Annual Fund
The Annual Fund of the U. S. Capitol Historical Society includes membership gifts and unrestricted donations that provide the ongoing sustenance of the organization. By ensuring that the Society’s operating expenses are covered, we have the flexibility to put the staff’s full creative efforts into our educational mission. In addition, by maintaining a steady base of operating support, the Society can better address its new and ongoing programs as part of a cohesive plan. Annual Fund donations also provide the flexibility to apply resources toward unanticipated projects and opportunities that inevitably arise during the year.
To make a donation to the Annual Fund or to become a member of the U. S. Capitol Historical Society, please call: 1-800-887-9318
Educational Outreach
The educational programs of the U. S. Capitol Historical Society bring the Capitol into the classroom, the community, and the public’s consciousness. Donations support distributions of our acclaimed Where Freedom Speaks interdisciplinary pageant for elementary and secondary school children, the Outstanding Members of Congress series of publications and youth forums for high school students, and The U.S. Capitol: A Vision in Stone DVD/VHS video and teacher resource guide. Grant funds have also supported the Society’s popular children’s and young adult’s guides to the Capitol; and enabled the Society’s traveling exhibit Where Freedom Speaks: 200 Years of the U.S. Capitol to visit state capital cities across the country.
Whether funding a distribution of resources to schools, supporting a publication or student seminar, or helping the Society create new educational initiatives, you can make a direct impact on a student’s understanding of American history and government and encourage his or her participation in public service. To discuss how you can help, contact Samuel Holliday, or phone at (202) 543-8919 ext. 37.
Research and Scholarship
Since 1962, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society has taken the lead in encouraging scholarship on the Capitol and the history of the Congress. Harry S. Truman once told the founder of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society that “To be a good citizen, you’ve got to know history.” The Society takes this dictum to heart through its mission to “encourage an understanding by the people of the founding, growth and significance of the Capitol of the United States of America as a tangible symbol of their representative form of government.”
For more than 20 years, the Society’s Symposia Program has provided an effective and scholarly vehicle to educate a widespread audience of professional and amateur historians about our unique American heritage. Held in the appropriate setting of the Capitol complex or in venues reflecting the symposium topic, these popular conferences provide a forum to stimulate intellectual debate, refine existing academic viewpoints, and develop a greater appreciation among the general public for principles of representative government.
Fellowships
Through its renowned Fellowship Program, the Society has sponsored scholarly research and publications on our nation’s most magnificent public building and the distinguished Members of Congress who have walked its halls for two centuries.
Since the program’s inauguration in 1986, the Society has selected a diverse group of established and emerging historians and fine arts scholars to undertake important research that will contribute to a fuller understanding of the cultural and political history of our country. In addition to placing their formal research papers in the Capitol archives for future historians to access, their investigations are made available through print and lecture. As Scholars in Residence at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, Fellows and Interns have ready access to the Library of Congress, the National Archives and other nearby resources, but above all they have special access to the Capitol’s unique collections and archives through our working relationship with the Office of the Architect of the Capitol.
To discuss sponsoring a conference or a fellowship, contact Samuel Holliday, or by phone at (202) 543-8919 ext. 37.
