"My grandfather belonged to Thomas Jefferson"

The Library of Congress has wonderful online resources, and now some of its most compelling digital materials are available on iTunes U, including oral histories, webcasts, films and more.

One of the most fascinating is a collection of oral histories of former slaves, recorded in the 1930s. To hear the voices of men and women for whom slavery was a way of life, not something read about in textbooks and relegated to the past, is both moving and informative.

It won't be lost on listeners that the venerable institution making these remarkable recordings available was founded by slaveholder Thomas Jefferson. A descendant of one of Jefferson's slaves is featured in the collection.

You can subscribe to the Voices of Slavery podcast at the Library of Congress website, or go to iTunes U and search "Library of Congress." History Day students exploring this topic will find these well worth a listen.

Websites We Like: Drawings of the American Civil War Era

From The Scout Report: The Becker College: Drawings of the American Civil War Era - Back in the nineteenth century, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper was the LIFE magazine of its day. Illustrators would work on rendering everything from bucolic rural scenes to maritime settings for various stories and so on. This outstanding digital collection from Boston College contains images from the Becker Collection, which features largely unpublished drawings created for the newspaper. First-time visitors should check out the "About the Collection" area for a bit of background context, and they can go on to look through the "Featured Images" section. The drawings here are amazing, and they include Civil War camp scenes, early warships, life on the frontier, and an amazing rendering of the siege of Charleston. After this, visitors will feel more confident about searching the archive on their own, and they should also check out the detailed artist biographies as well. The site is rounded out by a "Related Resources" area that includes links to the U.S. Military Institute and the Civil War Preservation Trust.

Websites We Like: Hidden Histories of Exploration

From The Scout Report: Hidden Histories of Exploration - Columbus, Hudson, Polo, and Stanley, are all names known far and wide to those who hold an interest in the history of exploration. But how about Juan Tepano, Mohammed Jen Jamain, and Nain Singh? The role of these individuals (and many others) from the annals of world history deserves to be better known, and it is quite appropriate that the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) is the one to tell their tales via this website. The site is meant to complement an exhibition at the RGS that highlights "the role of local inhabitants and intermediaries in the history of exploration." Visitors can learn about these persons and the process of exploration by clicking on the "Exhibition" section. From there, visitors will be guided through a series of narrative essays (such as "Local Knowledge" and "European Dependence"), accompanied by historic photographs, drawings, maps, and diary pages. After taking the online exhibition tour, visitors can click on the "Gallery" section to peruse well-illustrated collections like "French Maritime Expeditions" and an eleven-minute film from 1922 titled "Climbing Mount Everest".

Websites We Like: UW Digital Menus Collection

From The Scout Report: University of Washington Digital Collections: Menus Collection - If you ever wondered what entrees were served onboard the SS Alaska on July 26, 1938, you need wonder no more. This delightful and hunger-inducing collection of menus was created by the staff at the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection project, and it contains over 650 menus from the Puget Sound area, including offerings from such venerable institutions as the Space Needle Restaurant and Ivar's Acres of Clams. Visitors should start things off by watching the short video they have created which offers a quick tour through some menu highlights. After that, browse through the collection by subject, or click one of the thematic collections, such as "Hotel Menus" and "Fifties Menus". Still wondering about those entrees on the good ship SS Alaska? They included Smothered Belgian Hare Southern Style and Coconut Fritters with Custard Sauce.

Websites We Like: The Digital Locke Project

Talk about innovation in history! Here's a great topic in intellectual innovation for History Day...

From The Scout Report: The Digital Locke Project - The influence of John Locke on human thought is hard to overstate, and scholars continue to mine his substantial corpus for insights into the ways that humans interact. This delightful website brings together a scholarly text edition of many of his works. The project is being overseen by Professor Paul Schuurman, and the database here includes multiple drafts of some of Locke's most powerful works, such as the seminal "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding." Visitors can get started by clicking on the "Texts" button to find the text of his works, along with an "About" area that gives some background material on each work. Those persons who might not be familiar with Locke might also appreciate the "About Locke" area of the site.

