Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Leads Summer Teacher Institute for
Elementary & Middle School Teachers
The prestigious Gilder Lehrman Institute partnered with the TAH grant on June 22-24 to provide fifth and eighth grade participating teachers with a three-day workshop on Perspectives on the Civil War.
Dr. Stephanie McCurry, professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, along with master teacher John Gentile, shared content and pedagogy concerning race and gender in the Union and the Confederacy.
Through a mixture of discussion, lecture and modeling of best practices in primary source document analysis, the training helped teachers think about the social and political conflict that our country faced during this period of our history and guided them in methods of sharing these differing perspectives with their students.
On day four of the institute, teachers met at the Kentucky Historical Society and hear from Professor J. Michael Rhyne, professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, Kent Masterson Brown, noted Lexington attorney and authority on the Civil War in Kentucky, and Paul Simpson, master teacher from Grant County Middle School. The focus of these content and pedagogy sessions was on the Civil War in Kentucky and the unique border state perspectives shared by the people of our state.
The culminating event of the five-day training was a field trip led by Kent Masterson Brown to the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site which was the South’s last attempt at bringing Kentucky into the Confederacy. Teachers left this exciting institute with a wealth of knowledge and experiences along with many resources which will enhance their ability to bring these differing perspectives to light for their students.
Note: This calendar is the TAH Working Calendar which is distinct from the calendar on the left of this page.
The Working Calendar is subject to changes in times, dates, and locations.
Remember to view event titles closely - all schools / participants are divided into different networking groups.
Hit the "Ctrl" key & the "F5" key simultaneously each time you access the calendar site to update itself with the latest information.
Click on the title above to access the TAH Working Calendar.
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Click on photo below
for Slide show from Heritage Elementary
First Ladies of America
Mamie Eisenhower
Born: Nov. 14, 1896
Died: Nov. 1, 1979
First Lady from 1953 to 1961.
At the age of nineteen, Mamie met second Lieutenant Dwight Eisenhower, at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. They were marreid on July 1, 1916. The Eisenhower's had two children, Dwight, born in 1917, however died of scarlet fever in 1921, and John Sheldon, who was born in 1922. During WW II, Ike advanced to one of the country's only five star general, and a national war hero. Upon his election to the Presidency, Mamie was an attentive and gracious hostess.
Jacqueline Kennedy
Born: July 28, 1929
Died: May 19, 1994
First Lady from 1961- 1963
Soon after their marriage in 1953, John Kennedy was in bed for eight months, recovering from a spinal fusion operation. During this time, Jackie was busy researching information for his book "Profiles in Courage."
During his presidency, Jackie was innovative as mistress, holding stylish receptions, gathering renowned persons from the arts, and holding evening parties at Mt. Vernon. She also restored the White House State Rooms to a historic quality.
Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson
Born: Dec. 1912
Died: July 11, 2007
First Lady 1963-1969
At the age of twenty-one she had graduated from the University of Texas, in Austin. It was here that she met Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson was working as secretary to a Texas Congressman, and had returned to Washington. From Washington he constantly wrote and telephoned Lady Bird. One day, unexpected, he arrived at the Taylor home and convinced Lady Bird to marry him.
Of the First Ladies who moved into the White House following an assassination, Lady Bird was the first to have so closely witnessed it. In Dallas, after the assassination she had the impossible job of assisting Jackie in her state of shock, and her own grief and fears.
Lady Bird's years in the White House were not very glorious. However, it has been said that she was the first President's wife to have been equally competent in politics and business
Pat Nixon
Born: March 16, 1912
Died: June 22, 1993
First Lady from 1969 to 1974
Thelma ("Pat") Catherine Ryan was born in Ely, Nevada, but was raised on a farm outside of Los Angeles, California.
After college graduation she accepted a teaching job at Whittier High School, near Los Angeles. At Whittier High School through a theatrical group, she met Richard Nixon, a young lawyer. Pat and Richard became engaged and were married on June 21, 1940, in Riverside, California.
Throughout Richard's long political career, Pat was always very supportive, leaving her career behind to help her husband with his.
Pat very much enjoyed being the First Lady. Upon entering the White House, Pat redecorated it in European style, replacing the classical restorations of Jackie Kennedy.
High School Teachers Experience the Civil Rights Movement
The Civil Rights Movement is a key component of the high school curriculum and experiencing many of the sites first hand will be invaluable to those who made the trip. Beginning in Atlanta, teachers visited the King Center to see the museum, visit his grave, and birth place. The next stop was in Tuskegee, AL where teachers visited Tuskegee College, Booker T. Washington’s Home, and the George Washington Carver Museum. After leaving Tuskegee, teachers travelled to Montgomery where they saw the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the state capitol building, and the Rosa Parks Museum. While in the Montgomery area, teachers took a day trip to Selma and visited Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church where the Selma to Montgomery march began. A local guide, who participated in the movement, lead the group across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and described Bloody Sunday when police officers attacked protesters trying to march.
