The Gilder Lehrman Institute Receives Funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs for “Their Last Full Measure: Americans on the Battlefield”
National Cemetery Administration’s Veterans Legacy Grant Program Will Support Project Inclusive of Underrepresented Veterans
New York, NY, October 7, 2022 -- The Gilder Lehrman Institute is proud to announce that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has approved funding under the National Cemetery Administration’s inaugural Veterans Legacy Grants Program in the amount of $195,079.84 for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s new military history project, “Their Last Full Measure: Americans on the Battlefield.”
“Their Last Full Measure: Americans on the Battlefield” will commemorate our nation’s veterans through the discovery and sharing of their stories, including those of groups and eras that have been previously underrepresented by race, ethnicity, or identity. The program will feature the stories of veterans interred in America’s 155 national cemeteries or 119 VA grant-funded state, territorial, or tribal veterans cemeteries.
As part of this project, the Gilder Lehrman Institute will produce a learning guide that includes six lesson plans, each profiling veterans who fought in one of six major military conflicts in American history (the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Cold War–including Korea and Vietnam–and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–including the Persian Gulf War and Operation Enduring Freedom).
The Institute will also showcase these veterans and service members in professional development sessions, on a webpage, and with a classroom calendar.
The webpage being developed for “Their Last Full Measure” will house a new “Battle Lines” digital exhibition that will offer an interactive, engaging virtual experience for students to explore the major military conflicts in American history and the veterans who served in them. The webpage will also feature other online exhibitions, primary sources, and essays by noted scholars from the Institute’s online journal History Now and other sources.
The Institute’s commitment to telling the stories of America’s underrepresented veterans and service members can be seen in the 72-page America’s Unseen Soldiers learning guide and professional development sessions that the Veterans Legacy Program (VLP) supported in 2021.
“America’s Unseen Soldiers” focuses on groups whose service has been largely “unseen” or underrecognized throughout US history: African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Latinas and Latinos, and women. More than 450 teachers attended five professional development sessions led by a diverse group of scholars and master teachers.
The 2022 “Their Last Full Measure: Americans on the Battlefield” project will creatively highlight veterans and service members who have not previously appeared in our VLP-supported work. The project includes a creative component that asks students to tell the story of a veteran or service member through a written report, eulogy, or even a video, poem, or song. The Institute’s experience with developing the acclaimed Hamilton Education Program, which asks students to emulate Lin-Manuel Miranda’s creative process in making the musical Hamilton, informs the student project aspect of “Their Last Full Measure.”
Contact:
Josh Landon, Director of Marketing and Communications
landon@gilderlehrman.org; (646) 366-9666
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