Last updated: May 11, 2022
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NHD Article: Discovering Stories of Broken Barriers in America’s National Parks (2020)
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This article first appeared in the National History Day 2020 Themebook. See their website for more information or visit this page to find more NHD articles about National Park Service resources.
By Linda Rosenblum, Education Program Manager, Office of Interpretation, Education and Volunteers, National Park Service
BREAKING SOCIAL BARRIERS FLORISSANT FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT (COLORADO)
The fossils, rocks, hills, and valleys that make up Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument reveal to us an ancient story of redwood forests, volcanic eruptions, and a climate much different than today. In addition to a rich ancient history, the Florissant valley also contains the stories of prehistoric hunting and gathering Paleo-Indians, the Ute and Jicarilla Apache peoples, the travels of a pioneer nation, and early scientists making their way through discovery into a different time.
Adeline Hornbek and the Homestead Act: A Colorado Success Story
Adeline Warfield Hornbek, a woman who broke historical gender barriers, was presented in the introduction of this article. Activities include map interpretation, reading informational text, finding contextual clues in photographs and images, and applying evidence from a variety of sources to create a project on homesteading in the U.S. in the nineteenth century or researching historical women.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (NEW YORK)
Women and men gathered at Seneca Falls, New York, in the summer of 1848 to rally and organize for women’s rights. During the Seneca Falls Convention, they wrote and signed a list of demands for equal rights for women. Some of these demands were realized in their lifetimes, but many were not. These activists were breaking gender barriers in the social structure.
The M’Clintock House: A Home to the Women’s Rights Movement
How did a home in upstate New York become the site for the creation of one of the most important human rights documents in American history? Why? Students use historical maps, images, cartoons, and readings to try to answer these questions and explore the lives of the women and men who attended the convention.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA)
“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”
Frederick Douglass spent his life fighting for justice and equality. Born into slavery in 1818, he escaped as a young man and became a leading voice in the abolitionist movement. People everywhere still find inspiration today in his tireless struggle, brilliant words, and inclusive vision of humanity. Douglass’s legacy is preserved here at Cedar Hill, where he lived his last 17 years.
Journey from Slavery to Statesman: The Homes of Frederick Douglass
Using Douglass’s own words, maps, and other primary sources, students will learn about the life of this great American hero. Douglass broke through the barriers of slavery and race from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, as a slave, to New Bedford, Massachusetts, as a freedom seeker, to Washington, D.C., as an author, journalist, lecturer, and statesman.
JOSEPH BELLAMY HOUSE (CONNECTICUT)
The Reverend Dr. Joseph Bellamy was a leading preacher, author, and educator in New England during the second half of the eighteenth century. Bellamy graduated from Yale College in 1735 and went on to study theology with the famous preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts. Bellamy joined Edwards in promoting the cause of the Great Awakening, a religious movement that stressed a deep personal conversion in Christianity that led to a fundamental change in American Protestantism and evangelicalism. This new religious fervor allowed the lower and middle classes to break social structure through spiritual awakening and embracing a new individualism. The Joseph Bellamy House is on the Register of National Historic Places, a National Park Service program.
The Joseph Bellamy House: The Great Awakening in Puritan New England
The rural town of Bethlehem, Connecticut, still conveys an image its first minister would recognize. The stark white steeple of the First Church of Christ (Congregational) fills the horizon. To the north, opposite the village green, the Reverend Dr. Joseph Bellamy’s immense white clapboard house rises from the top of a hill, an imposing presence that makes the village appear diminutive in comparison. The house stands today as a reminder of Bellamy’s role as a leading preacher, author, and educator in New England from 1740 to 1790. Students use historical maps, readings, and images to piece together the story of how Bellamy and other clergy lead a movement that changed American religion and social structures.
ARTHURDALE HISTORIC DISTRICT (WEST VIRGINIA)
Arthurdale, West Virginia, was the first of 100 homestead communities built from the ground up by the federal government during the Great Depression. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt promoted the development of such communities to Congress as part of a humanitarian effort to improve the living conditions of coal miners and other chronically impoverished families. For politicians and policy commentators, it was a flashpoint for the great debate over the role of government during an economic crisis. Eleanor Roosevelt and others who supported her humanitarian reforms encouraged lawmakers to break through traditional roles of government to include social improvement and humanitarian programs.
