American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, CUNY

On June 28, 1970, LGBTQ+ activists in New York organized Christopher Street Liberation Day, commemorating the resistance of q***r and trans people after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn a year earlier. For the past fifty years, LGBTQ+ people have continued this tradition. At Pride parades and other activities, they have gathered to make their presence visible, to protest injustices and express demands for political and legal change, to revel in a sense of community, and to challenge forces that have sought to ignore, silence, or oppress them.

This year, Pride Month is tempered by a wave of local and state attempts -- many successful -- to roll back hard-won gains that affect the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ people and those who love them. Numerous states have proposed or passed “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, amounting to government-sanctioned acts of censorship in K-12 public schools in order to deny LGBTQ+ people’s historical agency and contributions.

Not only do we think LGBTQ+ history should be taught, we don’t think it should be relegated to June only! To that end, we have assembled a selective list of resources for educators, students, and others looking for sources for teaching and learning about a variety of topics related to LGBTQ+ experiences in the past. Link below!

https://ashp.cuny.edu/teaching-and-learning-lgbtq-history-united-states

Teaching and Learning LGBTQ+ History of the United States | ASHP/CML On June 28, 1970, LGBTQ+ activists in New York organized Christopher Street Liberation Day, commemorating the resistance of q***r and trans people after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn a year earlier. For the past fifty years, LGBTQ+ people have continued this tradition. At Pride parades and othe...

Excited to have our award-winning documentary about the Great Uprising of 1877 featured in this year's Workers Unite! Film Festival!

Narrated by the great James Earl Jones, the documentary follows the nationwide rebellion of eighty thousand railroad workers, joined by hundreds of thousands of Americans outraged by the excesses of the railroad companies and the misery of a four-year economic depression. Police, state militia, and federal troops clashed with strikers and sympathizers, leaving more than one hundred dead and thousands injured.

The film is available to stream for free from May 7 to May 12, available here: https://watch.eventive.org/workersunitefilmfest2021/play/6075b5b2ea0517007104100d.

1877: The Grand Army of Starvation | Haymarket: The Bomb, The Anarchists, The Labor Struggle and Short | Workers Unite Film Festival 2021 A nationwide rebellion brought the U.S. to a standstill in 1877 as 80,000 railroad workers walked out on strike and clashed with police and state militia.

This just in—a new newsletter from ASHP/CML! Click below to read what we've been up to these past months.

Some highlights: we received funding from Humanities New York and the Metropolitan Library Council of New York to develop a podcast series and cultivate the CUNY Digital History Archive, we continue our work with the NYC Department of Education in creating online resources for history teachers, and we seek applicants for our upcoming National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on the Visual Culture of the American Civil War.

And please, be sure to subscribe!

February 2021 Newsletter from ASHP/CML We are pleased to announce that Humanities New York has awarded ASHP/CML a grant of $5,000 for Spaces, Places, and Faces: Exploring Q***r Public History. The grant will be used to research and develop a podcast series that looks at how the work of historians, activists, educators, and archivists...

Today's inauguration marks a new chapter in American history, yet the recent attempted insurrection in Washington, DC on January 6 loom large.

In recent days, we have developed a list of teaching resources and reflection questions to contextualize those violent events and connect them to broader themes and moments in US History, available here: ashpc.ml/cxw2b8.

The events of January 6 were exceptional, but they are connected to a long history of attempts to prevent the exercise of voting rights, particularly among African Americans and other people of color.

It will take years to fully understand exactly what happened and the impact of these events, but we hope the teaching materials that we have compiled offer a variety of ways to contextualize and understand the siege at the Capitol, including key definitions and concepts, the history of voter suppression and impeachment, the use of mob violence to block democratic processes and to assert white supremacy, and Washington, DC’s history as a site of violent protest. Link: ashpc.ml/cxw2b8.

Every election is consequential and determining who has the right to vote has been a struggle since the founding of the nation. Over the course of U.S. history, the stakes of some elections have been higher than others, especially in times of a national political, social, economic, or health crisis. Elections can also indicate the vitality of democracy itself, testing the structures of government as well as the public’s embrace of democratic principles. For those wanting to better understand this history, we have gathered a number of documents and teaching resources related to elections in the United States.