NHD Online Discussion: Innovation in History - December 2, noon-2pm PST

To participate, go to www.nhd.org, click on "Online Discussion" in the top left of the homepage. This is geared for students and teachers, and you can send questions to info@nhd.org beforehand. A great opportunity to delve into the theme!

Websites We Like: Holocaust Encyclopedia

From The Scout Report: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has some tremendous online resources, and the recent addition of the Holocaust Encyclopedia continues in this tradition. The interactive Encyclopedia includes hundreds of articles that cover topics like the Third Reich, refugees, ghettos, and the liberation of Nazi camps. Each entry contains hypertext links to other entries and relevant resources, including timelines, photo galleries, and primary source documents. Visitors can use the "Browse Articles" to get started, and they should also note that the articles are available in French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, and six other languages. In the "Additional Resources" section, visitors will find a link to "The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students" and a complete "A-Z" list of all the articles.

Norman Borlaug Website Collection

From The Scout Report: In September, Nobel Prize recipient and father of the "Green Revolution" Norman Borlaug passed away. To many in the developing world, his work on creating high-yield crop was viewed as a tremendous blessing, as it stemmed widespread starvation. Others found his legacy to be a bit more mixed. In some ways, his work laid the groundwork for decades of monocrop agriculture, genetically modified food, and exponential growth in the use of pesticides and other fertilizers. Borlaug himself remained skeptical of the rising tide of organic farming, even noting in an interview from 2000, "Don't tell the world that we can feed the present population without chemical fertilizer." Even a cursory glance over the online comments on articles about Borlaug reveal a wide range of opinions about his legacy. Commenting on a recent piece from the Guardian, one reader noted, "He undoubtedly did a lot of good-the green revolution was desperately needed and it delivered." Others remained less than enthusiastic, including a reader's thought, "Against the grain on common sense, common decency, compassion and shared humanity."

The first link will whisk users away to a piece of commentary on Borlaug written by Leo Hickman for this Tuesday's Guardian which provides a number of external links to other timely resources. The second link leads visitors to an obituary on Borlaug, which appeared in this Saturday's Telegraph. The third link leads to Borlaug's official Nobel Prize biography, along with his presentation speech and a photo gallery. The fourth link leads to a compendium of interviews and articles related to Borlaug, compiled by the AgBioWorld organization. Finally, the last link leads to an excellent profile of Borlaug written in 1997 for The Atlantic Monthly by journalist Gregg Easterbrook.
Against the grain on Norman Borlaug
Norman Borlaug Obituary
Norman Borlaug: Biography
Ag BioWorld: Norman Borlaug Articles and Interviews
The Atlantic: Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity

Websites We Like - Who Speaks for the Negro?

From the Scout Report: Who Speaks for the Negro? – In 1965, the writer Robert Penn Warren wrote a thoughtful book titled "Who Speaks for the Negro?" To prepare for the writing of this volume, Warren traveled across the United States to interview dozens of people involved with the civil rights movement, including James Baldwin, Stokely Carmichael, Ralph Ellison, Vernon Jordan, and Malcolm X. This wonderful resource created at Vanderbilt University features some of these conversations, digitized from their original reel-to-reel recordings. Visitors can get started by clicking on the "Listen to Interviews" area. Here they can search the interviews by keyword, or just browse the collection by interviewee or subject. For people looking for insights into American history, the civil rights movements of the 1960s, or the African-American experience, this site is one that will warrant numerous return visits.