Arthurdale: A New Deal Community Experiment
Students will explore the role of government in community planning, building, and social welfare of the people. Through exploration of historical maps, images, personal accounts, and informational readings, students will learn about the goals of the New Deal and its alphabet soup of social welfare programs during the Great Depression. Students will use evidence from research of these primary documents to argue whether they believe that the Arthurdale community and ultimately the goals New Deal social programs were successes or failures.
BREAKING BARRIERS TO EDUCATION LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (ARKANSAS)
Little Rock Central High School is recognized for the role it played in the desegregation of public schools in the United States. In 1957, nine African American students persisted in attending the formerly all-white Central High School despite strong protest from the white community of Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the most prominent national example of the implementation of the May 17, 1954, Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education. The National Park Service interprets the story of how these students broke through the barrier of segregation to have equal access to education at Little Rock’s Central High School, which is still serving the community as a public high school.
Every Person Has a Story of Courage: The Little Rock Nine
In 1957, nine African American students entered Little Rock Central High School. Each had chosen to go to the previously all-white high school for various reasons—it was close to their homes, it offered more courses than their other schools, and/or they exercised their right to attend the high school following the Brown v. Board of Education decision. No matter what their reasons, the nine students showed great character and courage in the face of adversity. This lesson identifies the nine students, now known to history as the “Little Rock Nine,” and discusses the issue of courage and character development for students of all ages.
BREAKING BARRIERS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE (FLORIDA)
Lessons about the space race teach some of the most extreme highs and lows in recent human history. The first Apollo moon landing on July 20, 1969, was the culmination of breakthroughs in the fields of aviation, space flight, computer science, navigation, and a multitude of other technologies and sciences. The National Park Service protects and interprets the Canaveral National Seashore, the Atlantic coast location of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force station.
America’s Space Program: Exploring a New Frontier
In a lesson plan featuring Canaveral National Seashore in Florida and other historic sites, discover how NASA, private industry, and research institutions across the country cooperated to develop and implement the complex technology that enabled humans to walk on the moon.
ALLEGHENY PORTAGE RAILROAD NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (PENNSYLVANIA)
As the first railroad to circumvent the Allegheny Mountains, the Allegheny Portage Railroad was the finishing piece of the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal. “The Portage” opened in 1834, marking the first time there was one direct route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. All things to all people, it served merchants, passengers, slaves in pursuit of freedom, and soldiers from the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Follow nineteenth-century travelers as they cross the treacherous Allegheny Mountains using this innovative inclined railway.
Allegheny Portage Railroad: Developing Transportation Technology
As the nineteenth century dawned, it became clear that the transportation problems facing the new United States were as enormous as its territory. Post roads ran along the Atlantic seaboard, but by the 1820s it seemed everyone wanted to move west, beyond the coastal mountains. As these new lands were opened for settlement, the few roads penetrating the mountains became clogged with wagons and travelers on horseback and on foot.
Railroads and canals provided more efficient transport, but early railroads could not handle the steep slopes of the Allegheny Mountains. The Allegheny Portage Railroad, which consisted of a series of ten inclined planes connected by level sections of track, provided an innovative solution to this problem. Stationary steam engines towed railroad cars up the first five inclines and lowered them down the remaining five. This railroad was part of a much larger system, the Pennsylvania Main Line of Public Works, built by the state of Pennsylvania to compete with the Erie Canal in New York.
BENTONVILLE BATTLEFIELD STATE (NORTH CAROLINA)
In March 1865, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston maneuvered 20,000 troops toward the small town of Bentonville, North Carolina. After three days of fighting, there were more than 4,000 wounded. Over 550 of these wounded soldiers were treated at Bentonville in a Union field hospital, a new innovation developed as the Civil War dragged on. Of the 6,000 acres on which the Battle of Bentonville occurred, only 120 are maintained today as Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site. The battleground is maintained by an agency of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Battle of Bentonville: Caring for Casualties of the Civil War
Students will research through historical maps, images, readings, and primary accounts the development of the military field hospital over the course of the Civil War, culminating in the hospital at the home of John and Amy Harper in Bentonville, North Carolina, the location of one of the last major engagements of the war. By 1865, the United States Army Medical Department had developed an effective system for operating field hospitals and an ambulance corps.
Lesson plans and other educational resources produced by the National Park Service and some of its partners are available to educators through the NPS Educators’ Porta. A simple keyword or subject search of the educators’ portal can provide examples of lesson plans and activities that can provide a starting place for finding great stories on which to base a student National History Day project.
To access more theme resources, go to nhd.org/themebook.