Some of the collected materials describe the efforts of men and women to expand voting rights in order to realize the nation’s ideals of freedom and democracy, for example, the campaign to win women’s suffrage. The movement to secure voting rights for African American and Mexican American residents showed the bravery, tenacity and patriotism of activists. All of these voting rights campaigns also reveal persistent efforts to constrict the electorate in order to maintain white supremacy and keep political power in the hands of those with race and economic privilege.

Other materials focus specifically on past elections, highlighting moments when the media and political campaigns developed new ways to persuade voters or to forecast election outcomes.

Finally, given the contentious 2020 Supreme Court confirmation process, a section addresses the issue of Supreme Court nominations and how the composition of the Court became politicized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in an attempt to advance the New Deal. At the bottom of the page, we share links to other digital archives and resources that examine these, and many other issues, in more depth.

Follow the link for more: http://ashpc.ml/8h4f6v

Understanding Elections in U.S. History | ASHP/CML Every election is consequential and determining who has the right to vote has been a struggle since the founding of the nation. Over the course of U.S. history, the stakes of some elections have been higher than others, especially in times of a national political, social, economic, or health crisis....

Interested in graphic novels, Indigenous history, and decolonization of the Colonial U.S. past?

Join Weshoyot Alvitre, Lee Francis IV, and Will Fenton as they discuss "Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga" (Red Planet Books & Comics), a graphic novel that tells the story of Indigenous victims, survivors, and kin of the Paxton massacres in 1763.

Their conversation will explore how artistic reinterpretation of colonial records enabled the team to create imagine a narrative that re-centers the Indigenous past and present in studies of colonial America. Free and open to all, RSVP here: https://publicslab.gc.cuny.edu/events/ghost-river-decolonization-through-artistic-reinterpretation/.

Hosted by the Publics Lab at the The Graduate Center, CUNY, co-sponsored by ASHP/CML.

Ghost River: Decolonization through Artistic Reinterpretation Co-sponsored by the American Social History Project. Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga (Red Planet Books and Comics, 2019) is a graphic novel about the Paxton massacres of 1763. Howev…

Today, take a moment to reflect on the harrowing events of September 11th, 2001 with the 9/11 Digital Archive (http://ashpc.ml/bkp97v).

The digital archive, linked above and below, contains the voices of everyday people from NYC and around the country. There are interviews, photographs, fliers, art, e-mails, and more that document how people and organizations made sense of, and responded to, the day and its aftermath.

The archive was organized by ASHP and the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, and has since been accepted into the The Library of Congress, assuring its long-term preservation.

Home · September 11 Digital Archive

57 years ago today, hundreds of thousands protestors joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They demanded human rights and anti-poverty measures for Black Americans, a poignant reminder about how far there is to go in ensuring equal treatment and opportunity for all.

Crucially, the 1963 March was a product of decades of activism and built upon the March on Washington Movement (MOWM). In a 1941 pamphlet for the MOWM, Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph called for a "an all-out thundering march on Washington, ending in a monster and huge demonstration at Lincoln's Monument will shake up white America," and that "nothing counts but pressure, more pressure, and still more pressure."

For more teaching materials and documents on the two marches, follow this link: http://ashpc.ml/mv7sp2

From our home offices in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, the staff of ASHP have watched the protests following the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, with outrage and sorrow, as well as admiration at the determination of tens of thousands calling for justice and change. At times, we have joined the protests and supported them in other ways. As educators and scholars, we recognize the power of history to provide an understanding of the past that can help transform our present lives and shape our future.

For that purpose, we want to share with you some resources (https://ashp.cuny.edu/historicizing-black-resistance-us) that we have compiled for those who want to better understand the history of both black oppression and black resistance that make up the U.S. story. This very selective compilation highlights materials drawn from our own collections, plus links to other freely accessible documents, collections, lesson plans, and items suitable for students, teachers, researchers, public historians, and the interested public. We hope you will share this site widely, and check back as we plan to update and expand the collection.

Historicizing Black Resistance in the U.S. | ASHP/CML The recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and the sustained protests across the U.S. that have followed have taken many Americans by surprise. For others -- especially those who are black, indigenous, and people of color -- these tragic deaths at the hands of police (or....

