Each year, more than half a million students nationwide participate in National History Day. Students choose topics related to a theme, conduct primary and secondary research, analyze and interpret their sources, and present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. Projects are evaluated in competitions at the local, state, and national levels during the spring.

In Chicago, the process starts in the fall, when the Chicago Metro History Fair begins preparing teachers and students for History Fair competitions in Chicago and suburban Cook, Lake, Kane, and DuPage counties.

Participation in History Fair helps students improve their reading, writing, thinking, and presentation skills as they learn history. It’s also an opportunity for them to use Chicago’s diverse archival collections, in person or online.

CAA encourages local archives, museums, historical societies, and libraries with primary sources related to “Leadership & Legacy in History” to support history education by sharing relevant collection information with Chicago Metro History Fair by 5 September. If you can’t share by that date, becoming familiar with relevant holdings is still a way to for your organization to prepare for potential student researchers later in the school year. Or, use “Leadership & Legacy” as the topic of a staff reference activity or discussion for American Archives Month in October.

Top: Chart illustrating the theory of concentration. In Francis W. Parker’s Talks on Pedagogics: an outline of the theory of concentration (1894). Public domain. See more at https://archive.org/details/talksonpedagogic01park.

Bottom: Dr. Albert Sabin (left) and leaders of Rotary International announce Rotary’s goal of eradicating polio at a press conference in 1985. Copyright Rotary International. All rights reserved.