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Project Details
Women's History Illuminated is an interactive, multi-media exhibit that shares women’s history (as told through National Historic Landmarks) through three distinct pathways tailored for different age ranges. The program explains the NHL Program's mechanics and empowers students to think through questions that are critical to bringing more women's histories into the spotlight.
The Junior Preservationist pathway targets ages 8-12. The Junior Historian pathway targets ages 13-16. The Junior Historiographer pathway targets ages 16 and up. Each strand covers the same fundamental themes, but in scaled and age-appropriate ways.
Subjects or Themes
Women, American History
Project Language(s)
English
Time Period
Geographic Location
Project Categories
Content Type
Teacher Resources, Sound, Text, Mapping, Images
Target Audience(s)
Creators
Dr. Sarah Pawlicki, Lead Researcher and Author
Dr. Lisa Davidson, Dr. Evelyn Causey, Dr. Déanda Johnson, Dr. Astrid Liverman, National Historic Landmarks Program
Dr. Lisa Davidson, Dr. Evelyn Causey, Dr. Déanda Johnson, Dr. Astrid Liverman, National Historic Landmarks Program
Year(s)
2025
Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location
Now & Here (https://nowandhere.org/projects/women-s-history-illuminated); built using University of Minnesota Esri account
Software Employed
Labor and Support
This project was originally conceived as an all-online Junior Ranger program that would describe how the National Historic Landmarks (NHL) Program operates, why its work is important to shaping how we understand American history, and how the program can bring greater attention to women’s histories. I (Sarah Pawlicki) was originally partnered with the National Historic Landmarks Program as a National Park Service-Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, hence the NPS focus. Through the Mellon fellowship program, each fellow received $50,000 to be used for interpretive programming aligned with our fellowship's objectives, to be used over a two-year fellowship period.
Given the wide-ranging geographic reach of the NHL Program and the variety of property ownership and management situations across various NHLs, a traditional Junior Ranger program complete with physical booklets for kids to fill out didn’t seem like a great fit. An online program better fit the NHL Program’s multi-sited nature that spans every state and many U.S. territories.
Our budget extended to cover two major areas: multimedia and pedagogy consultation. The multimedia portion of the budget went toward the production of illustrations for the program's activities and a short series of four animated videos to accompany the different program pathways. These videos were produced by the animation firm Makematic. Pedagogy consultation with the Hard History Project was similarly useful and illuminating. We received a report describing places where improvements could be most productively made to the program, and I had the opportunity to hear from three cohorts of incredible educators about how they might consider using Women's History Illuminated in their schools.
After the Mellon program's connection to the National Park Service was severed in 2025, I reimagined and rebuilt the project in StoryMaps. In collaboration with Cait Johnson, a digital humanities specialist working with the ACE-Mellon Program, I was able to add an additional, longer video to the Junior Historiographer project track, further enhancing the digital exhibit as a whole.
Project Cost
Partnerships, funding sources, or grant-funding acknowledgement
The project was made possible by funding through the American Conservation Experience-Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship.