Quick Summary
The Minnesota Digital Library has published a resource guide exploring this year’s National History Day theme: Rights & Responsibilities in History using materials from our digital collections.
National History Day is a program that encourages students to research historical topics around a particular theme. They present their research in the form of a paper, exhibit, website, documentary, or live performance to judges each spring. Topics can come from world, national, or state and local history. Every year the theme changes, and the 2024-2025 theme is “Rights & Responsibilities in History.”
The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) encourages students to consider selecting a National History Day topic from Minnesota’s past. Local history topics can make a project stand out and uncover unknown stories. There are many potential topics for this year’s theme in Minnesota history, including voting rights and representation in government, times when rights were curtailed by larger social forces, and the complicated story of Indigenous rights and responsibilities in the state.
To help students select topics and find resources, MDL has published an online guide full of definitions, suggestions, images, and places to start. The guide also includes lists of MDL’s special collection areas and primary source sets that fit the Rights & Responsibilities theme. Learn more about the theme and how it applies to Minnesota history using MDL’s 2024-2025 theme page today!
