DC Public and Public Charter School Teachers are invited to participate in a five-day learning adventure that will immerse participants in the Civil War history of Washington and the country. By preparing and performing historical speeches, interpreting letters, and "reading" artifacts, images, and places, they will develop teaching techniques that strengthen reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.

Over the course of five mornings, participants will travel to three historic sites in some of Washington's most historic neighborhoods. In the afternoons, they will participate in interpretations of important speeches and letters, and learn tools that lead to rigorous visual and experiential learning. Teachers who attend the seminar also receive free school-year field trips for their students.

Participants who complete the program are eligible to receive free in-class visits from a teaching artist to support implementation of their Civil War Washington learning; a free performance of a History Play at Ford's Theatre; the opportunity to bring students to a History on Foot experience for free; special teacher preview tickets to Ford's Theatre performances and early opportunities to book seats for their students; and special teacher preparation for the Frederick Douglass Oratorical Competition.

From the Newberry Library website:

"[This conference] will support teachers in the development of lessons using images from the National Endowment for the Humanities' Picturing America program.

Conferences will feature presentations by distinguished scholars and sharing of resources in workshop formats. We will use the Newberry Library's collections as well as a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago and a walking tour of Chicago's Loop to model ways for teachers to use local resources in their own communities."

Professors Kenneth Jackson and Karen Markoe explore one of the most exciting and important periods in American history: the quarter century between the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of Theodore Roosevelt's presidency. Lectures focus on the rise of machine politics, the transportation revolution, the development of new social elites, the changing role of women, the literary figures who helped define the age, housing for the rich and poor, and an examination of the city at the center of the Gilded Age, New York.