Bringing history to life

Dr. Henry Kiernan, superintendent of the Bellmore-Merrick school district, first brought the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's Affiliate School Program to Mepham, Calhoun and John F. Kennedy high schools four years ago.

Now Kiernan is bringing the program to the Grand Avenue and Merrick Avenue middle schools.

Founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, the institute is a nonprofit organization that supports the study of American history through a wide range of programs and resources. "The purpose of it is to get our students away from textbooks," said Kiernan. "If you learn history through a textbook, it's deadly. Our purpose here is to inform students that there is so much life in learning history about real people and real events and how they influenced our times, even today. That's what students are interested in."

The institute has an expansive collection of historical artifacts, including more than 60,000 documents detailing the political and social history of the U.S. The collection includes manuscripts, letters, diaries, maps, photographs, books and pamphlets dating from as far back as 1493. Its highlights include signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, a rare printed copy of the first draft of the Constitution, and thousands of unpublished Civil War soldiers' letters.

The institute's Affiliate School Program, in which Kiernan has enrolled district schools, offers a unique gateway to educational resources and events designed to bring American history to life in the classroom. In addition to providing participants access to historical documents, it offers contests in which students can win national history prizes, organizes traveling exhibitions, provides recorded lectures by renowned historians and gives students the chance to meet scholars associated with the institute.