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and as we reach the end of the month, it's a good time for some historical reflection!

First, probe the social, political, and cultural impetuses and implications of the Philippine War, with ASHP's "Savage Acts: Wars, Fairs, and Empire 1898-1904." Our documentary is available to stream and download for free: http://ashpc.ml/kpq47y

Then, delve into the many documents collected on HERB, our free, online database of primary sources and classroom activities. In this doc, Mexican laborers in Oxnard, California stand with their Japanese "brothers" when facing discrimination from the American Federation of Labor: http://ashpc.ml/6y4wpn

Finally, explore different voices from NYC's Chinatown neighborhood as residents reflect on 9/11. Located just ten blocks from Ground Zero, Chinatown was the largest residential area affected by the attacks. Read the recollections of neighbors who discuss the day's effect on their air quality and health, their civic and social engagement, and more: http://ashpc.ml/65zpx7

Today is Workers' Memorial Day, when we honor workers who have died or been injured while on the job. It is particularly salient this year, amidst a global health crisis that places so many—nurses, delivery people, grocery store clerks, sanitation workers—at risk.

Reflect on the power of organized labor to ensure safe and fair working conditions, today and every day!

Photo: An outdoor S**U meeting, 1937, by Louise Boyle. Courtesy of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in the ILR School at Cornell University.

While the The Graduate Center, CUNY is closed due to COVID-19, ASHP staff are fortunate to be able to work from home. So the writing, designing, and programming continues on "Who Built America? Open Educational Resource," as does the production of Mission US 6 and 7. We are also helping develop LGBTQ+ teaching materials for the NYC Department of Education, and continue to assist student work at the New Media Lab.

For more info on what we've been up to, and for a primer on all of our publicly available resources for teaching and learning, read (and subscribe to!) our newsletter: ashpc.ml/cxh3nt.

Photo: Mexican laborers in Imperial Valley, California. By Dorothea Lange, June 1935, courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center will host a two-week NEH Summer Institute for college and university faculty in July 2020 on the Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath. Applications to participate will be accepted via mail, e-mail, and our online application system until March 1, 2020 (postal mail must be postmarked by March 1).

The Institute will focus on the era's array of visual media--including the fine arts, ephemera, and photography--to examine how information and opinion about the war were recorded and disseminated, and the ways visual media expressed and shaped Americans' understanding on both sides of the conflict. Guided by a team of three faculty that represents the range of work in the field, Institute participants will hear daily lectures and presentations by noted historians, art historians, and archivists; and take part in hands-on sessions in significant museums and archival collections. These Institute activities will introduce participants to the rich body of scholarship that addresses or incorporates Civil War era visual culture, encourage them to explore avenues for further research in the field, and assist them in developing their own research and/or teaching projects. Full details and application information are available on the ASHP/CML Institute website at http://ashp.cuny.edu/nehinstitute/

The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath | ASHP/CML The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center will host a two-week summer institute in July 2020 for 25 college and university teachers to study the visual culture of the American Civil War and its aftermath. The institute will f...

APPLY NOW! NEH Summer Institute, The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath (July 2020 in New York City) -- March 1st deadline. ashpc.ml/8fwzv6

The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath | ASHP/CML The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center will host a two-week summer institute in July 2020 for 25 college and university teachers to study the visual culture of the American Civil War and its aftermath. The institute will f...

New from The Gotham Center for New York City History and the CUNY Digital History Archive: in April 1969, Black and Puerto Rican students at City College challenged the school's admissions policies that heavily favor white students.

Read more about their "Five Demands" below!

https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/from-the-cuny-digital-history-archive-the-five-demands-and-the-university-of-harlem

From the CUNY Digital History Archive: The Five Demands and the University of Harlem By Chloe Smolarski

Wonder what it takes to erect a public memorial in New York City? ASHP has you covered!

Listen in as Mary Anne Trasciatti, president of Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, walks us through the complex process of involved in creating a monument from the ground up.

Streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and our site: ashpc.ml/6jm8hx

Happy ! Reflect on this by diving into its history with a quick article, courtesy of Steve Brier: http://ashpc.ml/rh68cc.

