COLLEGE PARK, MD – June 5, 2024 – National History Day® (NHD) is proud to announce a slate of student showcases at cultural institutions in Washington, D.C., during its 50th anniversary National Contest. 99 student historical research projects – from papers and documentaries to performances and tabletop exhibits – will be displayed at Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the White House Historical Association on Wednesday, June 12.
When Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) opens at 10 am on Wednesday, June 12, 51 student exhibits will be on display at the museum on topics ranging from the history of redlining, the inclusion of women in the Olympics, Brown v. Board of Education, the Battle of Midway, and more. The exhibits will remain on display all day during opening hours. Also at the National Museum of American History, selected students will present their historical performances in a performance showcase from 1 to 5 pm. The performances will be on display in the Hall of Music.
In addition to exhibits and performances on display at NMAH, the National Museum of African American History and Culture will present 16 student documentaries on African history, African American history, civil rights, and human rights in the Oprah Winfrey Theater from 11 am to 3 pm. National History Day National Contest entries from 13 states and NHD International will be represented at this documentary showcase.
Across the National Mall at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), a special “In Language There Is Life: I ka ‘ōlelo nō ke ola” Showcase will feature five projects from eight middle and high school students from Hawai‘i who completed a National History Day project in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) and qualified at the Hawaiʻi affiliate contest. These students were invited to Washington, D.C. to share their work with a national audience. Their projects show perspectives and understanding vital to their culture and support larger community efforts that give life to Indigenous languages. The projects will be available to view at NMAI on Wednesday, June 12, from 10 am to 12pm as well as on Monday, June 10, from 10 am to 12pm in the Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Finally, 14 students have been invited to a special writers’ workshop with the White House Historical Association. The Association will create a virtual showcase of papers that cover topics related to the history of the White House or the history of the presidency. Selected students are invited to attend a writing workshop at the White House Visitor’s Center on June 12.
“Inspiring students to take their study of history beyond the classroom is a core tenant of our work at National History Day. In our organization’s 50th anniversary year, we are excited to share these NHD projects at the Smithsonian Institution and the White House Historical Association,” shares Executive Director Cathy Gorn. “We appreciate the collaborative effort of these cultural institutions to showcase the outstanding and important work of these history students.”
The Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch, is a member of National History Day’s 50th Anniversary Honorary Committee. Additionally, the Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo), will attend the NMAI Hawaiian Language Showcase to show support for Indigenous language revitalization and the humanities.
Please meet the 2024 National History Day students and their projects selected for these prestigious showcases:
Exhibit Showcase – National Museum of American History
Student: Kristian Pittman
Title: The Other Side of the Tracks: The Legacy of Redlining
NHD Affiliate: Alabama
Students: Julia Samuel, Olivia Yurkew
Title: Women’s Inclusion in the Olympics
NHD Affiliate: Alaska
Students: Leuātea Milo, Edna Salani
Title: Glazing Through The Universe: A Turning Point in the Study of Astronomy
NHD Affiliate: American Samoa
Student: Joseph Kim
Title: Simon: Groundbreaking Technology that Changed Phones Forever
NHD Affiliate: Arizona
Students: Bhavana Gudipati, Audrey Cope
Title: Mustard Gas to Chemotherapy: How a Chemical Warfare Agent Paved The Path to Modern Medicine
NHD Affiliate: Arkansas
Students: Emily Huang, HIlary Hung, Megan Phan
Title: “To the hip hip hop-a you don’t stop:” Turning the Tables on Music History
NHD Affiliate: California