After leaving Montgomery the group traveled to Birmingham, Alabama. Teachers walked through Kelly Ingram Park, the heart of the Civil Rights District. Many events took place in Kelly Ingram Park made famous by the photographs of police dogs and fire hoses turned on marchers who gathered for civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s.
The group also saw the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham's famous civil rights landmark, bombed by Klansmen in 1963 killing four little girls. Teachers visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a museum dedicated the Birmingham’s’ role in the movement.
The last stop on the trip was Memphis, TN. A local guide gave us a bus tour of the city explaining many of the city’s important civil rights locations. The highlight of the trip was theNational Civil Rights Museum, located at the Lorraine Motel, the assassination site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visitors get to see Dr. King’s room, see the balcony, and visit the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed. The museum chronicles key episodes of the American civil rights movement and helps inspire participation in civil and human rights efforts globally. Teachers followed up the trip with a two day institute at OVEC with Dr. Gerald Smith, who teachers about the Civil Rights movement at the University of Kentucky.
Which of the following was a characteristic ofthe Nez Perce?
A. war like
B. overbearing
C. lacking spiritualism D. patient
E. farmers
July 2nd: Amelia Earhart's plane was lost over the Pacific Ocean. (1937)
July 4th: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die on this the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (1826)
July 10th: Wyoming entered the Union as the 44th State. (1890)
July 12th: Congress authorizes the Medal of Homor. (1862)
July 14th: William H. Bonney, "Billy the Kid" was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett. (1881)
July 16th: The first parking meteres were installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (1935)
July 17th: Disneyland was open in Anaheim, California. (1955)
July 20th: Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull, a fugitive sine the Battle of Little Big Horn, surrenders to federal authorities. (1881)
July 24th: Brigham Young and his followers arrive at Salt Lake, Utah. (1847)
See this month's historical calendar for more important dates in American History.
Letters to President Obama
Read these seven letters to the President from 5th Graders from Becky Brown's class
at Spencer County Elementary School. Note: Letters are in PDF format in one file.
Click here to view them.
Famous Kentuckians in American History:
John Marshall Harlan
Harlan was born into a prominent Kentucky slaveholding family, his father a well-known Kentucky politician and former Congressman. Harlan graduated from Centre College.
Harlan firmly supported slavery but fought to preserve the Union. He had said he would resign if President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, but in fact did not leave the army until the death of his father, several months later, to care for his family.
He resumed his career and was elected Attorney General of Kentucky in 1863. Harlan joined the Republican party in 1868 and remained a Republican for the rest of his life, and, befitting his new party, he turned strongly against slavery, calling it "the most perfect despotism that ever existed on this earth." He ran for governor in 1871 and 1875, losing both times.
He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1877 by PresidentRutherford B. Hayes, whom he had helped win the 1876 Republican party presidential nomination.
As the Court moved away from interpreting the Reconstruction Amendments to protect African Americans, Harlan wrote several eloquent dissents in support of equal rights for African Americans and racial equality.
In the Civil Rights Cases (1883), the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, holding that the act exceeded Congressional powers. Harlan alone dissented, vigorously, charging that the majority had subverted the Reconstruction Amendments: "The substance and spirit of the recent amendments of the constitution have been sacrificed by a subtle and ingenious verbal criticism."
At the same time, however, Harlan did not embrace the idea of full social racial equality. For example, in his Plessy dissent, Harlan wrote that
[t]he white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is, in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time, if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty.
Harlan also exhibited antipathy toward other races, such as Chinese. For example, in 1898 Harlan joined Chief Justice Fuller's dissent in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, in which they objected to the Court's holding that persons of Chinese descent born in the United States were citizens by birth. In the dissent, Fuller and Harlan denounced
the presence within our territory of large numbers of Chinese laborers, of a distinct race and religion, remaining strangers in the land, residing apart by themselves, tenaciously adhering to the customs and usage of their own country, unfamiliar with our institutions and religion, and apparently incapable of assimilating with our people.
1896, the Supreme Court handed down one of the most infamous decisions in U.S. history, Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which established the doctrine of "separate but equal" as it legitimized both Southern and Northern segregation practices.
Alone in dissent, Harlan argued that the Louisiana law at issue, which forced separation of white and black passengers on railway cars, was a "badge of servitude"[2] that degraded African-Americans, and correctly predicted that the Court's ruling would become as infamous as its ruling in the Dred Scott case.
Harlan died on October 14, 1911, after 33 years with the Supreme Court, one of the longest tenures in history. Many people who knew him regard Harlan as one of the most important, controversial, and visionary Supreme Court Justices in U.S. History.
