This seminar focuses on North Carolina's rich textile heritage as told through the stories, songs, and images of the people who worked in the mills. Using the backdrop of the Louis Hine's National Child Labor Committee Photography, Gaston County, 1908, "Standing on a Box," seminar participants will explore the experiences of mill workers in communities across North Carolina with particular attention to the life and work of families and children. In addition, participants will learn about notable individuals in the North Carolina textile story, such as union songstress and mill worker Ella May Wiggins, who was murdered for her organizing efforts during the Gastonia mill strike of 1929.

Participants in this course will discover American Indian history in the United States from the earliest evidence of human habitation through first contact with Europeans, conflicts in the West, World War II and other key events in 20th-century U.S. history, the American Indian rights movement, and into the present day.

Archaeological finds, traditional stories, the writings of early European explorers, government documents and treaties, oral histories, photographs, the arts, newspaper articles, and more will enrich exploration of key issues in Native American history nationwide.

The course will proceed chronologically. Within each topical module participants will have the opportunity to choose from several different geographically grouped assignments, allowing them to customize their own learning experience based on their interests, the demands of the curriculum, and their own priorities for teaching American Indian history.

For example, in any given unit, they may choose to focus on the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains, the Northeast, or the Southeast. They may either follow one geographical track throughout the course or mix up their selections to allow for a broader view of American Indian history.

Participants in this course will examine African American history in the contexts of United States, North Carolina, and world history. They will begin by connecting the experiences of African Americans in early U.S. history to the histories and cultures of the African communities of their ancestors and will follow those cultural connections between Africa and the United States throughout the course.

Course topics include African Americans in the colonies and the early Republic, the Middle Passage, American slavery and the experiences of free African Americans in the antebellum period, the abolition movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, and the experiences of African Americans during World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. Throughout the course, participants will discuss African American activism through churches, political organizations, and communities and discover African American culture through art, music, and other cultural forms.

No specifics available.

This place-based, interdisciplinary workshop uses Henry David Thoreau’s ethic and his experience at Walden Woods as a model, and features a daily mix of lectures, field trips, readings, discussions and reflection time. The participants encounter speakers from different fields with expertise in the areas of natural history, writing, literary analysis, history, and the environment.

In June 2008, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the Harpers Ferry Historical Association will host a one-week workshop that will enable 4th–12th grade teachers to walk in the footsteps of John Brown, John Cook, Shields Green, Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, Heyward Shepherd, Fountain Beckham, and many others as they learn about events of national significance that have occurred in Harpers Ferry. Educators will get to interact with historians, curators, museum educators, and other professionals in the field. This institute will prepare teachers to use historic documents, artifacts, and images to enhance their teaching and to inspire students with the stories that make history come alive in the classroom and beyond.