War and Peace: Washington and the Pennsylvania Frontier
Mount Vernon and National History Day in Pennsylvania are excited to offer K-12 educators across the country the opportunity to participate in an engaging workshop on the complexities of Washington's actions on the Pennsylvania frontier.
Designed with this year's National History Day theme in mind, Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas, this workshop will investigate Washington's experiences before and after the American Revolution and reflect on how his decisions continue to impact our lives today.
Education staff from Mount Vernon and the Army Heritage Center Foundation will be joined by Dr. Sarah Purcell of Grinnell University.
The workshop will include:
- Gaining knowledge of Geroge Washington and the world he lived in
- Making multiple connections between George Washington and this year's National History Day theme Frontiers in History- People, Places, Ideas
- Engaging with diverse source materials, such as documents, images, and interactives, that teach about the 18th-century
- Creating strategies for the classroom that encourage inquiry
- Exploring how the 18th century is relevant to today's modern world
- Discovering digitized museum resources designed to support teacher and student learning
Sarah Purcell graduated from Grinnell with a B.A. in history in 1992. She went on to earn an A.M. (1993) and a Ph.D. (1997) from Brown University. She joined the faculty of Grinnell in 2000 after teaching at Central Michigan University. Ms. Purcell's research interests include: the Early National, Antebellum, and Civil War periods; popular culture and political culture; gender history; and military history. She is author of Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, and Eyewitness History: The Early American Republic. She is co-author of The Encyclopedia of Battles in North America, 1517-1915 (which won a 2000 Best of Reference award from the New York Public Library) and Critical Lives: The Life and Work of Eleanor Roosevelt. She is currently working on a new book, Spectacle of Grief: The Politics of Mourning and the U.S. Civil War. She is passionate about American Revolution education and is co-author of the U.S. history textbook American Horizons (Oxford University Press) which puts U.S. history in a global context.
National History Day Support
From George and Martha Washington to the enslaved community, the history of Mount Vernon is full of people who used their voices and positions to create new frontiers. Dig deeper into the lives of these determined people by exploring both primary and secondary sources from Mount Vernon
National History Day Support
Looking for help with your National History Day project? We've picked out some great resources to explore and to help get you started.