Gilder Lehrman Institute History Schools Program Transformation

FAIN: CZ-50229-10

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (New York, NY 10036-5900)
Lesley S. Herrmann (Project Director: February 2009 to October 2014)

Endowment, bridging funds, and direct support to fund a transformation of the Gilder Lehrman's History Schools Program.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History seeks a $1,000,000 We the People Challenge Grant from the NEH to fund a transformation of its History Schools Program. This grant, along with the $3,000,000 nonfederal match, would allow the Institute to expand its network of schools, fostering student understanding of the nation's founding principles, including representative government, separation of powers, individual freedoms, and equality of opportunity. K-12 students and teachers nationwide will enjoy unprecedented access to educational materials and resources created with the Gilder Lehrman Collection, an archive of more than 60,000 documents spanning the nation's history. Using these materials to study the evolution of the founding principles in critical periods of American history, students will come to understand that the nation's development was neither pre-ordained nor uncontested, but the product of debate, conflict, and upheaval.