Williams College Student Named Gilder Lehrman History Scholar
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Williams College junior Ben Davidson of Swarthmore, Penn., has been named a 2009 Gilder Lehrman One-Week History Scholar.One of 50 students nationwide selected for the distinction, Davidson will take part in a weeklong program in New York City designed to honor and support outstanding students of history.
The scholars will meet with a series of eminent historians and enjoy behind-the-scenes access to several historical archives and museums across New York City.
Applicants to the Scholars Program this year represented 170 colleges and universities in the United States.
Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history.
The Gilder Lehrman Collection contains more than 60,000 documents detailing the political and social history of the United States. The Collection's holdings include manuscript letters, diaries, maps, photographs, printed books, and pamphlets ranging from 1493 through modern times.
The Collection is particularly rich with materials in the Revolutionary, Antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Highlights of the Collection include signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment, a rare printed copy of the first draft of the Constitution, and thousands of unpublished Civil War soldiers' letters. Letters written by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and others vividly record the issues and events of their day. The writings of such notable women as Lucy Knox, Mercy Otis Warren, and Catherine Macaulay discuss a variety of military, political, and social issues.
The Institute maintains two websites, www.gilderlehrman.org and the quarterly online journal www.historynow.org.
