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The Hamilton Education Program Online (EduHamOnline) returns to all schools with students in grades 6–12 for the 2021–2022 school year. Completely adaptable for remote or hybrid learning, the program encourages students to use their...
Inside the Vault: Robert F. Kennedy's Report on Civil Rights
At the end of 1962, President John F. Kennedy asked his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, to compile a report on the civil rights enforcement activities of the Justice Department over the previous year. In this report,...
Using Historical Content to Ground Difficult Conversations
A follow-up conversation to a 2021 Teacher Seminar program on Using Historical Content to Ground Difficult Conversations led by 2016 Ohio History Teacher of the Year Justin Emrich and 2020 Illinois History Teacher of the Year Corey...
How Did We Get Here? On Demand: “Race Relations and African American Experiences”
How Did We Get Here? is a professional development series offered by the Gilder Lehrman Institute that provides teachers with ready-made, classroom-friendly resources on topics in American history that are front-and-center in current...
"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...
Summer 2021 Newsletter
The summer of 2021 saw the Gilder Lehrman Institute develop new programs and initiatives, improve and expand others, and continue to build on what has been fundamental to the Institute from its start: promoting the knowledge and...
Hamilton Education Program Online August Newsletter: Back in the Game for 2021-2022
Welcome to the official newsletter for the Hamilton Education Program Online, the program whose goal 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....
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...
Summer 2021 Gilder Lehrman Institute Newsletter
The summer of 2021 saw GLI develop new programs and initiatives, improve and expand others, and continue to build on what has been fundamental to the Institute from its start: promoting the knowledge and understanding of American...
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 on Thursday, September 9: Benedict Arnold the Traitor
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...
What Our 2020 History Teachers of the Year Are Doing Now
On Wednesday, October 6 at 8 p.m. ET, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will present the 2021 National History Teacher of the Year Award to Nataliya Braginsky in a special virtual ceremony. The ceremony also features most of this year...
"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...
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with the Gilder Lehrman Institute
National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15–October 15) celebrates the contributions made by Hispanic and Latino Americans to the history and culture of the United States. The Gilder Lehrman Institute offers the following programs...
Connecticut High School Teacher Nataliya Braginsky Named 2021 National History Teacher of the Year
Award Sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History among Most Prestigious for History Educators NEW YORK, NY (September 15, 2021) --The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced today that Nataliya...
Nataliya Braginsky Named 2021 National History Teacher of the Year
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is delighted to announce that Nataliya Braginsky, a social studies teacher at Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven, Connecticut, has been named the 2021 National History Teacher...
The Declaration of Independence and the Origins of Modern Self-Determination
Ask any American what the opening lines of the US Declaration of Independence of 1776 are and chances are they might reply, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” and then go on to recite its inspiring statements on human equality...
Virtual Event
See Lin-Manuel Miranda present the 2020 National History Teacher of the Year award to Sergio de Alba. This tribute event features moving testimonials from historians, teachers, and students about the profound and lasting influence...
New Zealand's Declaration of Independence
On May 5, 1833, James Busby arrived in New Zealand to take up his appointment as Britain’s Resident in the country. The role of Resident was similar to that of a diplomat—Busby had no powers to enforce British law, raise taxes, or...
Venezuela’s First Declaration of Independence and US Republicanism: Convergences and Divergences
On the eve of the nineteenth century, Venezuela was a rich dominion of the Spanish Empire in South America. Coffee, indigo, and cacao, grown on large plantations and sold to European merchants, connected the rural region to the...
From Colony to Nation: Liberian Independence and Black Self-Government in the Atlantic World
The emergence of the independent republic of Liberia on the coast of West Africa in the mid-nineteenth century was a historically significant turn of events in several ways. Led by a Black American settler class that sought to rule...
Explore the 1960s in MA Course with Georgetown and Ohio Wesleyan University Professors
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and Pace University are pleased to announce that registration for Fall 2021 courses is now open for the Pace–Gilder Lehrman MA in American History. We highlight here one of the five...
The Will to Be Free: On the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” [1] His letter addressed his fellow clergymen amidst the...
Insurgent India: Purna Swaraj as Self-Determination
“At the stroke of midnight, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.” These are the famous words of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, that began his resonant “Tryst with Destiny” speech of August...
From the Editor
It is unlikely that Thomas Jefferson imagined the principles and ideals he laid down in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence would reverberate throughout the world for centuries to come. Yet, from Liberia to India, from New...
EduHam Online September Newsletter: Creating Performance Pieces for the Competition and Lottery
Welcome to the official newsletter for the Hamilton Education Program Online, the program whose goal 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....