Student: Jayden Jagiello
Title: The Secret Is In The Seal: Turning Tupperware Into A Dynasty
NHD Affiliate: Colorado
Student: Emmett Smith
Title: A Battle of Rights for the Incarcerated: The Legacy of the Attica Prison Riot
NHD Affiliate: Connecticut
Student: Emily Matthews
Title: War Sweet War: The Crisis-Driven Emergence of the American Sweet Tooth
NHD Affiliate: Delaware
Students: Lucas Marino, Mackenzie Shankle
Title: Figurehead Night Out
NHD Affiliate: Florida
Student: Madelyn Reardanz
Title: Maynard for Mayor
NHD Affiliate: Georgia
Student: Noelle Camacho
Title: Around the World in 9-Minutes: Guam and the Transpacific Cable Lines
NHD Affiliate: Guam
Students: Precious Chloe Cadiz, Desiree Jane Galvez, Kristine Orosco
Title: Merrie Monarch: King David Kalakaua
NHD Affiliate: Hawaiʻi
Students: Maren Gardiner, Riley Smith
Title: Any Color, So Long As It’s Black
NHD Affiliate: Idaho
Students: Karter Fugate, Leonidas Kalantzis-Jimenez
Title: Remembering Emmett – Till Justice is Served
NHD Affiliate: Illinois
Students: Emma An, Olivia Lim
Title: Bromine Therapy: From Battlefield Hospitals To The Public
NHD Affiliate: Indiana
Students: Shelby Groon, Kenley Moffatt, Kenna Willms
Title: Sesame Street: A Turning Point Towards Sunny Days in Educational Television
NHD Affiliate: Iowa
Student: Eniolu Wintoki
Title: Marching Forward The Legacy of Executive Order 8802
NHD Affiliate: Kansas
Students: Chloe Lefort, Aiden Recinos, Charlotte Trauth
Title: The Guillotine and Capital Punishment
NHD Affiliate: Louisiana
Students: Evelyn Bryant, Daisy Vining
Title: Jesse Owens: Racing Against Nazi Racial Barriers
NHD Affiliate: Maine
Students: Asher Lyons, Grace Guo
Title: Attacking Architectural Inaccessibility: The Americans with Disabilities Act
NHD Affiliate: Maryland
Students: Jessica Brayer, Molly Perlman, Alexandra Weiss
Title: The Movement of the Red Cross
NHD Affiliate: Massachusetts
Students: Annabel Klaasen, Zaire Polk, Teresa Romanelli
Title: The Gross Points of Grosse Pointe: Examining the Effects of the Grosse Pointe Point System
NHD Affiliate: Michigan
Students: Sammy Hadley, Dylan Morse, Sam Nowak, Tyler Wickum
Title: Brown v. Board of Education
NHD Affiliate: Minnesota
Student: Keylee Lang
Title: The Modern Woman: How Flappers Changed Society’s Views on Women
NHD Affiliate: Mississippi
Student: Romell Calhoun
Title: When They Finally Listened: The Genius of Joseph Blair
NHD Affiliate: Missouri
Student: Aniya Smoker
Title: The Survival of Native American People through the Slaughter of the Buffalo
NHD Affiliate: Montana
Student: John Mark Householder
Title: The Invention of the Nuclear Bomb
NHD Affiliate: Nebraska
Student: Edward Stone
Title: A Golden Spike
NHD Affiliate: New Hampshire
Student: Rahma El Agamy
Title: Glowing in Death: “The Case of the Five Women Doomed to Die”
NHD Affiliate: New Jersey
Student: Lilah Berkson
Title: Turning the Page in Feminism: How Oral Contraception Changed Women’s History
NHD Affiliate: New Mexico
Students: Caroline Hardart, Louise Jacobs, Virginia Shah
Title: Automats and American Identity: Horn & Hardart’s Impact on Culture and Social Interaction
NHD Affiliate: New York
Student: Woo Jin Ryu
Title: The Kimchi Twist: Korean Immigrants ‘Turned’ Their Heads to Hawaiian Paradise in 1903
NHD Affiliate: NHD China
Students: Olivia Wang, Xintong Wang
Title: Sir Harold Gillies: Suturing the Face of Modern Plastic Surgery
NHD Affiliate: NHD International
Student: Hannah Jang
Title: The Power of the Pill: The First Oral Contraceptive and Women’s Reproductive Rights in America
NHD Affiliate: NHD Korea
Students: Olivia Stetler, Zipporah Tunnage
Title: In Flames: America’s Only Successful Coup
NHD Affiliate: North Carolina
Students: Marlee Adair, Reece Hall
Title: North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway
NHD Affiliate: North Dakota
Students: Jacob Clellen, Bernat Corcelles, Robert Weinberg
Title: Highway Revolution: The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
NHD Affiliate: Ohio
Student: Amelia Lim
Title: The Turning Point of the R.M.S. Titanic: The Sinking that Sparked Changes in Maritime Law
NHD Affiliate: Oklahoma
Students: Acadia Hawley, Margo Insalaco
Title: Harvey Milk: Destroying Closet Doors
NHD Affiliate: Oregon
Students: Sudha Chandrasekaran, Aryash Shyam
Title: The Great Depression: Transforming America’s Social & Economic Landscape
NHD Affiliate: Pennsylvania
