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Civil War combat foreshadowed modern warfare with the introduction of the machine gun, repeater rifles, and trench warfare, and the use of trains to quickly move troops. However, one of the most celebrated tactical innovations of the...
Author Colin Calloway Wins 2019 George Washington Prize
Author and historian Colin Calloway has won the coveted George Washington Prize, including an award of $50,000, for his new book, The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the...
The United States and the Caribbean, 1877–1920
Between 1877 and 1920, the United States’ relationship with the Caribbean region underwent a profound change, which was closely tied to the transformation of the United States to an industrial and imperial power. Although the Civil...
The Battle over the Bank: Hamilton v. Jefferson
Background After months of battling and compromises, the US Constitution was finally sent to Congress by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787. Through the ratification process and the first decade under the new...
Creating Opportunity: My Fight for Social Justice and Advice for Young Women Today
I never expected to be a leader. It’s hard to imagine now, but I grew up during a time when there were few opportunities for women in the workplace, other than being a man’s secretary. Unlike most of my peers, I was extremely...
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The General Slocum Fire: On This Day, June 15
Today marks 112 years since the sinking of the General Slocum , the worst maritime disaster in New York City history. The General Slocum , named after a Civil War general, Henry Warner Slocum, was built in 1891. On June 15, 1904, St....
The Zimmermann Telegram and American Entry into World War I
The fact that the telegram before him bore Arthur Zimmermann’s name made its contents that much harder for Walter Hines Page to believe. Page was the American ambassador to Great Britain and on a cold London morning in late February...
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Get to Know the 2017 History Scholars: Jacob Bruggeman
Jacob Bruggeman is a 2017 Gilder Lehrman History Scholar . These 15 exceptional college students were in New York City, June 4 – 9, learning from eminent historians and exploring New York City through a historical lens. Here Jacob...
Secotan, an Algonquian village, ca. 1585
In the 1570s and 1580s, John White served as an artist and mapmaker to several expeditions around the Carolinas. White made numerous watercolor sketches depicting the Algonquian people and stunning American landscapes. This engraving...
Learn about the Institute's Work with a Civil Rights Leader and NYC Students
In September 2018, the Gilder Lehrman Institute discovered that the creator of a document at the center of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, was now living in New York. We brought the Reverend C. Herbert Oliver to the...
Students at Affiliate School Stuyvesant High School Win First Place in National History Day Contest
On Thursday, June 13, National History Day (NHD) presented the awards for the national finals of the 2019 National History Day Contest. More than half a million students entered the competition last year, and 3,000 of them advanced...
Historical Context: The First National Census
Early in August 1790, David Howe, an assistant federal marshal, began the difficult task of counting all the people who lived in Hancock County, Maine. One of 650 federal census takers, charged with making "a...perfect enumeration.....
Founding Fathers: Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison
Unit Objective This unit is part of Gilder Lehrman’s series of Common Core State Standards–based units. These units were developed to enable students to understand, summarize, and analyze original texts of historical significance....
The Monroe Doctrine, 1823
President James Monroe’s 1823 annual message to Congress included a warning to European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere. This portion of the address is known as the Monroe Doctrine. The United States...
"i see the rhythm"
Beginning with the roots of Black music in Africa and continuing on to contemporary hip hop, i see the rhythm takes us on a musical journey through time. We are invited to feel the rhythm of work songs on a southern plantation, to...
William T. Sherman on the western railroads, 1878
After Ulysses S. Grant’s election as president, William Tecumseh Sherman, known for leading the "March to the Sea" in the closing months of the Civil War, was appointed commanding general of the United States Army. Headquartered in St...
Fredericksburg, Then and Now
by Elena Colón-Marrero, Christopher Newport University Class of 2014 One would think that growing up in a town rich in colonial and Civil War history would inspire an appreciation for that history. My experience living in...
Gilder Lehrman Institute Honors Ron Chernow, Drew Gilpin Faust, and Bob Niehaus at 25th Anniversary Gala
The Gilder Lehrman Institute held its 25th Anniversary Gala on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. In attendance were 300 friends of the Institute; students and teachers; and the evening’s three...
Native American Housing
Historical Background American Indians (First Nations in Canada) constructed homes to conform to their needs and environment. Housing for some tribal groups was permanent, while other residences reflected the need to relocate, often...
Creating the Air Force, 1924
In this July 1924 letter to aviation pioneer and publisher Lester D. Gardner, Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell prophesied the coming tide of Japanese militarism. Concerned about Japan’s growing military power in the skies,...
Panama Canal proposal, 1881
In his first address to Congress as President in 1869, Ulysses S. Grant called for the construction of a canal connecting the Pacific and Caribbean through the isthmus of Panama. Believing that such a canal would be a great boon to...
The Great Depression and The New Deal
Essential Questions What should be the role of government in solving a national crisis? How effective were the responses of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration to the problems of the Great Depression? Objectives Write a Document...
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award–winning filmmaker, literary scholar,...
