Clara Barton National Historic Site commemorates the life of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. The home served as the headquarters and warehouse for the organization.
The site offers tours, performances, and educational and recreational events.
The Battle of Stones River began on the last day of 1862 and was one of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War. The battle produced important military and political gains for the Union, and it changed forever the people who lived and fought here.
The battlefield offers exhibits, films, tours, living history demonstrations, and other educational and recreational programs and events.
The USS Arizona Memorial is the final resting place for many of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The Memorial commemorates the site where World War II began for the United States. Visitors experience history through the national memorial's program tour, museum, and wayside exhibits.
The memorial offers tours, exhibits, a film, and educational programs.
Author Philip Dray looks at Benjamin Franklin's work as a scientist, particularly his work with lightning and electricity. Dray examines opposition and detraction that Franklin faced based on religious grounds—objections that he was interfering with the weapons of God—and compares Franklin's struggles with these detractors to the American struggle to define itself after the Revolutionary War. His presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin explains how Abraham Lincoln rose from obscurity to become one of the most significant presidents in the nation's history.
Audio and video options are available. Captions can be turned on and off in the video.
Professor Nina Silber traces the emergence of a new sense of self and citizenship among the women left behind by Union soldiers during the Civil War. Silber argues that women found themselves at a disadvantage, with their husbands away, in a male-dominated society; but also found new, active roles for themselves in politics and support.
Professor Colin G. Calloway looks at Native American participation in the French and Indian War, focusing on the motivations and experiences of these individuals.
Professor Mary Frances Berry reviews the life of Callie House, an ex-slave and civil rights activist in the late 1800s and early 1900s who started the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association, which sought African-American pensions based on those offered Union soldiers. Berry presents House as a forerunner of figures such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Her presentation includes a question-and-answer session.
Audio and video options are available.
Massachusetts Historical Society director William F. Fowler, Jr., follows the course of the French and Indian War and details its impact on North American history.
Filmmaker Austin Hoyt answers questions on his new documentary, American Experience: Victory in the Pacific, which examines the final year of World War II in the Pacific, including the rationale for using the atomic bomb, and features firsthand recollections of both American and Japanese civilians and soldiers. The presentation includes a collage of audio and visual clips from the film.
Audio and video options are available.