UML’s Tsongas Industrial History Center has received a $224,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund a summer program for teachers, education administrators and personnel from around the country.  The award marks the first NEH grant in UML’s history.

Staff from the Tsongas Center prepare for this summer’s NEH workshops, from left, Sheila Kirschbaum, program coordinator, Ellen Anstey, administrative assistant, MaryBeth Clark, park ranger, Sheli Turocy, project assistant, and Peter O’Connell, director.

The Tsongas Center encourages hands-on history teaching to over 60,000 students annually. It is a collaborative project of UML’s Graduate School of Education and the National Parks Service at Lowell National Historical Park.

With funding from the grant, the Tsongas Center will host three week-long summer workshops for educators titled “Inventing America: Lowell and the Industrial Revolution.”  The workshops will combine scholarly presentations with on-site investigations of the canals, mills, and worker housing.  In addition to the landmarks of Lowell, the program will also conduct field studies at Old Sturbridge Village, Walden Pond, and Concord, MA museums. 

According to Sheila Kirschbaum, coordinator of the Inventing America: Lowell and the Industrial Revolution program, the historic buildings and artifacts of the Lowell National Historical Park are ideal vehicles for exploring American history and Lowell’s part in the Industrial Revolution.  “Through the sites and hands-on activities here, the scholarly presentations and field trips, teachers will learn about history where it happened,” she says.

The grant is part of NEH’s “We the People” project, which promotes the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture through the exploration of significant events and themes in American history.