Happy Birthday, Henry Knox: On This Day, July 25
Today we say Happy Birthday to Henry Knox, one of the stars of the Gilder Lehrman Collection. Henry grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. When Henry was nine, the family was in serious financial straits. Henry left school to help support...
Children on the Home Front
Overview While American soldiers were fighting abroad, those left at home, including children, contributed to the war effort in many ways. Background Although World War II wasn’t fought on US soil, its effects were deeply felt by all...
From the Editor
During the war for independence, the first major fundraising drive in American history was mounted in Philadelphia. As the two Pennsylvanians who conceived of the drive knew, this effort to raise funds for Washington’s army would...
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Montgomery to the Supreme Court
Overview Students will examine primary source documents and photographs to explain how local events lead to cases being presented before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upholds laws that protect the rights of all people and...
The John Winthrop Fellowship with a Focus on Colonial History
John Winthrop, a descendent of the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s first governor, John Winthrop, whose 1634 letter describing life in Boston is in the Gilder Lehrman Collection, will fund a $100,000 fellowship called The John Winthrop...
Richard Edelman
Richard Edelman is the president and CEO of Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, with 67 offices and 4,800 employees worldwide. Richard was named president and CEO in September 1996. Richard has extensive experience in...
Anti-corporate cartoons, ca. 1900
These cartoons illustrate the growing hostility toward the practices of the big businesses that fueled the industrial development of the United States. In "The Protectors of Our Industries" (1883), railroad magnates Jay Gould and...
September 11, 2001
"9/11" has emerged as shorthand for the four coordinated terrorist attacks on the United States that took place on September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists from the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four...
George Washington and the Newburgh Conspiracy, 1783
In March of 1783, George Washington faced a serious threat to his authority and to the civil government of the new nation. The Continental Army, based in Newburgh, New York, was awaiting word of peace negotiations between Great...
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation Grant Funds Long Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and Greater New York State Gilder Lehrman Affiliate Schools
NEW YORK CITY, January 2021 — The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (GLI) received a grant for a $1 million endowment gift, to be given over four years, from The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. The grant will support...
African American Women in World War II
African American women made meaningful gains in the labor force and US armed forces as a result of the wartime labor shortage during the Second World War, but these advances were sharply circumscribed by racial segregation, which was...
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The Korean War
The Korean War was three different conflicts from the perspective of the disparate groups who fought in it. For North and South Korea, the conflict was a civil war, a struggle with no possible compromise between two competing visions...
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Asian Pacific American Heritage Month: Japanese American Committee for Democracy
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, recognizing the achievements and contributions of Asians and Pacific Islanders to the history and culture of the United States. Senators Daniel K. Inouye and Spark Matsunaga of Hawaii,...
Norwegian Immigration in the Nineteenth Century
Background For most Norwegians in the nineteenth century, America remained a remote and exotic place until the first immigrants began to write home. These "American letters," which traveled from the immigrants back to former neighbors...
His Excellency General Washington
SIR, I Have taken the freedom to address your Excellency in the enclosed poem, and entreat your acceptance, though I am not insensible of its inaccuracies. Your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of...
The Fort Pillow Massacre, 1864
"Among the stories of the stormy days of the Republic, few will longer be remembered than the heroic defense and almost utter annihilation of the garrison of Fort Pillow." —Mack J. Leaming, April 1893 On April 12, 1864, fifteen...
On My Way to War in Iraq
The 1998 US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania were followed by the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole , then of course September 11, 2001. Within two years I was on my way to Iraq. I had met my recruiter six years earlier by...
Shaiza Rizavi
Shaiza Rizavi is a money manager and managing member at Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co., a dual-registered broker-dealer and investment adviser committed to giving individuals who possess long-term patience and fortitude an opportunity...
Civil War Essay Contest Winners 2017
High School Division Click on the title to view a pdf of a winning essay. First Prize Kaylee Kimbrough , Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP Online, Kitanning, Pennsylvania (based in Greenville, Texas) "‘I Shall Deal at the Other Shop’:...
For the Press
Press Releases 2024 Yale and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announce 2024 Frederick Douglass Book Prize finalists Finalists for the 11th Annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize Announced 2024 George Washington...
Guided Readings: Manifest Destiny
Reading 1: Our manifest destiny [is] to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions. John L. O'Sullivan, 1845 Reading 2: Texas has been absorbed into the Union as the...
Eight Inaugural Addresses to Commemorate President’s Day
A president’s inaugural address often reflects the contemporary political, social, and economic climate of the nation. For President’s Day, explore eight presidential inaugural speeches, from George Washington to Barack Obama. How do...
John Brown’s final speech, 1859
On Sunday evening, October 16, 1859, radical abolitionist John Brown led a party of twenty-one men into the town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with the intention of seizing the federal arsenal there. Encountering no resistance, Brown’s...
From the Editor
When the newly elected female members of Congress posed for their pictures in 2018, most chose to stand in front of the portrait of Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm, who served from 1969 to 1983, was not only the first African American...
Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation
Overview In the early twentieth century, President Theodore Roosevelt was a dynamic force in a relatively new movement known as conservationism. During his presidency, Roosevelt made conservation a major part of his administration. As...
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