Why We Celebrate May Day as a Workers’ Holiday | SLU Blog Home, Labor Studies Why We Celebrate May Day as a Workers’ Holiday April 30, 2014 Murphy Institute By Steve Brier One of the great ironies is that workers all over the world celebrate Labor Day on May 1st, not the first Monday in September, the way we do in the U.S. Most people assume the choice o...

New on our podcast! Deirdre Cooper Owens, Harriet Senie, artist Francheska Alcantara, and Marina Ortiz of East Harlem Preservation delve into the histories and stakes of public monuments and memorials in NYC.

This program is part one in our three part series, “Difficult Histories/Public Spaces: The Challenge of Monuments in New York City and the Nation,” hosted with The Gotham Center for New York City History and the CUNY Public History Collective.

Available to stream on Apple Podcasts, or directly on our site: http://ashpc.ml/gwcvxs .

Monuments As: History, Art, Power | ASHP/CML In this four-speaker panel, professors, artists, and activists delve into the ongoing re-evaluation of public monuments and memorials, particularly those in New York City (NYC). Dr. Harriet Senie, professor of art history at The Graduate Center CUNY, offers insights into the decision making process....

Check out the latest podcast from ASHP/CML with labor historian Joshua Freeman on the rise and fall of factories around the world. http://ashpc.ml/byyyh5

Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World | ASHP/CML Joshua Freeman, professor of history at CUNY Graduate Center and Queens College and Steven Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New York Times, discuss Freeman's recent book, Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World. From the origins of factories in the 1720s Englan...

Our latest podcast, with Professor Lori Flores of SUNY Stonybrook, explores shifting notions of Mexican/Mexican-American identity. (Photo: MGNOnline)
ashpc.ml/ttwx3v

Beyond Migrant workers: Mexican Communities & Complexities in The United States 1986-2016 | ASHP/CML Lori Flores, History Professor at Stony Brook University, contextualizes Mexican immigration and identity and examines how shifting borders complicate Mexican American identities. Flores covers the tumultuous relationship between Mexican immigrants and the United States Government from World War 1 i...

Listen to the latest ASHP podcast with historian Deirdre Cooper Owens reading from her work, "Medical Bo***ge: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology." ashpc.ml/zwrn9f.

Medical Bo***ge: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology | ASHP/CML Deirdre Cooper Owens reads a section from her recent work, Medical Bo***ge: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology, which explores the intersections of slavery, capitalism, and medicine and discusses the work with Jennifer Morgan, Professor of History New York University and Sasha Turn...

Listen to the ASHP/CML podcast on Visualizing Emancipation and the Postwar South with art historian, Sarah Burns ashpc.ml/qsnv72.

Image: Sea Island School, no. 1 – St. Helena Island. Established April, 1862. Illus. in Education Among the Freedmen, published between 1866 and 1870. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c07754

Visualizing Emancipation and the Postwar South in the Popular and Fine Arts | ASHP/CML In this discussion, Sarah Burns examines common Civil War narratives in fine arts in this period by examining the work of artists such as William Walker, Thomas Waterman, and Winslow Homer. Burns asks who created the pieces and for what audience and further questioning the works by examining portrai...

APPLY! NEH Summer Institute, Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath - March 1st deadline. ashpc.ml/8fwzv6

The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath | ASHP/CML The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center will host a two-week summer institute in July 2018 for 25 college and university teachers to study the visual culture of the American Civil War and its aftermath. The institute will f...

The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center will host a two-week NEH Summer Institute for college and university faculty in July 2018 on the Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath. Applications to participate will be accepted via mail, e-mail, and our online application system until March 1, 2018.

The Institute will focus on the era's array of visual media--including the fine arts, ephemera, and photography--to examine how information and opinion about the war were recorded and disseminated, and the ways visual media expressed and shaped Americans' understanding on both sides of the conflict. Guided by a team of three faculty that represents the range of work in the field, Institute participants will hear daily lectures and presentations by noted historians, art historians, and archivists; and take part in hands-on sessions in significant museums and archival collections. These Institute activities will introduce participants to the rich body of scholarship that addresses or incorporates Civil War era visual culture, encourage them to explore avenues for further research in the field, and assist them in developing their own research and/or teaching projects. Reading assignments preceding and during the Institute will prepare participants for full engagement in the Institute¹s discussions and activities. And time will be provided to prepare individual projects, undertake research at local archives, and meet with the three principal institute faculty members as well as guest speakers.

