2010 Theme: Innovation in History:
Impact and Change
Mission Statement
The future of democracy depends on an inspired, thoughtful and informed citizenry. Historical understanding is crucial to that process. National History Day teaches essential historical literacy that motivates students to secure the future of democracy.
National History Day makes history come alive for America's youth by engaging them in the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past. Through hands-on experiences and presentations, today's youth are better able to inform the present and shape the future. NHD inspires children through exciting competitions and transforms teaching through project-based curriculum and instruction.
Sample National Topics
• Longbow or the Stirrup or Gunpowder: Revolutionizing Warfare
• Metallurgy: Transforming Agricultural, Military and Artistic Tools
• Irrigation: Urbanization of Communities
• Ox Drawn Plow: Opening Trade, Transporting Goods
• Electrum: Standard Unit of Measure
• Anesthesia: Improving Surgery, Improving Health
• Waterwheel: Harnessing Energy
• The Compass and Exploration
• Lateen Sails: Sailing Against the Wind
• Gatlin Gun or Repeating Rifle: Faster than a Speeding Bullet
• Telescope: Bringing the Stars into Focus
• Gutenberg Press: Spreading Literacy to the Masses
• Heliocentric Solar System: Centering our Thoughts on Astronomy
• Mercator’s Projection: A Grid of Directions
• The Sextant: Guided by the Stars
• Barometer: Under Pressure
• Pendulum Clock: Measuring Time
• Telegraph: Communicating through Code
• The Steam Engine: Faster and Stronger
• Spinning Jenny: Automation of Weaving
• Canning: Preserving Food
• Cotton Gin: Expanding Production and Slavery
• Automated Loom: Speed Weaving
• Transcontinental Railroad: Linking a Continent
• Electricity: Shedding Light
• Photography: Capturing Time
• Refrigeration: Cold Storage
• The Reaper: Slicing through Labor Costs
• Sewing Machine: Seamless Production
• Dynamite: Exploding and Expanding Construction Projects
• Plastics: The Gift that Won’t Stop Giving
• Internal Combustion Engine: Speed and Energy
• Telephone: Communication Connection
• X-Ray: Seeing through the Future
• Household Vacuum: Cleaning Up
• Airplanes: Transforming Transportation: Connecting the World
• Polio Vaccine: New Hope
• Laser Technology: Curing without Cutting
• Barbed Wire: Fencing the Future
Suggested Illinois Topics for Innovation in History: Impact and Change
Science & Technology
Preston Tucker designed and built automobiles with new features, including safety measures that are standard practice today. Records of Tucker’s activities in Chicago can be found in the War Assets Administration files.
During World War II, the United States used airships built at the Goodyear Airdock building in Akron, Ohio. Why would airships be used instead of traditional airplanes? The Inspector of the Naval Aircraft Records within the Bureau of Aeronautics holdings document the design, technical development and construction of these airships.
Life after death or re-invention?! Examine cases relating to the Eastland disaster and records showcasing it’s GreatLake service in the 1920s and ‘30s as the USS Wilmette.
Examine changes in the land and human impact with a look at Wisconsin’s Highway 12 just over the Baraboo Hills. From farmland to Badger Ordnance Works to UW-Madison married student housing to the work of the Badger Re-Use Committee of Saulk County, is this innovation in history? You be the judge.
The Ferris Wheel at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago showcased American engineering ingenuity, but did it have a larger contribution?
NASA’s NERVA project intended to use a nuclear engine to propel a space craft. Records of the JohnH.GlennResearchCenter (formerly the LewisResearchCenter) of Cleveland, Ohio include this project’s files. Determine the benefits, costs, and implications of this innovative science.
Government Actions
The Farmers Home Administration provided small farmers with loans to construct or repair homes, improve farming operations, or become farm owners. Applications from Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota document these activities and the individual guidance given in farm and home management.
The federal government created the U.S. Life Saving Service in 1871 to try and save sailors when ships were in distress. We have a variety of life saving service stations records.
Reversing the flow of the Chicago River improved the health of Chicago residents with cleaner drinking water. But what occurred downstate, where the diverted water flowed?
