Rep. John Lewis to Speak at the Lincoln Memorial

Congressman Lewis joins NEH and Howard University’s Celebrating Freedom Program on September 17

Collage of Early 20th Century Newspaper Front Pages

Turning the Page on the U.S. Newspaper Program

In 1982 NEH created a cooperative national effort to locate and catalog all extant American newspapers.

Road Work in West Virginia

Two West Virginia Humanities Council supported projects explore the history and culture found along U.S. Routes 219 and 33.

photo of library stacks, McHenry Library, University of California Santa Cruz

Library of the Future

NEH announces award to build the Digital Public Library of America

Impertinent Questions with Chad L. Williams

Author of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era speaks with Humanities magazine

Join NEH on September 17
in commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the preliminary
Emancipation Proclamation.

View Event »

Explore the Humanities

Websites, apps, and digital projects supported by NEH grants

Map of the Slave Population of the Southern States

Trace the fall of slavery during the Civil War with this interactive online map of emancipation, drawn from events described in official military correspondence, newspapers, wartime letters and diaries.

Panama Canal

On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world’s two largest oceans and signaling America’s emergence as a global superpower.

Donie Bush, Detoit, 1913, black and white photo

Baseball

The story of America told in nine innings through Ken Burns' examination of the national pastime.

Washington Crossing the Delaware, Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze

The American Revolution

America's independence from Great Britain was a decisive turning point in world history. Explore the causes, character, and consequences of the American Revolution.

The Supreme Court

Explore the history of the Supreme Court, get a behind-the-scenes view of its workings from interviews with Justices, test your knowledge of landmark decisions, and predict the outcome of future cases

Afropop Worldwide

From Bikutsi to Reggaeton: Explore the culture and history of contemporary Africa and the African diaspora through music.

Whale fishery: attacking a right whale, Currier & Ives

Laura Jernegen: Girl on a Whaleship

Learn about life on a 1860s whaling ship through the eyes of 6-year old Laura Jernegan.

1910 painting by Edward Percy Moran of Battle of New Orleans

The War of 1812

For two and a half years, Americans fought against the British, Canadian colonists, and native nations in a war that divided the United States so deeply that the nation almost broke apart.

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Events

lecture Date: September 20, 2012

Natasha Trethewey reading at Jackson State University

tv Date: September 18, 2012

Death and the Civil War

NEH on Capitol Hill | lecture Date: September 17, 2012

Emancipation Nation: Celebrating Freedom on Constitution Day

lecture Date: September 15, 2012

Sixth Annual Distinctive Women in Hawaiian History Program

lecture Date: September 14, 2012

Constitutionally Speaking with Justice David H. Souter

View All »

Humanities Magazine

The Magazine
of the National Endowment for the Humanities

Take Me There Now!

Newton, The Last Magician
The great man of science had more than a passing interest in alchemy.
Let Us Now Praise James Agee
The journalist who pioneered serious film criticism showed a cinematic touch in all of his writing.
Burying Molière
How the French Revolution reappropriated the favored playwright of Louis XIV.
To See a Face
Simmie Knox's bumpy road from abstract artist to presidential portraitist.
The Swamp Doctor
Anna Darrow could set a broken leg with some string and a flatiron.
Julien Green: The End of a World
As Germany occupied France, Green brought Paris to life in his superlative diaries.
Nietzsche Is Dead
The battle for Nietzsche's legacy began when Count Hary Kessler met Elisabeth Forster-Nietzsche.
Into the Deep
U-boats off the Carolina Coast were part of Germany's attack against American shipping in World War II.
The Thing (or Things) About Wendell Berry
An Appreciation by Mark Bittman
The Strange Politics of Gertrude Stein
Was the den mother of modernism a fascist?
Humanities on the Brain
New collaborations between neuroscientists and humanists look to reunite the "two cultures" of the academy.
Dating Fashionable Middle-Aged People
A scholar's epic journey to catalog two hundred years of medieval dress.
Deaf Meets Wonderstruck
An NEH-funded documentary inspires a cinematic novel, one to be seen as well as read.
Modern Love
Charles and Ray Eames forged a new sensibility while doing everything and nothing.
Words of America
The final volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English approaches
Henry James and the American Idea
The Atlantic Monthly helped establish the expatriate author as a literary great.
A Diplomatic Education
Early in the Civil War, the Union narrowly avoided war with Britain.
The Everlasting Bible
New translations of the Bible have sought to make it accessible to everyone.
Public Parking
Frederick Law Olmsted designed pastoral escapes for the urban masses.
California's Cold War Museum
All things communist -- from the Berlin Wall to Soviet tchotchkes -- find a home at the Wende.