New-York Historical Society

Education Mission

The Education Department at the New-York Historical Society offers a wealth of resources and learning opportunities designed to make history come alive!

Education programs are made possible through endowments established by the National Endowment for the Humanities and The Hearst Foundations. Programs are supported, in part, by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Additional support is provided by The Barker Welfare Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, the May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation and Verizon.

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Educators

American Musicals Project >

The New-York Historical Society is proud to introduce
A NEW HOME FOR HOMESCHOOLERS

Make history come alive! This fall the New-York Historical Society launches a new program for homeschooled students, designed to enrich and support the study of American History through its unique program, the American Musicals Project.

By coupling the power and emotional energy of American musical theater masterworks with evocative and thought-provoking exhibitions and primary sources from the collections of the New-York Historical Society, students explore four significant themes in American History: Independence, Slavery, Suffrage, and the Great Depression. Over the course of the classes, students will explore the museum’s vast treasures, participate in hands-on history, and engage in group work.

Each theme is taught in four hands-on sessions and is designed to:

Develop critical thinking skills as the student engages with primary source materials and experiences the wonder of making historical discoveries.
Develop media literacy as the student forms observations and interpretations of scenes from American musicals that shape his/her understanding of history.
Engage the student with in-class projects that promote inter-disciplinary learning.

Appropriate for students ages 11–14

Fridays, 1:30–3 pm
Independence: November 18, December 2, 9, and 16, 2011
Slavery: January 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2012
Suffrage: March 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2012
Great Depression: May 4, 11, 18, and 25, 2012

Register for all four themes for $200, or $65 per theme, per student.
To register, please contact us at (212) 485-9236 or amp@nyhistory.org.

Turn Your Campers Into History Detectives! E/M
Discover New York City through the DiMenna Children's History Museum and meet the children who lived here from the late-seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. Campers will use their eyes, ears and hands to explore the interactive pavilions and kiosks, and participate in a scavenger hunt that will keep them on the move.

New York City: Then and Now E/M/H
New York City is the most populated city in the United States, but was it always? Campers will explore how New York City evolved from its Dutch colonial roots up to the present by examining works of art, artifacts, photographs and prints from the New-York Historical Society collection. By the program’s end they will understand how New York grew to be the city it is today.

Learning History through Paintings E/M/H
The paintings in the New-York Historical Society collection are not only works of art, but windows into our past. Campers will learn to identify portraits, cityscapes and landscapes, and then practice unraveling the stories that the artists are telling. They will quickly learn that not all artists can be trusted to tell the truth!

Objects Tell Stories E/M/H
Did you know that a historian can use a cup to determine the height of the people who used it? Artifacts, the everyday objects left behind by our ancestors, hold countless secrets of the past just waiting to be discovered. Campers will become "History Detectives" and will have the chance to observe, describe and interpret some of the more than 40,000 artifacts on display at the New-York Historical Society, discovering in the process an entirely new way to think about our past and our present.

What Exactly Are Historians, and Why Do We Need Them? E/M/H
During a highlights tour of the museum campers will get the chance to experience the kind of work that historians do, from examining an artifact and discovering its secrets to analyzing a painting for clues about what the world looked like long ago. In the end, they will have to decide: Is learning about the past important after all?

To bring your camp group to the New-York Historical Society, please contact us at schoolprograms@nyhistory.org or call (212) 485-9293.