Black Lives in the Founding Era: A Self-Paced Course and a 2022 Calendar
The Gilder Lehrman Institute is proud to announce two new offerings as part of our Black Lives in the Founding Era initiative. Black Lives in the Founding Era, a Self-Paced Course In this course, Professor James Basker and a number of...
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Southern Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe)
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) was the most polarizing event in the colonial history of Zimbabwe. Locally, regionally, and internationally, it sharpened differences of opinion with respect to independence, especially...
Traveling Exhibitions | Becoming the United States: Colonial America to Reconstruction
Becoming the US is designed to introduce upper elementary-aged students to the beginnings of American history and the skills involved in primary source analysis. Using items from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, it explores individuals,...
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...
Announcing the Fall 2021 Issue of History Now
The Gilder Lehrman Institute is pleased to announce that the Fall 2021 issue of History Now, The Declaration of Independence and the Origins of Self-Determination in the Modern World, is now available. From Liberia to India, from New...
Inside the Vault on Thursday, October 7: World War II Propaganda with Professor Michael Neiberg
Inside the Vault: Highlights from the Gilder Lehrman Collection is an online program that explores unique primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection. From iconic historical treasures, such as the Declaration of Independence,...
How Did We Get Here?: American Indian Experiences in American History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute is pleased to launch the 2021-2022 How Did We Get Here? professional development series, which provides teachers with ready-made, classroom-friendly resources on topics in American history that are front...
Announcing the Winners of the Ham4Progress Award for Educational Advancement
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has been proud to partner with Hamilton on the Ham4Progress Award for Educational Advancement. Ham4Progress supports college-bound high school students from communities that directly...
Alexander Mikaberidze Wins the Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize
Winner of the Eighth Annual Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History Announced Award Program to Take Place Thursday, November 4, 2021 New York, NY, October 14, 2021 – The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced today...
Travel Reimbursement
TRAVEL EXPENSE REIMBURSEMENT GUIDELINES Each Teacher Seminar participant is eligible to receive a travel expense reimbursement of up to $400.00. If you are traveling internationally or from Alaska or Hawaii you will receive a flat ...
Hamilton Education Program | Frequently Asked Questions
Eligibility How can my school participate in the program? To participate in the program, schools can submit their information here. The Gilder Lehrman Institute will contact eligible schools as tickets to Hamilton are made available...
New York City’s African Burial Ground
Michael L. Blakey is the NEH Professor of Anthropology and American Studies and the director of the Institute for Historical Biology at the College of William and Mary. He is the editor, with Lesley M. Rankin-Hill, of The Skeletal...
Preparing for Your Field Trip
Preparing for Your Field Trip Review these guidelines before booking your field trip to the Gilder Lehrman Collection. Make a reservation: Fill out the form on the Book Your Field Trip page of our website. We will contact you by email...
Rarely Seen Hamilton Letters from the Gilder Lehrman Collection at the Morgan Library
Head over to the Morgan Library & Museum to view Treasures from the Vault, a selection of the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s recently acquired letters by Alexander Hamilton, his family, and friends. The exhibition includes the only...
Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler Marry: December 14, 1780
Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler married on December 14, 1780, at the Schuyler family home in Albany, New York. The romance between Elizabeth and Alexander had moved quickly—within a month of meeting, they decided to marry....
Theodore Roosevelt and the National Park System
As part of the Era of Theodore Roosevelt, a Gilder Lehrman online course, Professor Bruce Schulman of Boston University visited the Gilder Lehrman Collection to view stereo-cards of Theodore Roosevelt. In the video below, Professor...
Washington Writes from Valley Forge: A Museum Mystery
On December 19, 1777, the Continental Army set up its winter encampment at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. The 9,000-strong army was in a desperate state—many soldiers were ill or wounded, and, by Washington's estimation, at least one...
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...
Top 10 Featured Primary Sources of 2017
Your favorite Featured Primary Sources from the old Gilder Lehrman website are now Spotlights on a Primary Source. See them all here. The Top 10 Most-Viewed Spotlights on a Primary Source in 2017 are Herbert Hoover on the Great...
Announcing a Special Funding Opportunity for Public Libraries
Public libraries are invited to apply for Revisiting the Founding Era, a nationwide project that will use historical documents to spark public conversations about the Founding Era’s enduring ideas and themes and how they continue to...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Rosalee Tela-Shoulders and David Alcox
This year, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented...
A Christmas V-Mail from World War II
V-mail, or Victory Mail, was a WWII-era operation to expedite mail service for Americans serving overseas. V-mail was written on standardized stationery, photographed onto 16mm microfilm, transported to the US or other destination,...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Carol Grossi, California
In 2017, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Kevin Martell and Diane Walker
In 2017, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Elizabeth Doughty, Washington
In 2017, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Casey Swift, Wyoming
In 2017, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Richard Ochoa, Utah
In 2017, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers...
