This institute will focus on the life of George Washington as seen through several lenses. Focusing on Washington's personal life and connecting it to his public career will be the theme of the first week of the institute. Participants will consider Washington's education, his relationships with women, and his attitudes towards fame, religion, and death. Participants will look at Washington's own words in an attempt to understand the man. Traveling to Longfellow House, participants will meet with Paul Blandford, who has devoted his life to studying Washington's year in Cambridge. Blandford will also explain Washington's place in 19th-century New England culture. In the second week, participants will contrast the heroic Washington with the revisionist appraisal. How did John Marshall and Mason Locke Weems view Washington? Why does Richard Brookhiser still consider Washington’s life "exemplary?" Participants will analyze Michael Pack's documentary Rediscovering George Washington and meet with William Martin, writer of the novel Citizen Washington and the screenplay for a documentary on the life of Washington, George Washington: The Man Who Wouldn't Be King. To offer an alternative to the heroic Washington, participants will meet with the radical revisionist historian Howard Zinn. His visit will provide an opportunity to discuss what role the life of Washington should play in national and state history standards. Looking at current research, participants will attempt to determine whether Washington holds up in a reality-based age, whether his Mount Rushmore image and iconic status remain compelling. In the third week, participants will focus on Washington's public career and legacy. The guest speaker for the third week will be Karal Ann Marling, author of George Washington Slept Here, and numerous other books on American history. Professor Marling has taught Art History and American Studies at the University of Minnesota. She will speak on "George Washington and Memory," or "How the Colonial Revivals of the 19th and 20th centuries reshaped the character of our first President." During the third week, participants will also take a field trip to Bunker Hill and Dorchester Heights.

This workshop combines scholarly presentations with on-site investigations of the canals, mills, worker housing, and exhibits of Lowell National Historical Park and of other sites in Lowell's historic district. Sessions draw on scholarly monographs, primary sources (such as "mill girl" letters), and works of literature and historical fiction. The workshop intersperses hands-on activities with lecture-discussions and field investigations. In addition to Lowell's landmark resources, the workshop takes full advantage of Old Sturbridge Village exhibits and scholars to explore pre-industrial rural life and draw on the expertise of scholars and presenters at Walden Pond and Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts, to explore how prominent authors addressed the question of industrialization's effect on American life, values, and the environment.

This workshop combines scholarly presentations with on-site investigations of the canals, mills, worker housing, and exhibits of Lowell National Historical Park and of other sites in Lowell's historic district. Sessions draw on scholarly monographs, primary sources (such as "mill girl" letters), and works of literature and historical fiction. The workshop intersperses hands-on activities with lecture-discussions and field investigations. In addition to Lowell's landmark resources, the workshop takes full advantage of Old Sturbridge Village exhibits and scholars to explore pre-industrial rural life and draw on the expertise of scholars and presenters at Walden Pond and Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts, to explore how prominent authors addressed the question of industrialization's effect on American life, values, and the environment.

No specifics available.

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."

During this two-week institute teachers and scholars will reconsider iconic American writer John Steinbeck, author of more than 30 books, winner of the Pulitzer Prize (in 1940, for The Grapes of Wrath), the Nobel Prize for Literature (1962), and the United States Medal of Freedom (1964). Days will be filled with study, exploration of the area, discussion, and reflection. During the two weeks, participants will have ample opportunity to appreciate "Steinbeck Country" through exploration of the land and Steinbeck's literature.

This workshop offers academic content about place-based western history and women's suffrage on the western frontier, juxtaposed with myths of the West and contemporary women's issues in the West. It affords opportunities to engage in study and conversation with leading scholars; an introduction to four forms of primary historical sources—the built environment, artifacts, government records, and private papers—all of which have application in all history classrooms; and networking with other social studies, history, English, and other subject matter teachers, librarians, and media specialists, from grades K–12, representing a variety of states.

This seminar explores the rise of Jim Crow in the United States and tracks it forward to its modern post-civil-rights manifestations. Seminar participants will work with a range of primary sources to interpret the shifting social, economic, political, psychological, and cultural trauma associated with this set of racial practices. Close attention will be paid to the effects of Jim Crow on both sides of the color line.