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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Spring 2024 Registration Is Open

K-12 educators can earn their graduate degree in this affordable, online, accredited program. It's easy to apply and become an enrolled student.

Upcoming Spring Semester Dates

Applications End: Thursday, January 25, 2024

Courses Start: Thursday, February 8, 2024

Course Registration Ends: Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Begin the application process now to join us this spring!

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

Online Options: 10 Teacher Seminars

In-person Options: 12 options in 7 locations across 5 states

Historical Holiday Resources

Explore the history of Thanksgiving, from its origins through its evolution into a recognized federal holiday with essays, videos, lesson plans, and more.

Warfare in Early America

Join Professor Timothy Shannon of Gettysburg College to explore the evolution of warfare in North America from the earliest contact between Native Americans and Europeans through the early nineteenth century.

Regular Price: $39.99

Affiliate Price: $29.99

Competition and Lottery Now Open

The Hamilton Education Program Online is a free program that helps students in grades 6-12 see the relevance of the founding era by using primary sources to create a performance piece following the model used by Lin-Manuel Miranda to create the musical Hamilton.

Students in the program will have the chance to submit their performance piece and be selected to see a performance of Hamilton in New York City.

Congratulations, Bruce Henderson

Bruce Henderson has been awarded the Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize for Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II. An event celebrating the winner and the shortlisted authors will take place on Monday, December 4. Attend in person or via the livestream.

Issue No. 68: "The Role of Spain in the American Revolution" (Fall 2023)

Explore the often-neglected story of Spain's crucial role in the American Revolutionary War with six essays by historians and additional Gilder Lehrman resources.

Learn with the Gilder Lehrman Institute

MA in American History

Our master's degree program gives K-12 educators an affordable way to earn a graduate degree while working full time.

Self-Paced Courses

Explore American history from your own home, in your own time, and at your own pace! Educators can obtain professional development credit.

History U

These self-paced courses in American history are taught by the nation's top historians and are completely free for high school students.

Upcoming Events

NYC-area students and teachers: Join us at Trinity School for a special book talk on Frederick Douglass.

Join us to honor the winner of the 2022 Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize, Bruce Henderson.

Q&A session for prospective students to learn about the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman master's degree program

Upcoming Deadlines

Affiliate Schools, libraries, and other sites can host this exhibition for free in January and February.

Enter your EduHam Online creative piece for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to NYC to see a performance of Hamilton.

Publishers, agents, critics, and authors may submit or nominate books published in 2023.

Book Breaks

Every Sunday at 2:00 pm ET (11:00 am PT) on Zoom

Join us for our weekly interview series in which historians discuss their acclaimed books followed by a Q&A with the at-home audience. A Book Breaks subscription includes access to the weekly live programs and our ever-expanding archive, featuring 150+ episodes.

Book Breaks is completely free for all students, K-12 educators, and college professors. Others can purchase a one-year subscription for $25.

Log In Subscribe

Upcoming Episodes

Stacy Schiff

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

Theresa Runstedtler, American University

Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation that Saved the Soul of the NBA

Mark Whitaker

Saying It Loud: 1966-The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement

Our Historical Documents

In 1991, Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman embarked on a mission to create one of the most important repositories of historical American documents in the country. Today, the Gilder Lehrman Collection contains 85,000+ items documenting the political, social, and economic history of the United States.

History Now

The Online Journal of the Gilder Lehrman Institute

History Now features essays by the nation's leading historians and provides the latest in American history scholarship for teachers, students, and general readers.

History Now is completely free for all K-12 students and teachers. Others can purchase a one-year subscription for $25.

Log In Subscribe

"Their Full Measure"

Veterans Legacy Program: Online Exhibition

Gilder Lehrman is proud to announce the launch of this new online exhibition introducing viewers to nineteen men and women who served during six conflicts in American history.

News

Our News

Stay up to date with all the work that we do to combat historical illiteracy and invigorate the study of the past.
See Our News

Newsletter

Catch up on the highlights from our work with students, teachers, researchers, and the general public.
Read Newsletter

Press Releases

See all official press releases for our important events, significant programs, and special initiatives.
View Press Releases

NYC-area students and teachers: Join us at Trinity School for a special book talk on Frederick Douglass.

