National History Day
DPLA is proud to be a part of National History Day, a series of contests in which students present research projects related to a historical theme that they’ve developed using primary and secondary sources. Containing millions of primary and secondary sources, DPLA is the perfect complement to National History Day. The page below contains information and resources related to our efforts to increase access to DPLA resources for National History Day students. Questions? Email us at education@dp.la.
2019-20 Theme: Breaking Barriers in History
The 2019-20 National History Day theme is “Breaking Barriers in History.” Students should begin their research with secondary sources to gain a broader context, then progress to finding primary sources, and finally make an argument about the effects of a topic in history. Below are selected National History Topics from the 2019-20 Theme Book and corresponding sample Primary Source Sets and Exhibitions available via DPLA.
Sample Topics
Slavery and Abolition
- Primary Source Set: The American Abolitionist Movement
- Primary Source Set: John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
- Primary Source Set: The Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act
Civil Rights
- Primary Source Set: Ida B. Wells and Anti-lynching Activism
- Primary Source Set: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Civil Rights Movement in Rural Mississippi
- Primary Source Set: African-American Soldiers in World War I
- Primary Source Set: Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Primary Source Set: The Fifteenth Amendment
- Primary Source Set: Busing and Beyond: School Desegregation in Boston
- Primary Source Set: The Black Power Movement
- Primary Source Set: Negro League Baseball
- Online Exhibition: Activism in the US
Gay Rights
- Primary Source Set: Stonewall and its Impact on the Gay Liberation Movement
- Primary Source Set: ACT UP and the AIDS Crisis
- Online Exhibition: Activism in the US
Women’s Rights
- Primary Source Set: Women and the Antebellum Reform Movement
- Primary Source Set: Women’s Suffrage: Campaign for the 19th Amendment
- Primary Source Set: Women Aviatrixes: Women with Wings
- Primary Source Set: The New Woman
- Primary Source Set: The Equal Rights Amendment
- Online Exhibition: Activism in the US
Medicine
- Primary Source Set: There is No Cure for Polio
- Primary Source Set: ACT UP and the AIDS Crisis
Science and Technology
- Primary Source Set: The Steam Engine and Transportation in the 19th Century
- Online Exhibition: Building the Transcontinental Railroad
- Online Exhibition: 200 Years on the Erie Canal
- Primary Source Set: Electrifying America
- Primary Source Set: The Invention of the Telephone
- Primary Source Set: The Panama Canal
- Primary Source Set: The Golden Age of Radio in the US
- Primary Source Set: The Impact of Television on News Media
- Primary Source Set: The Space Race
- Primary Source Set: Race to the Moon
Music and Literature
- Primary Source Set: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
- Primary Source Set: Women and the Blues
- Primary Source Set: Jitterbugs, Swing Kids and Lindy Hoppers
- Primary Source Set: Rock ‘n’ Roll: Beginnings to Woodstock