Websites We Like - American Experience: We Shall Remain

From The Scout Report: American Experience: We Shall Remain – Whether watching their TV shows on television or on the computer, PBS always provides a worthy presentation. With an extensive collection of PBS programs available online, the number of topics they cover be fully appreciated. The American Experience series titled "We Shall Remain" consists of five episodes "spanning three hundred years [that] tell the story of pivotal moments in U.S. history from the Native American perspective." The "Reel Native" and "Beyond Broadcast" tabs offer Native Americans telling their experiences and also provide activities for teachers. In addition to viewing the full episodes online, visitors to the website can go "Behind the Scenes" by clicking that tab, and can see such features as the "cast and crew", "featured videos", and "photo gallery".
Furthermore, the "Get Involved" part of "Behind the Scenes" informs visitors of "native organizations and tribes, libraries, historical societies, museums, schools and other groups to plan and sponsor activities that promote understanding of local Native history and contemporary life." This area also provides an interactive map that allows a visitor to plot "shoot locations", "tribal colleges", "coalitions", and "native radio stations", by clicking on each corresponding tab.

Websites We Like - British Newspapers, 1800-1900

From the Scout Report: The British Library has done historians a tremendous service by creating this extensive and thoroughly engaging collection of British newspapers from 1800 to 1900. The site contains over two million pages of 19th century newspapers, though it is worth noting that many of them require the payment of a fee. Visitors can browse complete articles from the "Penny Illustrated Paper" and "The Graphic" free of charge, and they should also click on the "Topical Articles" area. This area contains thematic essays on matters such as the Sepoy Mutiny, the Napoleonic Wars, and the abolition of slavery. Each essay also includes access to relevant articles from the newspapers of the day. This area also includes detailed information on how best to use the search engine in order to locate items of interest.

Websites We Like - new additions

Take a look at our "Websites We Like" section sometime. It includes links to sites that we've found useful for History Day--research, teaching, writing, constructing--and we add to it frequently.

Got a website you can't live without? Email us and we'll add it to the list!

Thinking about Innovation

This year's theme, Innovation in History: Impact and Change, can be tough for students to wrap their brains around. This summary of four different perspectives on innovation from NHD Curriculum Director Ann Claunch is a good launching point for classroom discussion:

 

The litmus test of a good NHD theme is the complex thinking it inspires in our students. This year's theme "Innovation in History: Impact and Change" has offered many opportunities for evocative conversations. A great start for a new theme!

 

In answering emails and posting H-History Day questions/responses, I found the following four exemplars especially helpful when planning classroom presentations or teacher workshops. Each response poses an important question in negotiating the theme that we want our students to ask.

 

Please remember-students will approach the theme in many different ways. The important aspect of topic selection is in the articulation of the connection to the theme.

 

The conversation continues…

 

Ann

 

 

 

How does "time and place" influence innovation?

 

The NHD in Minnesota staff recently sat down to ponder the "Innovation" questions passing over H-Net as we prepare for our own workshops and classroom visits. A new idea entered our conversation that I thought was worth sharing.

 

As we all know, context is such a large part of historical understanding. It was no surprise then that much of our "theme" discussion in brainstorming topics focused on ways students might use different contextual angles to argue innovation. The student intern attending our meeting asked if she could look at Paul Wellstone and his grassroots campaign strategies. While grassroots campaigning was not a new idea, it was certainly unique for his time and place. Despite the access to mass communication tools being used widely by his peers, Wellstone became known for taking politics back to the people. In thinking back to questions posed here about originality being required for innovation, we wondered if students might be able to use the concept of "innovative for the time and place" in supporting their central argument.

 

Naomi Peuse

NHD in Minnesota

 

 

What is the historical significance of the innovation?

 

I've been struggling with the idea that there may be a subtle distinction between something that is "new" and something that would qualify as an "innovation" - historically speaking. To me, it seems like what makes something innovative is not just that it is new, but that it takes root in some way (leading to historical significance). To innovate in my dictionary is to "introduce something new; make changes in anything established" – the latter piece of the definition offers the more interesting aspect of historical thinking about innovation in my mind.

 

The same entry suggests that innovation can sometimes be "to introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time" - which might suggest that an idea unearthed after being long buried, or used in some new way, may still be innovative in some way, even though there is a historical context or prior precedent which good student historians will reference.