As part of the War on Poverty, President Johnson created the Office of Economic Opportunity to promote educational opportunities and job training among the poor. Administrative materials from a later federal governmental group, the Community Services Administration highlight local efforts in the Great Lakes region.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese cut off approximately 90% of the United States’ supply to rubber. The federal government began to look towards alternative sources for latex, including dandelions and established test plots in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Social Action - - - Court Records - - - etc.
The struggle to desegregate schools became part of the larger civil rights movement. On June 10-11, 1965 more than 100,000 African-American students stayed home, boycotting school, to protest segregated, overcrowded and inferior school facilities. Court records document the efforts of city officials to stop the boycott, as well as the organizers’ motivation.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, numbers on clocks and watch faces were painted with radium. By the 1920s and 1930s, numbers of radium dial painters (mostly women or girls) in Ottawa, Illinois and across the country became seriously ill and died. What did the surviving painters do? And how has this impacted our work environment? Our facility has photographs documenting the painters at work, as well as other related materials.
Patent infringement – Who’s innovation really was it? Check out Civil Case 21292, Abigail R. Fuller vs. Marshall Field & Co. or others to investigate this concept.
Court cases stemming from the Iroquois Theatre Fire demonstrate the severity of the disaster. What happened after the loss of so many lives?
The case of Dorothy Gautreaux vs. Patricia Harris, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Chicago Housing Authority tackled discriminatory practices in twentieth century housing markets.
Examine efforts for gender equality in the workplace with innovative, precedent-setting court cases. For example, in Jo Carol LaFleur vs. Board of Education, Cleveland, Ohio, mandatory maternity leave for pregnant female teachers was ruled unconstitutional. While in Thelma Bowe, et al, vs. Colgate Palmolive Company, hiring rules involving weight-lifting ability, when solely applied to female applicants, was found unconstitutional.
Did an influx of immigration lead to innovation in the United States? Enrico Fermi is one example.
Suggested Indiana Topics for Innovation in History: Impact and Change
Agriculture and Land
The Chill Plow: Innovation in Farming*
The Homestead Act: Land Innovation
Communication
BBC Radio: Connecting the World
Braille: Innovating Communication for the Blind
The Printing Press: Information Innovation
Government
Transforming Government: FDR and The New Deal
Brown vs. The Board of Education: Ending Legal Segregation
Glastnost: Opening the USSR
Education
Title IX: Gender Equality in Education
Attempting to Transform Cultures: American Indian Boarding Schools
Medical
Vaccination: Preventing Illness and Death
Ryan White: Changing Awareness*
Col. Eli Lilly: Pharmaceutical Chemist and Business Entrepreneur*
Percy Julian: Creating Innovation While Overcoming Discrimination*
Indiana’s Eugenics Laws*
Philanthropic
Lilly Endowment: Impacting Community and Culture in Indiana*
Transportation
Indiana’s Interurban: Transportation Innovation*
The National Road: Westward Settlement to 20th Century Auto Road*
Indiana’s Canal Project*
Transportation Innovation at the Falls of the Ohio*
Wright Brothers: Innovation in Transportation*
The Silk Road: Innovation and Trade
Technology
Gatling Gun: Impact of Destruction*
Radar: Military Technology Transformed to Predict Weather
The Manhattan Project: Racing to the Atomic Age
Suggested South Carolina Topics for Innovation in History: Impact and Change
- The rise of neoclassical architecture: the works of Robert Mills (perhaps students could look at his work and its influences on other buildings)
- H.L. Hunley and the Legacy of the First Successful Combat Submarine
- Innovative Christianity: the Evangelical Movement in Colonial South Carolina (explore the rise of evangelical churches)
- Independence through Innovation: The Growth of the A.M.E.Church in South Carolina (similar to #3)
- Child Labor in the South Carolina Textile Mills and the Compromise of New Labor Laws
- In the name of progress: the Building of Santee Cooper (look at impact and how it helped)
- Cutting edge for its time: the SC Lunatic Asylum
- Revolutionary ideas: the 1868 Constitution
- Innovation in the face of adversity: Eliza Lucas Pinckney’s indigo planting in South Carolina
- The impact of African culture on innovative rice farming methods
- A new way of doing things: How Septima Poinsette Clark’s citizenship schools sparked the civil rights movement
- An innovative way to combine two cultures: the Gullah language allows slaves to exist in SC while preserving aspects of African culture
- The constitutional convention (and SC’s participation), political innovations of rule of law, balance of power, etc
- Railroads and the transformation of the Southern landscape
- Innovation in the field: Francis Marion’s method of guerilla warfare
- The Innovation of the Cotton Gin and its Impact
- E.G. Seibels and the invention of the vertical filing system
- Rural Electrification in South Carolina
- The Innovations of the Anderson Car Company
- Art and Innovation during the New Deal
- Civilian Conservation Corps, Impact on Forestry and the State Park System
- Wil Lou Gray and Innovation in Education (same idea for other education leaders?)
