History Matters, is a project of the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning of the City University of New York and the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. This site serves as a gateway to web resources and offers unique teaching materials, first-per

Studying the presidency offers students a new way to explore the democratic political process and to expand their understanding of how this process has shaped the nation's history and continues to influence their own lives. What does it mean to be the president of the United States of America? Wh

Object Project examines how the interplay of people, innovative things, and social change have shaped life as we know it. 

Take a closer look at the Global Era topics of Finance and Discount Retail.

Dig deeper into the Global Era topics of Networks and Earnings.

Spend time exploring Globalization and Food, two topics from the Global Era.

In this post, students will learn about the origins of the holiday known today as Halloween, and the history of its celebration in the United States, including trick-or-treating and costumes. All-Hallows-Even (that is, evening) is the night before All Hallows Day. The apostrophe in the earlier sp

In this post, Chris Wilson, the Museum’s director of the Program in African American Culture, sits down with Professor John Stauffer of Harvard University to open a discussion on both historical and modern abolition efforts. An interview with Professor Stauffer, Professor of English and of

In this post, students will read a short biography of Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph. Even in his day, he was a controversial figure, but today he is remembered for his creativity—an artist who became interested in a novel technology and helped lay the foundation for a revolution in co

In this post, students will discover the history of electric car technology over the course of the last century. In the early 20th century, motorists had a choice of electric, steam, or gasoline cars, and it wasn’t clear that any one type would dominate the market. Electricity was beginnin