Professional Education (CPE) in Texas! Educators can obtain CPE hours through a variety of programs: online Self-Paced Courses ,...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Prescription for alcohol during Prohibition, 1923

Government and Civics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math

At midnight, January 16, 1920, the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol took effect. The Eighteenth Amendment banned the manufacture and sale (but not the possession, consumption,...

Video: Read Along

"Before She Was Harriet"

This lush, lyrical biography in verse begins with a glimpse of Harriet Tubman as an old woman, and travels back in time through the many roles she played through her life: spy, liberator, suffragist, and more. Illustrated by James...

News

Scholarships and Loans Available for the Pace–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History

There is still time to apply for fall courses in the Pace–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History Program. While the degree and individual courses are competitively affordable, some prospective students may be eligible for financial aid...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Japanese internment, 1942

Government and Civics

9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Responding to fears of Japanese spies within the United States, President Roosevelt signed an order authorizing the forced relocation and confinement of more than 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans living in the West....

Program/Event

A Tribute to Teachers

Watch "A Tribute to Teachers" Join us in gratitude for teachers everywhere—the lifeblood of the educational system, and true heroes during this unprecedented year. Lin-Manuel Miranda will present the 2020 National History Teacher of...

News

Ensign Jesse Brown, First African American Naval Aviator, 1948

In October 1948, Jesse LeRoy Brown made history by becoming the first African American naval aviator. Born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1926, Brown was inspired to become a pilot by an airshow that he attended at age six. After...

News

Counting Down to Hamilton: Week 5

There are now five weeks until the first student matinee of Hamilton ! This week, we’re continuing our blog series on Alexander Hamilton with Amtrak’s Arrive magazine—the March/April 2016 issue features a story on the student ticket...

News

Civil War Essay Contest: Deadline Approaching

Middle and high school students with a passion for the Civil War can flex their writing and research skills by submitting an entry to the Civil War Essay Contest . Students have the opportunity to explore a Civil War topic of their...

Spotlight on: Primary Source

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, 1911

Economics, Foreign Languages, Literature, Religion and Philosophy

On March 25, 1911, a devastating fire started at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Workers had been locked in the factory to discourage theft and prevent labor organization, and they were unable to escape when the fire...

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American Poets, American History

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