What can old maps teach us about world history? What sorts of evidence do they offer, and is displaying evidence the main purpose of these maps, or can they do other things?
How can old maps help us understand the complexities of colonization in North America? What sorts of evidence do they offer? Does their distinct styling, framing, and content change how a particular landscape can be represented? Might these elements have in fact aided colonization in the Black Hills?
What do historical images of American Indian peoples tell us about the evolving relationships between Indians and non-Indians? What valuable information about our past and ourselves can we glean from artworks that portray indigenous peoples and also the materials that artists used?
What motivated the actions of abolitionists in Illinois? How did abolitionists attempt to transform public opinion on the issue of slavery? How did the abolitionist movement evolve and respond to national events that shook the nation in the 1850s?
Cristen Chapman, National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution–Chicago Chapter 2015 Newberry Teacher Fellow
Why did British imperialism take the form it did in India? How did this change the lives of colonial servants in India? Why did individual Britons go to India? What did they expect to find there? What common experiences did they have?
Who identified as “American” during the Revolution? To what extent did the American Revolution serve the interests of all inhabitants of the emerging nation?
Carolyn Latshaw, National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution–Chicago Chapter 2014 Newberry Teacher Fellow
Why did France’s empire expand to so many parts of the world in the early modern period? How did its expansion shape the history of the United States, Canada, Haiti, and other modern-day countries?
How did U.S. and American Indian artists portray Indian peoples of the West in the late nineteenth century? What relationships exist between representations of American Indians in art and the histories of U.S. settlement?
How did writers and audiences in late Victorian England and America explore the idea of a hidden or double self? In what ways did representations of this self speak to changing understandings of sexuality, gender, and class?
How are commodities extracted, produced, and exchanged? How have those processes shaped the physical and cultural landscape of North America? How might the way we see and study those processes alter our understanding of ourselves, the environment, or the history of North America?