LibGuides: History Unbound: National History Day

Join New York's National History Day

National History Day®(NHD) is a non-profit education organization based in College Park, Maryland. Their annual contest engages students from grades 6 through 12 in original research and historical exploration. Students enter these projects at the local and affiliate levels, with top students advancing to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park.

SCRLC's Digital Services Librarian, Claire Lovell, serves as the Regional Coordinator for NHD's Southern Tier Region, which includes Steuben, Schuyler, Tompkins, Chemung, Tioga, and Broome counties. Regional Coordinators are found here. Contact Claire Lovell to get your institution involved!

Annual Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History

Read about the 2024-2025 theme, "Rights and Responsibilities in History," here: https://www.nyshistoryday.com/theme.html

Historical Argumentation Webinar Series

As part of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Consortium, National History Day has developed programming to help engage NHD teachers and students with the vast resources of the Library of Congress.

Watch the webinars here.

Teacher Guides & Training

Guide to Student Research and Historical Argumentation
Guide put together for NHD by the Library of Congress
National History Day Courses

Regional Resources on the topic of Rights & Responsibilities from NY Heritage

Otsego County Woman's Christian Temperance Union Collection
The WCTU was one of the largest and most influential women’s groups of the 19th century. They supported causes like the abstinence of alcohol, the protection of women and children at home and work, and women’s right to vote. There were chapters throughout the United States that fought at the local and state level to promote these causes.
Suffrage: Political Study Club of Ithaca Scrapbooks
The Political Study Club of Ithaca in Tompkins County, New York, was an outgrowth of the Equal Suffrage Section of the Ithaca Women’s Club, which had been formed in 1894. They fought for women's suffrage.
Belva Lockwood Manuscript Collection
Belva Ann Lockwood (1830–1917), a noted lawyer and a National Equal Rights presidential candidate, was a native of Niagara County. Her lectures covered topics like “The New Woman,” “Equal Rights,” “Suffrage,” “On Marriage” and “Women in Professions.”
Suffrage: the New York State Federation of Women’s Clubs
The suffrage documents from the New York State Federation of Women’s Clubs collection, though limited, demonstrate the complexity of the suffrage issue.
Suffrage: Elmira College Collection
This collection documents the student, faculty and institutional role in the women’s rights movement and is primarily focused around the passage of suffrage in New York State in 1917.
Milk Strikes of Delaware County
Bob Wyer was a newspaper photographer in Delaware County in the 1930s. This collection documents the 1939 and 1940 milk strikes, in which farmers tried to get more money for their milk.
Suffrage: Delhi Equal Suffrage Club Collection
Minutes and records of a small suffrage club in Delaware County, active between 1912 and 1915.
Historic Treatments for Mental Health
Ovid, New York was home to the Willard Asylum. This collection features photos, newsletters and notes from the psychiatric hospital.
The Civil Rights Movement in Elmira
Oral history interviews from the 1980s with former activists from the local Civil Rights movement.
War Refugees & Displaced Persons
Chemung County took in WWII refugees, and this collection shows some of the documents and records for processing and welcoming the new Americans.
Suffrage: Wells College and Howland Stone Store Museum Collections
Many collections including women's suffrage posters and abolitionist correspondence. Notable names of interest include Frances Folsom Cleveland memorabilia and Emily Howland.
Suffrage: Seneca Falls Collection
The first Women’s Rights Convention was held in Seneca Falls in 1848, putting into motion the efforts of women’s rights leaders to achieve equality for women in our nation.
New York Central College: Open to All
New-York Central College was an institution of higher learning founded by anti-slavery Baptists in 1849 in McGraw, New York. The college was notable because it educated blacks as well as whites in the time of southern slavery and northern segregation, and educated women with men at a time when few institutions of higher learning were co-educational.

History Unbound: National History Day

Join New York's National History Day

Annual Theme: ​Rights and Responsibilities in History

Historical Argumentation Webinar Series

Teacher Guides & Training

Regional Resources on the topic of Rights & Responsibilities from NY Heritage

Annual Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in History