Sac History Happenings: Everyone's a winner at History Day competition

Sac History Happenings

News and developments in Sacramento and California history

March 16, 2011

Everyone's a winner at History Day competition

Sacramento County History Day is history. I really enjoyed helping to judge the competition last Saturday. The sophistication of entries varied to be sure. But given the hard work that went into each project (not to mention the courage to face a panel of judges), in my mind every student was a winner. Check out The Bee's coverage of the live performance category.

The county event was the first tier in the 2011 National History Day contest. Those who qualified will go to the state competition to be held in San Jose starting April 28. From there, an elite group of California students will attend the national finals at the University of Maryland, June 12-16. See the attached list of Sacramento County winners.

This year's contest theme is Debate & Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, Consequences. It's a broad concept which invites students to think deeply about great issues and diplomatic turning points. Local entries covered a range of topics: Native American boarding schools, Cuban Missile Crisis, Salem witch trials, nuclear nonproliferation, integration in baseball, Hetch-Hetchy dam and much more. Students explored these subjects in six categories: 2-dimensional display, documentary, exhibit, paper, performance and web site.

PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Self portrays Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American feminist and social reformer during the 2001 Sacramento County History Day at CSUS. Sacramento Bee / Hector Amezcua

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California and Sacramento have a long, rich, vibrant history. And our region is blessed with an abundance of historical resources maintained by museums, libraries, archives and societies. This blog aims to alert readers to the latest developments in local/state historical education and research.

Send tips concerning upcoming exhibits, tours, lectures and meetings, as well as new books, magazine articles and online collections to the blog's contributors.

The Contributors:

Michael Dolgushkin

Michael Dolgushkin is Manuscript Librarian at the California State Library History Section. He is co-author of San Francisco's California Street Cable Cars and is a frequent contributor to the California State Library Foundation Bulletin. Contact him at mdolgushkin@library.ca.gov.

Amanda Graham is a Certified Archivist working in the Sacramento Room of the Sacramento Public Library. She earned a BS in History from Southern Oregon University and a MS in Information Studies with an emphasis in archives from The University of Texas at Austin. Contact her at agraham@saclibrary.org.

Pete Basofin is Director of Editorial Research at The Sacramento Bee. He previously worked at The St. Petersburg Times and Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune. Contact him at pbasofin@sacbee.com.

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