Education

THE VOICES OF HISTORY, 2018 – 2019

Using a multitude of primary sources from the New-York Historical Society’s Museum and Library collections, students will experience history through the words and actions of the statesmen, rebels, mothers, and explorers who shaped our nation. Each course in the five-week series will examine the lives, influence, and perspectives of two individuals from a shared moment in our nation’s history. Students will examine letters, diaries, and speeches and consider how each person shaped American history through their unique and compelling voices.

Schedule and Requirements
Ages 14–17
Students must be the age required for their specific class by the date of the first class.
Fridays from 10 am – 12 pm
$175 per series, $825 for all five

Series 1: Revolution!
September 21 and 28, October 5, 12, and 19
“Liberty” was the buzz word that echoed through the colonies leading up to the spring of 1775 when the first shots of the Revolutionary War rang out. Examine how political powerhouse Alexander Hamilton and outspoken wordsmith Mercy Otis Warren, two preeminent figures of Colonial America, envisioned the road to liberty and considered how to make the new nation succeed.

Series 2: Abolition
November 2, 9, 16, and 30, December 7
Dedicating their lives to the advancement of the rights of women and African Americans, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton paved the way for a slew of legislative victories throughout the twentieth century. In this series, explore how two women from entirely different worlds fought for radical change against injustice. 

Series 3: The Civil War
January 11, 18, and 25, February 1 and 8
As the country fell further into the throes of war, New York was left considering its position as home to a sizeable black population and as a center of manufacturing with close commercial ties to the Southern cotton industry. As two of the leading figures in New York City at the onset of war, examine how Tammany Hall-backed Democratic mayor Fernando Wood and staunch abolitionist Frederick Douglass fought two drastically opposing fights in their effort to sway opinion about the root causes of the Civil War.

Series 4: Reconstruction
February 22, March 1, 8, 15, and 22
Following the Civil War, the country entered into a prolonged period of drastic realignment and rebuilding. In trying to plan how to best mend the fractured country and provide for the millions of newly-freed African Americans throughout the country, explore how Radical Republican Thaddeus Stevens in the first decade after the Civil War, and sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Dubois at the turn of the century, urged the country to confront its challenges and take drastic steps toward change.   

Series 5: Westward Expansion
April 5 and 26, May 3, 10, and 17
Taking the office of president in 1824, Andrew Jackson championed a new democracy and the concept of Manifest Destiny, an idea that confronted Native Americans with plans for forced removal from their ancestral homelands. Cherokee Chief John Ross launched a fierce counter to these plans, and through these two men and their opposing experiences, investigate different responses to plans for Westward Expansion.

Please complete our Homeschool Academy inquiry form for questions and to begin the registration process. Thank you!

For questions and registration, contact homeschool@nyhistory.org or (212) 873-3400 ext. 367.