Lessons of Liberty

FAIN: CH-50240-06

Unaffiliated independent scholar
R. Eli Paul (Project Director: November 2004 to July 2011)

Endowment for an historian/education director, for educational programming, and for related acquisitions.

The NEH Challenge Grant will support an educational endowment that will provide the resources necessary to sustain and enhance the "Lessons of Liberty" educational project. The endowment will: (1) ensure the retention of a full-time historian/education director; (2) sustain the momentum of newly developed educational programs and improve existing classroom curriculum on an ongoing basis (in order to adapt to changing classroom educator needs and to remain current with events unfolding in the world); and (3) provide for museum acquisitions that help power future educational programming, as well as meet current research and exhibition needs. The educational programming to be provided by Lessons of Liberty benefit the humanities most by making connections between the World War I era (a key turning point in history) and the present. In the wake of the events surrounding Operation Iraqi Freedom (and even as events continue to unfold daily in the Middle East and the Balkans), the lessons learned from World War I and the insights to be gained from studying this period resonate with the American public. The timeline for current events begins at the Liberty Memorial, which is emerging as a platform for a national forum through which people are making vital connections that inform their decisions and shape their opinions. In this role, the Liberty Memorial will make significant contributions in the humanities in the future.