| PRESS RELEASE: Pennsylvania Abolition Society Helps Constitution High School Students Attend Pennsylvania’s National History Day |
Philadelphia, PA, April 14, 2008: The Pennsylvania Abolition Society has pledged $2000 to support four students from the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s Constitution High School as they attend Pennsylvania’s National History Day statewide competition. The PAS, the first abolition society in the world, has supported initiatives enabling the education of African Americans since 1775 (for a copy of the PAS constitution on the Gilder Lehrman Institute website, click here). Students from Constitution High School conducted project research in the PAS archives and will represent the city of Philadelphia at the competition finals. The balance of the PAS gift will support other students' participation at National History Day.
Constitution High School is a magnet school created in partnership with the National Constitution Center and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The school is the Institute’s first history school in Pennsylvania and features a curriculum grounded in American history, law, and government.
National History Day is a nationwide educational initiative that allows students to choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. Students present their work in original papers, exhibits, performances and documentaries, which are then entered into competitions at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates in a national competition each June held at the University of Maryland at College Park.
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. The Institute serves teachers, students, scholars, and the general public. It helps create history-centered schools, organizes seminars and programs for educators, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, sponsors lectures by eminent historians, and administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state through its partnership with Preserve America. The Institute also conducts awards including the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes, and offers fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection. The Institute maintains two websites, www.gilderlehrman.org and the quarterly online journal www.historynow.org.
# # #
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
19 West 44th Street, Suite 500
New York, NY 10036
www.gilderlehrman.org
© 2008, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. All Rights Reserved.