Students: Morgan Cook, Charlotte DeGaetano
Title: Through the Lens of Hardship: Dorothea Lange’s Portraits of the Great Depression
NHD Affiliate: Rhode Island
Students: Abella Grant, Rosm YacTistoj
Title: Brown v. Board of Education
NHD Affiliate: South Carolina
Student: Sylvia Turbiville
Title: Fingerprints: Criminology
NHD Affiliate: South Dakota
Students: William Fowler, Hudson Hazlewood
Title: The Revolutionary Grateful Dead
NHD Affiliate: Tennessee
Student: Rece Barlow
Title: Through the Eyes of Nimitz- The Battle of Midway, A Turning Point in WW2
NHD Affiliate: Texas
Student: Annelise (Annie) Johnson
Title: The Winter War: A Turning Point in History
NHD Affiliate: Utah
Students: Cecilia Neffinger, Eliana Venables-Vogel
Title: The Champlain Canal: When Boats Finally Rose
NHD Affiliate: Vermont
Students: Kai Jackson, Chris Lee
Title: A Turning Point in the Middle East: The Arab Revolt of 1916
NHD Affiliate: Virginia
Students: Michelle Glynn, Rachael Winker
Title: Corset To Coco: A Turning Point in History
NHD Affiliate: Wisconsin
Students: Grant Stewart, Will Walsh
Title: Bone Wars
NHD Affiliate: Wyoming
Performance Showcase – National Museum of American History
Students: Amber Baranoski, Rene Greenleaf, Valerie Greenleaf, Brady Seeger
Title: The Hello Girls: Turning Points in War Communication and Women’s Equality
NHD Affiliate: Alaska
Students: Jasmine Akeman, Joanna Carney, Rubi Cruz, Leightan Koff
Title: Ghost Girls: The Living Dead
NHD Affiliate: Georgia
Students: Kayla DeBlois, Nevaeh Dowell, Chana Oden, Morgan Walker
Title: The Washerwomen Strike of 1881
NHD Affiliate: Georgia
Student: Aesop Birkemeier
Title: Turning Points in WWII: The Legacy of the 10th Mountain Division
NHD Affiliate: Indiana
Student: Spencer Carman
Title: She Is My Sunshine: How Charles Fiske’s Fight for His Daughter Became a Turning Point in the Organ Transplantation System
NHD Affiliate:Massachusetts
Student: Megan LeaTrea
Title: From Symbols to Syllables: How Grace Hopper’s Compiler Unlocked the Computer Age
NHD Affiliate: Michigan
Student: Hayden Washegesic
Title: AIM: The Natives Fight Back
NHD Affiliate: Michigan
Students: Audrey Cronk, Lucy Dubin, Shana Foley, Ava Rogers
Title: Turning the Tides of Hatred into a Shared Voice of Activism: The Killing of Vincent Chin
NHD Affiliate: New Jersey
Student: Isabella Hardy
Title: Hang Down Your Head and Cry: The Turning Point Of The American Folk Revival
NHD Affiliate: North Carolina
Student: Zee Carnes
Title: The Cherokee Syllabary: A Turning Point in Native American Education, Geo-Political Communication, and Intra-Tribal Gender Relations
NHD Affiliate: Tennessee
Student: Macy Huish
Title: Elizabeth Packard and the Rise of the Oppressed: Turning Points in Married Women’s and Insane Asylum Patients’ Rights
NHD Affiliate: Utah
Student: Batia Seraydarian
Title: Modern Dance and Martha Graham: How One Woman Revolutionized Dance
NHD Affiliate: Virginia
Student: Caroline Juergens
Title: The History of Hand Hygiene in Hospitals
NHD Affiliate: Wisconsin
Documentary Showcase – National Museum of African American History and Culture
Students: Ethan Gwinn, Ddwayne Lockett-James
Title: Rediscovering Roots In the Harlem Renaissance: How Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon Contributed to Clarifying African American Ancestry
NHD Affiliate: Alabama
Student: Nathan Davies-Venn
Title: Henrietta Lacks – The Woman at The Heart of Modern Medicine: Science, Ethics and Race
NHD Affiliate: Arizona
Student: Grant Adams
Title: Bayard Rustin: Mr. March on Washington
NHD Affiliate: Arkansas
Students: Kayla Nguyen, Aarushi Sharma, William Norwood
Title: Nourishing The Youth of America: The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program
NHD Affiliate: California
Student: Nia Stephens
Title: Out with the Old and In with the New: A New Economic Pathway for Black Women
NHD Affiliate: Georgia
Students: Lydia Frost, Millicent Norton, Teja Rana, Lisa Tao
Title: The Turn of the Anti-Lynching Movement Through the Work of Ida B. Wells
NHD Affiliate: Illinois
Student: Madeleine Tan
Title: Operation Crossroads — Turning Paradise Into Poison: The Marshall Islands Nuclear Legacy
NHD Affiliate: NHD International (Singapore)
Students: Joyce Lee, Janelle Okore, Jaiden Womack
Title: The Spark that Ignited the Civil Rights Movement: The Children’s March of Birmingham
NHD Affiliate: New Jersey
Students: Samuella Konan, Hanna Pearce
