Mexican-American War and the Media

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Annotation

These more than 5,500 transcribed newspaper articles related to the Mexican-American War represent five newspapers from the U.S. and England. They span the period from 1845, when the U.S. annexed Texas, through 1848, when Mexico surrendered and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed.

The contrast between coverage of the war in the U.S. and England is particularly striking. The Times of London fulminated against the immorality of slavery and of the southern scheme to annex Texas as a slave state, while exposing America's imperialist ambitions as, among other things, an attempt to shore up the nation's fragile stability through the escape valve of western migration. By contrast, newspapers from Maryland and West Virginia did not examine the issue of slavery in the articles included here.

Some images and links to watercolor and print collections are also available. The website provides a comprehensive bibliography on the war, but offers little historical background or contextualization beyond links to related materials and an expanded timeline.

Old Fort Niagara State Historic Site [NY]

Description

The Old Fort Niagara State Historic Site preserves Fort Niagara, founded in 1726. The majority of structures on site date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The fort is strategically located at the mouth of the Niagara River. As a result, it was crucial to deciding American dominance in the Great Lakes Region, as opposed to control by the French or British. Both the British and French controlled either the fort itself or the site of the fort at various points of time. Soldiers lived and trained on site for both World Wars. The fort also shaped the history of the Iroquois. Collections include more than 102,000 artifacts.

The site offers period rooms, student programs, guided tours for students, school overnight programs, school outreach programs, and school distance learning programs. The website offers a virtual tour.

Winston Churchill and the Anglo-American Relationship

Description

This institute will "examine the Anglo-American relationship through the life, reflections, and experiences of Winston Churchill. The Institute encompasses lectures, discussions, and participants' personal responses to readings and films; projects using primary documents from the Churchill Archives Centre; and visits to Churchill sites in Britain. "

Contact name
Muller, James W.
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
National Endowment for the Humanities
Phone number
1 888-972-1874
Target Audience
Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade
Start Date
Cost
None ($3,000 stipend)
Course Credit
Participants will receive a certificate indicating participation.
Duration
Three weeks
End Date

The Civil Rights Movement

Description

"This seminar explores how an economically and politically powerless racial minority wrested dramatic change from a determined and entrenched white majority in the American South. It will examine the changing nature of protest from the 1940s to the 1950s; the roles of Martin Luther King, Jr., local movements, and women; and the relative importance of violence and non-violence. Participants will discuss how they can use the experiences of schoolchildren, teachers, and students in the crises of the 1950s and 1960s to bring home the realities of the civil rights movement in the classroom. Topics include the Little Rock 9 and their teachers in 1957, students and sit-ins, and the use of schoolchildren in the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations."

Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Phone number
1 646-366-9666
Target Audience
Secondary
Start Date
Cost
None ($400 stipend)
Course Credit
"Participants who complete the seminar in a satisfactory manner will receive a certificate. Teachers may use this certificate to receive in-service credit, subject to the policy of their district. No university credit is offered for the course."
Duration
One week
End Date

The Age of Lincoln

Description

Abraham Lincoln will stand at the centre of the seminar, though less as a biographical subject than as a prism for exploring key aspects of his age. The themes and topics to be addressed include slavery and the Old South; the abolitionist impulse and the broadening antislavery movement; party political realignment and the sectional crisis of the 1850s; evangelicalism and politics; the election of 1860, the secession of the Lower South, and the coming of war; wartime leadership, political and military; the Civil War 'home front'; emancipation; the elements of Confederate defeat and Union victory; and the meaning of the war for American nationalism.

Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Phone number
1 646-366-9666
Target Audience
Secondary
Start Date
Cost
None ($400 stipend)
Course Credit
Participants who complete the seminar in a satisfactory manner will receive a certificate. Teachers may use this certificate to receive in-service credit, subject to the policy of their district. No university credit is offered for the course.
Duration
One week
End Date

Winston Churchill and the Anglo-American Relationship

Description

This institute will "examine the Anglo-American relationship through the life, reflections, and experiences of Winston Churchill. The Institute encompasses lectures, discussions, and participants' personal responses to readings and films; projects using primary documents from the Churchill Archives Centre; and visits to Churchill sites in Britain. "

Contact name
Muller, James W.
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
National Endowment for the Humanities
Phone number
1 888-972-1874
Target Audience
Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade
Start Date
Cost
None ($3,000 stipend)
Course Credit
Participants will receive a certificate indicating participation.
Duration
Three weeks
End Date

The Civil Rights Movement

Description

"This seminar explores how an economically and politically powerless racial minority wrested dramatic change from a determined and entrenched white majority in the American South. It will examine the changing nature of protest from the 1940s to the 1950s; the roles of Martin Luther King, Jr., local movements, and women; and the relative importance of violence and non-violence. Participants will discuss how they can use the experiences of schoolchildren, teachers, and students in the crises of the 1950s and 1960s to bring home the realities of the civil rights movement in the classroom. Topics include the Little Rock 9 and their teachers in 1957, students and sit-ins, and the use of schoolchildren in the 1963 Birmingham demonstrations."

Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Phone number
1 646-366-9666
Target Audience
Secondary
Start Date
Cost
None ($400 stipend)
Course Credit
"Participants who complete the seminar in a satisfactory manner will receive a certificate. Teachers may use this certificate to receive in-service credit, subject to the policy of their district. No university credit is offered for the course."
Duration
One week
End Date

The Age of Lincoln

Description

"Abraham Lincoln will stand at the centre of the seminar, though less as a biographical subject than as a prism for exploring key aspects of his age. The themes and topics to be addressed include slavery and the Old South; the abolitionist impulse and the broadening antislavery movement; party political realignment and the sectional crisis of the 1850s; evangelicalism and politics; the election of 1860, the secession of the Lower South, and the coming of war; wartime leadership, political and military; the Civil War 'home front'; emancipation; the elements of Confederate defeat and Union victory; and the meaning of the war for American nationalism."

Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Phone number
1 646-366-9666
Target Audience
Secondary
Start Date
Cost
None ($400 stipend)
Course Credit
"Participants who complete the seminar in a satisfactory manner will receive a certificate. Teachers may use this certificate to receive in-service credit, subject to the policy of their district. No university credit is offered for the course."
Duration
One week
End Date