Students explore American history as they research and portray famous Americans as part of this interactive videoconference. Each participating class will give three 60-second presentations about three different famous Americans. Snapshots should include pertinent facts about the famous American—and the student representing the famous American should be dressed like the person they are portraying. After the presentations, there will be a five-minute "reflection period" where teachers can facilitate classroom discussion and students can deduce which famous Americans were being portrayed.

Students explore American history as they research and portray famous Americans as part of this interactive videoconference. Each participating class will give three 60-second presentations about three different famous Americans. Snapshots should include pertinent facts about the famous American—and the student representing the famous American should be dressed like the person they are portraying. After the presentations, there will be a five-minute "reflection period" where teachers can facilitate classroom discussion and students can deduce which famous Americans were being portrayed.

Participants in this workshop will learn about the 1890s immigration experience on the Near West Side of Chicago through compelling historical fiction narratives and visits to Hull-House and the Taylor Street and Prairie Avenue neighborhoods. Based on the Museum's collection, these stories form the core of the Great Chicago Stories website, an award-winning educational resource.

Participants in this workshop will learn about Chicago's meatpacking history and the legacy of the Maxwell Street Market through compelling historical fiction narratives and by visiting the site of the Union Stock Yard, learning about the Back of the Yards neighborhood, and seeing the original location of the Maxwell Street Market. Based on the Museum's collection, these stories form the core of the Great Chicago Stories website, an award-winning educational resource.

Participants in this workshop will learn about the 1890s immigration experience on the Near West Side of Chicago through compelling historical fiction narratives. Based on the Museum's collection, these stories form the core of the Great Chicago Stories website, an award-winning educational resource.

Participants in this workshop will learn about Chicago's meatpacking history and the legacy of the Maxwell Street Market through compelling historical fiction narratives. Based on the Museum's collection, these stories form the core of the Great Chicago Stories website, an award-winning educational resource.

Participants in this workshop will learn about Chicago's meatpacking history and the legacy of the Maxwell Street Market through compelling historical fiction narratives. Based on the Museum's collection, these stories form the core of the Great Chicago Stories website, an award-winning educational resource.

From 1919 to 1929, Langston Hughes noted, "Harlem was in vogue." Black painters and sculptors joined writers and musicians in an artistic outpouring that established Harlem as the international capital of African American culture. Participants will study the evolution of the Harlem Renaissance through the music of Duke Ellington and Ethel Waters, the art of painter Archibald Motley and sculptor Augusta Savage, and the literary works of Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jean Toomer, among others.

The plays of Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, Clifford Odets, and Arthur Miller defined American theater. In a lecture and discussion-based seminar the works of these playwrights will be examined, concentrating on theme, structure, and social impact. The plays will give insight into the issues confronting what it meant to be an American during the first half of the 20th century, as well as understanding what makes American theater so powerful.