This summer, Katz will spend a week exploring Abraham Lincoln's ties to New York City through research and field trips.
Karen Katz '11 is about to see her home city in a whole new light.
This summer, Katz will spend seven days exploring the historic side of New York City as a 2009 Gilder-Lehrman One-Week History Scholar. The program is sponsored by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, which promotes the study and appreciation of U.S. history. Katz is one of 50 students nationwide selected for the honor.
The theme of this year's Gilder-Lehrman program is“Lincoln's New York.” Katz and her fellow scholars will read primary sources related to Abraham Lincoln culled from the Institute's extensive collection, meet with local historians, and visit archives. They will also travel to sites in the city associated with the president, such as Cooper Union, where Lincoln clinched the Republican nomination with his speech, and the Lower East Side, where the 1863 draft riots occurred in the neighborhood of Five Points. The scholars will then create Power Point presentations about these sites, which will become a virtual walking tour of Lincoln's New York.
“I've always loved history, particularly American history,” says Katz,“and this seemed like a great opportunity to learn more about it in the company of like-minded peers and the historians who have written the books I've read in classes.” She's also looking forward to learning more about a little-known aspect of New York's past and, she says,“discovering how that history shaped the city in which I grew up.”