- The Impact and Change resulting from the Savannah River Site
- The Impact of the BMW Plant in Spartanburg
Suggested Texas Topics for Innovation in History: Impact and Change
Lady Bird Johnson: Innovating the Role ofFirst Lady
Politicians in the Sky: LBJ ChangesCampaign Techniques
Innovative Governance in Response toCrisis: The Galveston Plan for CityGovernment
Hernandez vs. Bastrop: New Ways ofViewing Equality
Sweatt vs. Painter: Paving the Way forLegal Opportunity
Pappy O’Daniel and Radio: A New Era inTexas Politics
Don Haskins: Changing the Way Basketball was played
Changing the Way People Travel:Southwest Airlines and the Impact ofLower Airfares
Barbara Jordan: Changing Opportunities forAfrican-American Women in the South
Innovative Ideas in Range Management:The Bamberger Ranch Experience
Whataburger, “Just like You Like It”: AnInnovative Approach to Marketing theUbiquitous Burger
Changing the Pace of Warfare: The ColtRevolver on the Western Frontier
Milk Without a Cow in Sight: Gail Bordenand Canned Milk
Altering a Landscape: The Impact ofWindmills on High Plains Agriculture
Harnessing the Wind: The Impact of WindPower in West Texas Then and Now
Inexpensive Fences: The Impact of BarbedWire on Western Texas
Drilling for Oil Where Few Could Go: TheImpact of the Hughes Rotary Bit
Adapting Cattle to their EnvironmentThrough Breeding: Charles Goodnight andPanhandle Ranching
Santa Gertrudis Cattle: The Impact ofInnovative Breeding on the King Ranch
Changing the Way America Builds:Innovative Timber Products from Temple-InlandNo Sweat, The Astrodome Changes HowGames are Played
Dr. Pepper: An Innovative Drink with anInnovative Distribution Plan
Bridging the Brazos; The Impact of theWacoSuspension Bridge on a Region
Bringing Space Science to the Masses: TheRole of NASA in Innovation
Dots and Dashes Help End the FrontierWars: The Impact of the Telegraph on theFrontier
Developing Blazing Equipment andTechniques: The Firefighting Career ofPaul “Red” Adair
Staying Ahead of Crime: Texas RangersChange the Role of Technology in LawEnforcement
The Day the World Shrank: The Impact ofJack Kilby’s Integrated Circuit
Elevating the Way Trauma Care isDelivered: Dr. Red Duke and theEvolution of Air Ambulances in CivilianMedicine
None of these lists is intended to be exhaustive, rather to spur your thinking and creativity in developing a topic. For a more in-depth discussion about this year’s theme of Innovation in History: Impact and Change go to
As students are developing their topics they need to first decide if the innovation has changed history, and if so how. The following questions can help them:
- Why did this innovation happen at this particular timeand in this particular place?
- In what ways was the innovation new?
- What need in society did the innovation fill and what changes occurred to society because of the innovation?
- What benefits did the innovation provide, and to whom?
- How did people react initially, in the short term (within a few years),and over the longer term (in later years), to the new idea, arrangement, organization, or technology?
- How did it change people’s ideas, scientific knowledge, everyday behavior, political processes, etc.?
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