What is National History Day?
National History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded academic program for middle and secondary school students.
Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries. These products are entered into competitions in the spring at local, state and national levels where they are evaluated by professional historians and educators. The program culminates each June at a National Contest at University of Maryland at College Park.
2024 Theme: Turning Points In History
Contact for Information:
Please visit the NHD Registration Site for information about this year’s contest!
Information for Students
- Contest Rule Book
- Contest Theme Book
- Guidance by Project Type
- How to Create an Annotated Bibliography
- Resources by Topic
Rubrics
The rubrics below show the breakdown for how each project is judged and ranked