"Dublin Core:Title","Dublin Core:Subject","Dublin Core:Description","Dublin Core:Creator","Dublin Core:Source","Dublin Core:Publisher","Dublin Core:Date","Dublin Core:Contributor","Dublin Core:Rights","Dublin Core:Relation","Dublin Core:Format","Dublin Core:Language","Dublin Core:Type","Dublin Core:Identifier","Dublin Core:Coverage","Item Type Metadata:Text","Item Type Metadata:Interviewer","Item Type Metadata:Interviewee","Item Type Metadata:Location","Item Type Metadata:Transcription","Item Type Metadata:Local URL","Item Type Metadata:Original Format","Item Type Metadata:Physical Dimensions","Item Type Metadata:Duration","Item Type Metadata:Compression","Item Type Metadata:Producer","Item Type Metadata:Director","Item Type Metadata:Bit Rate/Frequency","Item Type Metadata:Time Summary","Item Type Metadata:Email Body","Item Type Metadata:Subject Line","Item Type Metadata:From","Item Type Metadata:To","Item Type Metadata:CC","Item Type Metadata:BCC","Item Type Metadata:Number of Attachments","Item Type Metadata:Standards","Item Type Metadata:Objectives","Item Type Metadata:Materials","Item Type Metadata:Lesson Plan Text","Item Type Metadata:URL","Item Type Metadata:Event Type","Item Type Metadata:Participants","Item Type Metadata:Birth Date","Item Type Metadata:Birthplace","Item Type Metadata:Death Date","Item Type Metadata:Occupation","Item Type Metadata:Biographical Text","Item Type Metadata:Bibliography","Item Type Metadata:Player","Item Type Metadata:Imported Thumbnail","Item Type Metadata:Referrer",tags,file,itemType,collection,public,featured "A Lifelong Love of Biographies",,"
Author, educational advocate, and entrepreneur David Bruce Smith recounts how his passion for reading biographies as a child instilled in him an enduring love of history and allowed him to overcome scholastic pressures he faced to deviate from his intellectual path. This exercise also connected him more strongly to a shared literary tradition within his family and granted him a level of insight and wisdom he has carried throughout his life.
Curator's note: The Grateful American™ Foundation is dedicated to restoring enthusiasm in American history for kids and adults. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in American Literature from George Washington University, and a master’s in Journalism from New York University. During the past 20 years he has been a real estate executive and the editor-in-chief/publisher of Crystal City Magazine. He is the author of 11 books, including his most recent title, American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States. The Grateful American Book Series for children, featuring historic couples that were partnerships, debuts in the fall with Abigail and John—a joint biography of the Adams's.
",,,,,"David Bruce Smith, Founding Father of the Grateful American™ Foundation",,,,,,david-bruce-smith-biographies,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,"Heidi Camp","Biography,Books & Reading,History",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/297/Golda_Meir.jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0 "The Second Shelf and Beyond",,"In elementary school, Kathryn Hill itched to move beyond the first shelf of the library books. When she finally reached the second shelf, a new world awaited her: biographies of historical figures. The lives of women such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, and Dorothea Dix led her to understand that history was all about stories. She realized that her own life “needed to be about something”—and that it could be. ",,"Biographies of historical figures such as Harriet Tubman and Dorothea Dix",,,"Kathryn Hill, President, The Levine Museum of the New South",,,,,,kathryn-hill-second-shelf,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"",,,"Biography,Blackwell, Elizabeth,Books & Reading,Dix, Dorothea,History,Libraries,Pitcher, Molly,School Libraries,Storytelling,Stowe, Harriet Beecher,Tubman, Harriet,U.S. History,Women's History",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/140/Harriet_Beecher_Stowe_c1852..jpg,"Moving Image",,1,0 "Baseball, Jackie Robinson, and Racial Identity Formation","Reading a short biography on Jackie Robinson and developing my own racial identity were important ways that the humanities helped me in this moment.","As I grew up in rural South Carolina in the 1980s, baseball was my favorite hobby and pastime. For most of my 7 year Dixie league/recreational league baseball career (ages 5 to 12), my dad was my coach. I don’t remember watching baseball on television because we only had three to four channels and did not have cable. On my first baseball team, I was the only black player; and then after that most of my teams were majority black. At this time I only had vague notions about race, although I knew that I was black. Because both of my parents worked, my brother and I attended a day-care facility in town. The day-care provider was a thirty-something year old white woman and most of the children in her care were also white. Again, I had little sense of my blackness. Of the many books on hand at the daycare, one day I discovered a children’s book about Jackie Robinson. By this time, I’m in the third grade and am a good reader, so I read the book very quickly. Just as quickly, it becomes one of my favorite books. I was extremely excited for several reasons: Never before I had a read a book with a Black main character. I knew there were black baseball players, but did not feel like I knew any very well. The book discussed racism that Robinson faced and how he overcame it and became one of the best baseball players in his generation (Rookie of the Year and MVP). It was the first example of people facing hardships because they were black and Jackie Robinson overcame the hardships. And lastly, a big part of my own racial development and understanding was that being black was not just about facing hardships in the past and overcoming them. I continued to study Negro league baseball. Read several books and became fascinated by these invisible men who participated in a separate but unequal league, but had equal or superior baseball talent.",N/A,"A children's book about Jackie Robinson (I don't remember the title)",,"I was a third grader in the 1980s.","Jamie Lathan, 39, teacher and school administrator, husband, father, son, brother, friend.",,,,,,baseball-and-racial-identity,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"African American History,Baseball,Biography,Black History,Books & Reading,Children's Literature,Introspection,Literature,Negro Leagues,Race Identity,Robinson, Jackie,South Carolina,Teachers & Teaching",http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/9/115/download-1.jpg,Text,"Teacher Advisory Council",1,0 "The First Book I Ever Checked Out of a Library","Formative experiences with the humanities have the power to shape our lives, returning to us again and again, to intrigue and inspire. And, from the distance provided by age, experience, and deeper knowledge we sometimes come to appreciate those subjects — for instance the life of a remarkable woman like Joan of Arc — in new and more meaningful ways that continue to challenge and fascinate.","In this video, Joan Hinde Stewart recalls the first book she ever checked out of a library — a biography of Joan of Arc — a memory triggered by an experience in her sixties. She describes the fascination she felt about Joan of Arc from an early age and the conflict she felt about reading this biography, as it was unsanctioned by the Catholic church.
As she notes, however, “I became positively besotted with The Maid of Orleans. I could do nothing but think about Joan. That’s the way she is. She grabs you, and no matter how well you know the story you keep hoping — I keep hoping — that it will turn out differently.”
",,"A biography of Joan of Arc",,,"Joan Hinde Stewart, President Emerita, Hamilton College",,,,,,joan-stewart-first-library-book,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"Biography,Books & Reading,Catholic Church,Joan of Arc,Libraries,Professors","http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/12/48/hm-stewart-360.mp4,http://humanitiesmoments.org/files/original/10/29/joan-of-arc-600.jpg","Moving Image","National Humanities Center Board Members",1,0