The name is a bit of a misnomer. National History Day (NHD) is an immersive competition for middle-and high-school students that actually takes place over months. And, for many of the millions who have participated through the years, its impact lasts a lifetime.
On May 11, 1974, 127 students from Cleveland-area schools gathered on the Case Western Reserve University campus to compete in a science fair-like contest. It was the brainchild of the late CWRU history professor David Van Tassel, PhD.
“He wanted to invigorate the teaching and learning of history and make it meaningful and relevant,” said Cathy Gorn, PhD (GRS ’84, ’92, history), NHD’s longtime executive director.
And he did. Last year, more than 400,000 children from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., U.S. territories and several other countries participated in the contest, in which students choose a topic and conduct primary research—not just online, but in libraries, archives, museums and during oral-history interviews. Their project can be presented as a paper, exhibit, performance, documentary or website. The winners of regional competitions advance to the state level. State champions travel to the University of Maryland to vie for national titles (which, aside from bragging rights, come with small monetary prizes).
“The experience fuels students’ confidence in their own competence,” said Ted Prasse, JD (LAW ’81), an NHD board member who served as its president for eight years. “It changes them. They realize they’re an expert. That’s a great feeling and helps drive students to seek more challenges. We’ve got NHD alumni who went on to become doctors, lawyers and fighter pilots.”
Notable NHD alums include U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, celebrity chef Guy Fieri and composer Caroline Shaw, who, in 2013, became the youngest recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music.
The late David Van Tassel was a CWRU history professor and heralded as the founder of National History Day. | Photo courtesy of National History Day
To pay tribute to where it all began 50 years ago, Gorn returned to Cleveland in March for the regional competition at the Western Reserve Historical Society, where she worked after arriving as a master’s student at Case Western Reserve.
“I saw my first competition in the spring of ’83,” Gorn said. “The theme that year was ‘Turning Points in History,’ and it was the biggest turning point in my life, really. When I saw what this did for kids, how excited they were to tell you these stories and the research and critical thinking skills that they were learning, it blew me away.”
Frank O’Grady is a junior-high history teacher at St. Brendan School in North Olmsted, Ohio. He’s been teaching for 13 years and is a true believer.
“Every school I go to, I start a National History Day program,” he said. “The kids love it, the parents love it, the administration loves it. My favorite quote about education is … ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.’ National History Day lights a fire.”
The Driving ForceBy all accounts, David Van Tassel was a deliberate, kind and brilliant man. A Case Western Reserve history professor for 30 years, he harbored a gift for bringing people together, and it was that gift that ultimately led to NHD’s sustained success.
“He didn’t say let’s do this History Day for Cleveland and then leave it at that,” said Gorn, whose dissertation adviser was Van Tassel. “He saw the opportunity to turn this into a major program and change the way that history is taught and learned in schools across the country. He was a visionary.”
The theme for the first History Day contest was “Ohio and the Promise of the American Revolution.” From 1974 to 1975 alone, participation jumped 400%. Buoyed by the nation’s Bicentennial, the program continued to expand. By 1980, there were contests in 19 states and the first national competition was held in Washington, D.C.
“It was supposed to be experimental, and then it grew. And its growth has been amazing,” said John Grabowski, PhD (ADL ’71; GRS ’73, ’77, history), a longtime CWRU history faculty member and editor of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. He, too, was a Van Tassel student. “The number of students who have been involved in it is incredible.”
In 1992, the organization’s office moved to College Park, Maryland, where it remains today. Van Tassel died in 2000, but his contribution endures.
“He was so pleased, but he was a modest person,” said his daughter, Katharine Van Tassel, JD (NUR ’80, LAW ’86), a CWRU law professor who also has a Master of Public Health degree. “Whenever you would say, ‘Wow, this is amazing,’ to him, he would say, ‘This wasn’t just me. This was the collective work of a whole group of people across the country that made this happen.’”
Cathy Gorn accepted a National Humanities Medal for NHD from President Barack Obama in 2012. | Photo by UPI/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Cathy Gorn began working on National History Day as a Case Western Reserve graduate student in 1982 and has never looked back. She joined the organization full time two years later and became executive director in 1995. art/sci recently talked with Gorn about NHD’s impact—and a student whose research made history. The following has been edited for clarity and space.
Describe what students do to compete.
Kids can choose any topic they’re interested in around the theme. And this is not just American history, it’s anything. Then they do real historical research. This takes months of work. Then they figure out how they’re going to present their information and tell us why their topic was significant in history. That’s a really important piece of this—we insist that this is not just a description of an event. Why was this significant and important? What are the consequences?
What’s one of the most impactful projects you’ve seen?
There was a kid named Hunter Scott who wanted to look at the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in World War II. He tracked down every one of the survivors who was still alive. After the war, the captain was court-martialed because they said it was his fault, but every member of the crew that was still alive told Hunter, no way, it was not his fault. He took it upon himself to try to get that reversed. Hunter lobbied Congress and worked tirelessly to exonerate the captain’s name. And he managed to do it. The captain was officially exonerated [in 2000].
You accepted a National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012 on behalf of National History Day. What was that like?
Completely surreal. It was a privilege for me to be able to go to the White House and accept it on behalf of all the students and teachers and supporters and contributors who’ve helped make this organization what it is today.
What do you think history will ultimately say about National History Day?
I think it will say it created a generation of thoughtful, engaged American citizens.
Emily Campbell in 11th grade with her project on Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District at the National History Day national competition. | Photo courtesy of Emily Campbell
Rarely does a day go by in which Emily (Webb) Campbell, president and CEO of The Center for Community Solutions, doesn’t use the skills she acquired through National History Day.
“The easiest way to say it is that National History Day taught me how to think,” said Campbell (CWR ’02; GRS ’02, political science), who since December has led Community Solutions, a Cleveland-based nonpartisan think tank focused on health, social and economic issues.
“It showed me a certain way of analyzing things, of going back to the source and not always believing the commentary around issues,” she said. “How to share my knowledge and my work in a persuasive way, and to dig a little deeper and to ask the questions that matter.”
Campbell grew up in western Pennsylvania, where she participated in every National History Day from sixth grade through 11th. It was a major time commitment—each project takes months to work on outside regular school hours.
“One of the things that really appealed to me about National History Day was the ability to dig deeply into a particular subject and think about what happened and how it may be influencing things today,” she said. “I really enjoyed the primary research and hearing directly from people who were there, whether that was interviewing people or reading firsthand accounts.”
It’s not hyperbole to say her junior- year project on urban redevelopment of Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District changed her life. She won both the national contest in the exhibit category and a full scholarship to CWRU that the university provided annually at the time.
“The scholarship is the reason I first came to Cleveland,” Campbell said. “I met my husband and lifelong friends at Case Western [Reserve], and I’ve built a successful career and really good life here.”
“One of the things that really appealed to me about National History Day was the ability to dig deeply into a particular subject and think about what happened and how it may be influencing things today.” —Emily Campbell, a CWRU alumna and previous NHD winner