From the National Humanities Center website:

"In a speech that lasted barely three minutes but that has since become a touchstone of American democracy, Abraham Lincoln spoke at the site of a decisive battle in which nearly 8,000 Confederate and Union soldiers had been killed and more than 30,000 wounded. Why has the 'Gettysburg Address' achieved almost scriptural status for American culture? What, in Lincoln's view, was at stake in the battle and the larger war for which it proved to be the turning point? How can we account for the majesty and precision of Lincoln's language? We will discuss these and other questions through a close reading of the speech and consideration of the context in which Lincoln delivered it."

From the National Humanities Center website:

"In the first two centuries after 1492, most colonies in the New World failed. This workshop explores why. We will read accounts of failures and successes and discuss what happened. How much did colonizers' expectations have to do with success or failure? Were the desires and power of local Indians the most important factors? How large a role did weather and climate play? Was luck the deciding factor? Should we be surprised that any succeeded?"

From the National Humanities Center website:

"As Americans in the eighteenth century became wealthier, they developed a taste for such consumer goods as silver tea pots, fine cloth, and expensive furniture. This workshop will explore what they bought, why they bought it, how these purchases changed their image of themselves, and finally, how they led to the American Revolution."

From the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration website:

"Learn about key American photographers and photographic processes and styles, as well as how photography from 1839 to the present day relates to American history. Receive digital images, image guides, and other materials to make connections between photography's history and levels of language arts, science, social studies, and visual art."

Program provided by the Amon Carter Museum.

From the Chicago History Museum website:

"Discover how to incorporate public art into your history instruction. Join James Percoco on a visual journey to see Abraham Lincoln monuments across the country. Percoco compares their meanings when they were unveiled with how we respond to them now, as well as shares tips for analyzing public art with students. See the exhibition 'Abraham Lincoln Transformed' and investigate the Lincoln monument behind the Museum. Fee includes a copy of Percoco's Summers with Lincoln, breakfast refreshments, and classroom resource materials."

From the Chicago History Museum website:

"Tour the Museum's two new exhibitions, 'Abraham Lincoln Transformed' and 'Benito Juárez and the Making of Modern Mexico.' Meet the curators, plan your field trip, and receive classroom resource materials. Enjoy light refreshments and raffle drawings."

From the Newberry Library website:

"This course approaches poetry as a force that shapes ideas of citizenship and cultural identity. We will examine the form and content of familiar and less familiar poems from the period of the American Revolution to the present, including works by Longfellow, Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Adrienne Rich, and Joy Harjo."

From the Newberry Library website:

"One of the most remarkable debates in history took place in 1787-1788, when American essayists debated the merits of the Constitution drafted in Philadelphia. We will discuss several of the renowned Federalist Papers that supported the Constitution, along with essays of anti-Federalists, whose criticisms helped shape how the Constitution was ultimately implemented and interpreted."

From the Newberry Library website:

"Many researchers mistakenly believe that the Great Fire of 1871 destroyed all record of early Chicago. This seminar belies that common misconception by introducing participants to the wide variety of rich resources available for exploring pre-fire Chicago. Using a thematic approach, we will explore maps, city directories, railroad guides, newspapers, diaries, church records, sheet music, and much more. We will also discuss relevant holdings at local institutions and search strategies for further research."

From the Newberry Library website:

"This course will explore the social history of Chicago in the years between the Great Fire of 1871 and the modern Civil Rights Movement. Our core texts will be works of historical fiction, including selections from Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, and Richard Wright's Native Son. Using these as windows into the city's vibrant past, we will investigate the changing texture of everyday life amidst vast social, political, and economic change."