The institute will meet from July 9 to July 20, 2018 at the CUNY Graduate Center (34th Street and Fifth Avenue) and other archival and museum sites around the city, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society, and New York Public Library. Faculty and visiting speakers include: Jermaine Archer, Lynne Zacek Bassett, Louise Bernard, Joshua Brown, Sarah Burns, Keith Davis, Gregory Downs, Matthew Fox-Amato, Amanda Frisken, Lauren Hewes, Barbara Krauthamer, Turkiya Lowe, Maurie McInnis, Megan Kate Nelson, Kirk Savage, Susan Schulten, and Scott Manning Stevens.

While scholars and teachers specializing in U.S. history, American Studies, and art history will find the Institute especially attractive, we encourage applicants from any field who are interested in the Civil War era and its visual culture, regardless of your disciplinary interests. Independent scholars, scholars engaged in museum work or full-time graduate studies are also urged to apply. You need not have extensive prior knowledge of the Civil War or visual culture or have previously incorporated their study in any of your courses or research. However, your application essay should identify concrete ways in which two weeks of concentration on the topics will enhance your teaching and/or research. In addition, please describe a research or teaching project you will develop during the institute. The ideal institute participant will bring to the group a fresh understanding of the relevance of the topic to their teaching and research.

Full details and application information are available on the ASHP/CML Institute website at http://ashp.cuny.edu/nehinstitute/. For further information, please contact Institute Director Donna Thompson Ray at [email protected] or 212-817-1963.

Completed applications must be submitted via our online application system or e-mail or postal mail no later than March 1, 2018 (postal mail must be postmarked by March 1).

The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath | ASHP/CML The American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the City University of New York Graduate Center will host a two-week summer institute in July 2018 for 25 college and university teachers to study the visual culture of the American Civil War and its aftermath. The institute will f...

Memory of the Civil War Sarah Burns, the Ruth N. Halls Professor of the History of Art (emerita) at Indiana University, Joshua Brown, Executive Director of the American Social Histo...

Have you applied for our NEH Summer Institute–The Visual Culture of the American Civil War and Its Aftermath–yet? Applications are due on March 1. That's less than a week away! Apply here: http://ashp.cuny.edu/nehinstitute/

1 week left to apply to our NEH Summer Institute, Visual Culture of the Civil War!! Check out a presentation from a previous Institute: http://ashp.cuny.edu/nehinstitute

Memory of the Civil War Sarah Burns, the Ruth N. Halls Professor of the History of Art (emerita) at Indiana University, Joshua Brown, Executive Director of the American Social Histo...

Check out our latest podcast with art historian Sarah Burns who discusses Lilly Martin Spencer's painting "Home of the Red, White, and Blue" in the context of the American Civil War. ashpc.ml/7y9dw4

Rending and Mending: The Flag, the Needle, and the Wounds of War | ASHP/CML Sarah Burns, the Ruth N. Halls Professor of the History of Art (emerita) at Indiana University, provides an in-depth analysis of Lilly Martin Spencer's "Home of the Red, White, and Blue." She places the painting within the broader visual context of women, veterans, and the flag during the U.S. Civil…

Go to the ASHP website for one of our latest podcast -- Seeing the Civil War: Artists, the Public, and Pictorial News and Views -- with historian Josh Brown.

Other resources are found on the Visual Culture of the American Civil War website, where you'll find a video presentation from our 2012 NEH Summer Institute, and primary sources, bibliography, and online materials on the illustrated press. ashpc.ml/6qnk6p

Illustrated Press - Visual Culture of the American Civil War Joshua Brown, Executive Director of the American Social History Project and Professor of History at the Graduate Center, CUNY, discusses the pictorial journalism of the Civil War and the ways battlefront artists covered the conflict before photography could document warfare. This talk took place on…