Get to Know the 2017 History Teachers of the Year: Margaret Duncan, Georgia
In 2017, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recognized 52 State History Teachers of the Year for their tireless and innovative efforts to make history come alive for their students. But who are they, really? We asked these talented teachers...
Martin Luther King Jr.: Classroom Resources
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. To commemorate King’s work, we are sharing Gilder Lehrman lesson plans, primary sources, videos, and essays on Martin...
Teacher Meghan Thomas’s Gilder Lehrman Experience
Meghan Thomas is the 2016 Illinois History Teacher of the Year and teaches at Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Chicago, Illinois. Last February, she and her students took part in the Hamilton Education Program. Here, she...
“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....
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...
Frederick Douglass at 200
This February marks the 200-year anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s birth. In commemoration, the Gilder Lehrman Institute is featuring the great African American orator and abolitionist throughout the year. Activist for Equality:...
Announcing the 2018 Lincoln Prize Finalists
Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History have announced the finalists for the 2018 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Edward L. Ayers, The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of...
Douglass the Autobiographer
Frederick Douglass published three autobiographies during his lifetime— Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881, 1892)—as...
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GLI Now - Winter 2018 Newsletter
Sara Ziemnik: 2017 National History Teacher of the Year On November 8, Sara Ziemnik was honored as the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s 2017 National History Teacher of the Year at a ceremony in New York City. Pulitzer Prize–winning...
The Lion of All Occasions: The Great Black Abolitionist Frederick Douglass
On February 24, 1844, the Liberator printed an admiring report on Frederick Douglass’s “masterly and impressive” speech in Concord, New Hampshire. The fugitive slave was the master of his audience. Douglass, the writer fantasized, was...
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Douglass, Lincoln, and the Civil War
“Here comes my friend Douglass,” exclaimed President Abraham Lincoln in the East Room of the White House after delivering his Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865. As he grasped the hand of the distinguished abolitionist and...
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Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Institute, 1892: A Little-known Encounter
Featuring a passage from Adele Alexander’s book in progress, A Black Suffragist in the Jim Crow South: Adella Hunt Logan’s Epic Journey Author’s Introduction Most historians consider Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington the...
Frederick Douglass, Orator
Frederick Douglass was a great speaker before he was a great writer. Many African Americans were renowned as orators in the mid nineteenth-century, particularly preachers and anti-slavery lecturers. The most famous names include...
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From the Editor
2018 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of an extraordinary American: Frederick Douglass. Orator and activist, champion of abolition and tireless worker for racial equality, Douglass stands, with Abraham Lincoln, as the conscience...
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2018 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize Recipient Announced
The 2018 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize will be awarded to Edward Ayers for The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America (W.W. Norton and Company). Ayers is President Emeritus of the University of...
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...
Women’s History Month Resources
March is Women’s History Month, a time to commemorate the significant role women played in shaping American history. The Gilder Lehrman Institute has numerous essays, primary sources, lesson plans, videos, and more on American women’s...
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...
Allen C. Guelzo
Dr. Allen C. Guelzo is the Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities and Director of the Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship in the James Madison Program at Princeton University. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln...
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....
Lewis E. Lehrman's Lincoln and Churchill: Statesmen at War
We are pleased to announce the latest publication by Lewis E. Lehrman, the co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, a renowned historian, and a National Humanities Medal winner. Lincoln & Churchill: Statesmen at War, provides a...
Civil War Essay Contest Winners 2018
High School Division Click on the title to read a winning essay. First Prize Lena Cohen, Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, North Carolina “One Hundred Years Later: The Failure of the Civil War Centennial” Second Prize Joseph Wang,...
Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She was formerly the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for...
Patrick Duff
Patrick Duff is currently a partner at the private investment firm of Dunham Partners, LLC, where he has worked for the past twenty-three years. Prior to joining Dunham Partners, he served as senior managing director at Tiger...
S. Andrew Banks
Andrew Banks is the co-founder of Boston-based ABRY Partners, a leading private equity firm focused on the media and communications industry, where he served as chairman from 1989 to 2012. Prior to founding ABRY, Banks was a partner...
John D. Britton II
John D. Britton II was a principal and portfolio manager at Select Equity Group LP. Before joining the firm, he was a portfolio manager and analyst at US Trust Company in New York. Britton also worked for two years as a reporter at...
New from the Gilder Lehrman Collection: Fight the Red Menace
As part of our initiative to expand our twentieth-century holdings, the Gilder Lehrman Institute recently acquired a set of anti-communist trading cards from the 1950s. These cards are a dramatic example of the type of propaganda used...
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