Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections chief Mark Dimunation discusses a recently-completed project to reconstruct Thomas Jefferson's library—the library sold to the U.S. government to form the foundation of the Library of Congress. He deals with the history of the original collection, and what the collection reveals about Thomas Jefferson. The presentation includes slides.
The lecture audio can be downloaded separately.
NAACP chairman Julian Bond reviews his experiences as an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, including helping found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also talks about the continuing need for social action today, both combating racism and other social issues.
An mp3 version of the lecture audio can be downloaded.
Professor David Wilson introduces the life and times of Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1826-1868), an Irish-Canadian journalist, poet, politician, and critic of Irish republicanism. McGee lived in the United States from 1842 to 1845 and from 1848 to 1857.
A panel discusses the documentary television series American Experience: Eyes on the Prize, which uses contemporary interviews and historical footage to follow the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1985, following a preview screening. The discussion focuses on the creation of the series and what its creators hoped to achieve.
An mp3 of the discussion audio is available for download.
As part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Jill Ker Conway discusses the work of maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison (18871976); Megan Marshall discusses Christian author and first female entrant to the Athenaeum, Hannah Adams (17551831); and Philip McFarland discusses historian Francis Parkman (18231893).
Mount Auburn Cemetery president William Clendaniel reviews the 175-year history of Boston's Mount Auburn Cemetery, the nation's first landscaped cemetery and a National Historic Landmark. This lecture includes visual aids.
The lecture's audio may be downloaded as an mp3.
Father-and-son writers Steven and Paul Kendrick discuss the legal establishment of segregation (the concept of "separate but equal"), tracing it back to 1847. In that year, an African-American man sued the city of Boston, wanting his daughter to be able to attend a school closer to her home than the nearest all-black school. He was eventually defeated.
This Electronic Field Trip uses the history of early baseball as a window into American life in the 19th century. Watchers journey back in time to discover a young land as its enterprising soul comes of age in the villages and towns of 19th-century America and follow the exploration of a western frontier after an anguishing Civil War to see how natives and naturalized citizens forge a familiar pastime while learning each other's customs and cultures.
According to the Apple Learning Interchange site, "The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Park Service present a sobering visit to the Manzanar War Relocation Center. This National Historic Site provides a compelling classroom to relive the experience of Japanese Americans held captive during World War II, as well as the plight of countless nationalities who face discrimination and intolerance still today. This is a tale of the indomitable Issei and Nisei generations. Watchers can learn through the emotional memories of survivors, and the invincible cheers of detainees at baseball games that still echo across the desert valley.
From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:
"Has the idea of American exceptionalism hobbled the study of American history? NYU University Professor of the Humanities Thomas Bender argues that it has. A study of American history taking into account world events and viewpoints, he argues, would result in a more contextualized and cosmopolitan discipline, helping historians to better understand what happened in American history and why, but also what it means. Bender traces the study of history from the 'men of letters' historians of the nineteenth century to historians of the Cold War and the present day, explaining how calls for a more worldly American history curriculum have been rebuffed."