Title: The Timeless Tragedy of the Tulsa Race Massacre
NHD Affiliate: New Jersey
Student: Jay Patel
Title: The Color of Blood: Dr. Charles Drew’s Discovery, A Turning Point In Blood Preservation
NHD Affiliate: New York
Students: Abigail Blair, Lyla Varnum
Title: The Day the River Ran Red: The Wilmington Coup of 1898
NHD Affiliate: North Carolina
Student: Kimora Miller
Title: The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage
NHD Affiliate: Tennessee
Student: Tisha Sinha
Title: When Words Fail Music Speaks: Nina Simone’s Social Reform for Civil Rights
NHD Affiliate: Texas
Student: Colin Li
Title: AWS vs. WASA: A Turning Point Lawsuit for the Anacostia River
NHD Affiliate: Virginia
Student: Caroline Bruton
Title: The Moton High School Strike: A Student-Led Turning Point in Public Education and the Civil Rights Movement
NHD Affiliate: Virginia
Students: Shane Manzano, Quinn Wimpress
Title: Crossroads of Change: How The Interstate Highway System Shaped America’s Urban Landscape
NHD Affiliate: Washington
Hawaiian Language Showcase – National Museum of the American Indian
Students: LeHiwa Keo, Kaliko Sproat
Title: Ka Mahele Nui: Kūpaʻa Ma Hope o ka ʻĀina (Senior Group Exhibit)
City: Kahuku
Student: Kilolani Smith
Title: He huliau ma ka mōʻaukala: Hikiau Heiau (Junior Individual Documentary)
City: Hilo
Student: Mana Inoue
Title: Nā Kepanī ma Hawaiʻi (Junior Individual Exhibit)
City: Hilo
Student: Māhealani Figueroa-Lee
Title: Nā Radiō o Hawaiʻi: He Huliau (Senior Individual Documentary)
City: Hilo
Students: Hālaʻi Nunu, Huali Nunu, Kaleʻa Kahawaii
Title: Ka Palapala Mihi 1993: Minamina Nō Hoʻi (Senior Group Performance)
City: Kahuku
Paper Showcase – White House Historical Association
Student: Zoe Keith
Title: The American Sputnik: How Van Cliburn’s Tchaikovsky Competition Victory Furthered Harmony in International Relations
NHD Affiliate: Colorado
Student: Enzo Encarnacion-Bognar
Title: The Cuban Missile Crisis
NHD Affiliate: Delaware
Student: Yashwaant Ravi
Title: Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle: The Novel that Revolutionized Food Safety
NHD Affiliate: Florida
Student: Maxine Madriaga
Title: Road to Recovery: The New Deal
NHD Affiliate: Hawaiʻi
Student: Henry Everett
Title: Turning the Tide: How The American Railway Union Changed the Federal Strike Policy
NHD Affiliate: Illinois
Student: Tyler Li
Title: Marbury vs. Madison as a Turning Point in the Rise of the Supreme Court
NHD Affiliate: Indiana
Student: Caroline Kramer
Title: A New Colossus: The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924
NHD Affiliate: Minnesota
Student: Evan Ewert
Title: The Burning Monk
NHD Affiliate: Minnesota
Student: Sydney Kang
Title: Madam Secretary: How Frances Perkins Transformed America and Its Workforce Through the New Deal
NHD Affiliate: New Jersey
Student: Baxter Oates
Title: Fellow Traveler: Sputnik and Its Ripple Effects
NHD Affiliate: New York
Student: Sam Tae
Title: Inchon Landings: A Turning Point in American Foreign Policy
NHD Affiliate: New York
Student: Sebastian Jew
Title: From Conflict to Cooperation: The 1969 Sino-Soviet Border Conflict and Sino-American Rapprochement
NHD Affiliate: New York
Student: Elizabeth Stanley
Title: Amber Hagerman: The Tragedy that Saves America’s Children
NHD Affiliate: South Carolina
Student: Cooper Wallace
Title: Reconciliation and Revisionism: Confederate Cemeteries’ Impact on Historical Narratives of the Civil War
NHD Affiliate: Tennessee
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About National History Day (NHD)
NHD is a non-profit organization based in College Park, Maryland, that seeks to improve the teaching and learning of history. The National History Day Contest was established in 1974 and currently engages more than half a million students every year in conducting original research on historical topics of interest. Students present their research as a documentary, exhibit, paper, performance, or website. Projects compete first at the local and affiliate levels, where the top entries are invited to the National Contest at the University of Maryland at College Park. NHD is sponsored in part by the 400 Years of African American History Commission, The Better Angels Society, the Bezos Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Behring Global Educational Foundation, and the National Park Service. For more information, visit nhd.org.