Join us to honor the winner of the 2022 Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize, Bruce Henderson.

Q&A session for prospective students to learn about the Gettysburg College-Gilder Lehrman master's degree program

Affiliate Schools, libraries, and other sites can host this exhibition for free in January and February.

Enter your EduHam Online creative piece for a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to NYC to see a performance of Hamilton.

Publishers, agents, critics, and authors may submit or nominate books published in 2023.

Stacy Schiff

The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams

Theresa Runstedtler, American University

Black Ball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation that Saved the Soul of the NBA

Mark Whitaker

Saying It Loud: 1966-The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement

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Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |

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Like Maps?? An Atlas of US History

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American Panorama is created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers serve as editors. Justin Madron manages the project's spatial data. Nathaniel Ayers leads the design work. Scott Nesbit served as associate editor until 2017.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the University of Richmond have generously provided funding for American Panorama. Stamen Design developed the software for this project.

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American Panorama is created by the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. Robert K. Nelson and Edward L. Ayers serve as editors. Justin Madron manages the project's spatial data. Nathaniel Ayers leads the design work. Scott Nesbit served as associate editor until 2017. The Andrew W.

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Discover 21,455,123 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States

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DPLA provides free digital access to banned books

DPLA has launched The Banned Book Club to ensure that all readers have access to the books they want to read. The Banned Book Club makes e-book versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned via the free Palace e-reader app.

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The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

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Smithsonian - National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Smithsonian - National Museum of African American History and Culture

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A People’s Journey, A Nation’s Story | National Museum of African American History and Culture

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So much good stuff!!

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The world’s largest library. View historic photos, maps, books and more. Contact experts for help with research. Plan a visit. Home of U.S. Copyright Office.

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American Social History Project Center for Media and Learning - CUNY

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Presentations from recent NEH Summer Institutes on the Visual Culture of the American Civil War. These lectures show how visual evidence illuminates key issues, developments, and events in U.S. history and model instructional methods for analyzing archival visual materials.

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Collections of Art that tell the American story

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Primary Source material for American History--including military and founding documents.

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Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States.

Fast Facts

It took Thomas Jefferson 17 days to write the Declaration of Independence.

On July 2, 1776, Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain.

On July 4, 1776, Congress voted to accept the Declaration of Independence, marking July 4 as Independence Day.

To learn more, you may want to:

U.S. Constitution
The foundation of the American government, its purpose, form, and structure, are in the Constitution of the United States. The Constitutional Convention adopted the Constitution on September 17, 1787.

The Bill of Rights is the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. It guarantees greater constitutional protection for individual liberties and lists specific prohibitions on government power. There are 27 Constitutional Amendments in all. The 27th Amendment, which was originally proposed in 1789, was not ratified until 1992.

Where to View the Constitution

You can view the original, parchment copy of the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. You can also view an online copy of the U.S. Constitution or order a printed copy of the Constitution.

The U.S. National Anthem
The Star-Spangled Banner is the national anthem of the United States. To celebrate a victory over British forces during the War of 1812, U.S. soldiers raised a large American flag at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 14, 1814. Inspired by those events, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem called "Defence of Fort M'Henry," which eventually became the Star Spangled Banner and the United States national anthem.

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U.S. History and Historical Documents | USAGov

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Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. It took Thomas Jefferson 17 days to write the Declaration of Independence. On July 2, 1776, Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain.

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Like Flow charts? This looks at History through Flow charts. Very complete with World History included from Prehistory to 2000. Smaller section dedicated to 19th c. American History.

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Readings & Flowcharts - The Flow of History

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A Dynamic and Graphic Approach to Teaching History

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Timelines EXTRAORDINAIRE for people, events, with great links to other information.

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World History Online navigates through 3 000 years of world history, world timelines of civilizations (plus maps), people and world events.

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History Resource Guides - Lots of GREAT links here to start from!

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LibGuides: History / International Relations Research Guide: Home

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LibGuides: History / International Relations Research Guide: Home

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Lots and lots of relevant Primary Source documents.

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Request military records and learn about other services for yourself or a family member.