Regardless, it seems it should be up to the student to argue why they think it's innovative and provide evidence for what was new about it, like every other theme. Then again, I may be a sucker for a kid who has challenged themselves intellectually and historically by taking a more complex historical thinking path with a topic that may not provide the most obvious slam dunk on theme connection.

 

Crystal Johnson

Chicago Metro History Education Center

 

 

How do innovative ideas evolve over time?

 

I've been watching this with interest. My concern about introducing ideas like civil rights is that often students' natural inclinations lead them to events or individuals. That isn't the focus here. This theme is about tracing ideas, methods, and inventions. As a judge for many years, I can say this is where students falter. The innovation has to be clearly delineated, and not just another nice project on the Central High Crisis which has not been connected to the theme.

 

The Civil Rights Movement was not an innovation in 1965 -- it was being more broadly applied, but it was not an innovation as much as the Constitution was.

 

If a student wants to trace nonviolent protest as an innovation, it is involved. The origins are not in the 1960s, but with Christianity (turn the other cheek & the martyrs), Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, and then Gandhi. American Civil Rights should only be the tail end of such a discussion.

 

You would be better off tracing the evolution of the sit-in -- where does it originate? How does it evolve?

 

Julie E. Harris, Ph.D., Arkansas History Day State Advisory Board

 

 

What is the difference between invention and innovation?

 

The crucial difference is that between the relatively discrete creative act that invention represents and the far longer process of innovation where introduction is the key word in the definition, convincing a public to change its material or intellectual habits and replace old behaviors with new ones.

 

Within that process, invention is only the first step. Given the traditional emphasis in education and popular culture about inventors, it is not easy but very rewarding to explain it as part of a bigger system of material or intellectual change. Last winter we conducted a field trip program for some local sixth-grade classes, "Video, Vision, and Innovation." After an engineer reviewed and demonstrated the science and perception of video, I switched to the problem of making a nose-picking machine that people would buy. When they weren't laughing, the kids were astonished at the steps that go into taking an idea to a lab demo (conception and invention) to a factory prototype, test market, and mass market acceptance. Their teachers said it was the best field trip on issue of invention and innovation they'd seen in 20 years.

 

The NHD selection of the theme of innovation cheered me immensely, as it suggested that the concept is gaining currency beyond the business and investment communities. I cannot imagine a more useful way to introduce school children to the fact that the act of creation, of making something new, is only the first step in a long, twisted, and contingent path to historical change in materials and culture, one that involves a wide range of people. Because the innovation process is more inclusive in the array of participants—from inventors, scientists, artists to producers, entrepreneurs, marketers, publishers; to consumers, users, and citizens—it can attract far more engagement by students who have no interest in engineering or invention.

 

Moreover, as the definition above indicates, innovation applies to the innovation of ideas: the divine right of kings or civil and human rights or scientific theories of heliocentrism or evolution or quantum theory.

All of these were new when their proponents initiated movements in their favor. That the diffusion and acceptance of the concept of civil rights may date nearly 200 years and hasn't concluded yet is no reason to deny it as an innovation. It took 140 years for facsimile technology took for commercial success and several hundred years for the stirrup's diffusion in western Europe. We might agree that Darwin and Wallace's innovation of the theory of evolution by natural selection still has not succeeded among the general population of the U.S.

 

I regard the theme and subject of innovation is a wonderful one precisely it is inclusive, provocative, and yes, new. I hope we can all agree on a more robust definition, one that extends beyond hardware to methods and ideas, as I would hate to point the 300 New Jersey students that I will speak to in the wrong direction.

 

Alexander B. Magoun Ph.D.

Curator and Executive Director, David Sarnoff Library

Welcome to the new History Day blog!

Whether you've come from Facebook, Twitter--or were redirected from our old blog, welcome to the new (and we hope improved) blog from Washington History Day.

We'll post upcoming History Day events, plus maintain a list of cool websites for research and teaching, too. And, of course, we'll post photos from contests and the national trip here as well.

Want to see something else here? Let us know--we want your feedback.