K-12 Programs

The Army Heritage Center Foundation is now an
ACT 48 PROVIDER
Click here for more information.

The Army Heritage Center Foundation has received Congressional awards (Funds for the Improvement of Education) for programs and resources to benefit K-12 history students, teachers and administrators across America. “Voices of the Past Speak to the Future” encompasses educational programs and teaching materials based on the holdings of the Army Heritage and Education Center (AHEC) in Carlisle, PA. AHEC’s U.S. Army Military History Institute (MHI) is one of the world’s largest repositories of primary source materials for American and military history, reflecting the nation’s rich cultural heritage from America’s colonial period to the present. As the Army’s archive for its non-official history, the Institute holds over fourteen million items that document the history of the United States, the U.S. Army and military history.

The 1988 report of the Bradley Commission on History in Schools recommended that states and school districts implement a social studies curriculum requiring no less than four years of history between grades 7-12. The Commission also recommended that history be the core of the social studies program between grades K-6. The “Voices of the Past Speak to the Future” project will fulfill the goals of making history accessible and engaging as recommended in the report and the subsequent National Standards for History. The programs and resources of the Foundation demonstrate the value of using primary source material, in the form of personal diaries, oral histories, personal letters, photographs and artifacts from the Army Heritage and Education Center. The teaching tools include CD-ROMs, primary source documents and posters that reflect the service and impact of the Army on the nation. The tools link to the National Standards for the Teaching of History.

A sample of the interactive teaching tools can be viewed at the Virtual Museum page on this website.

The CD-ROMs currently available are:

The Stories They Could Tell
Presents first-person stories of individuals who served in the American Army in three distinct time periods – Civil War/Frontier Wars, World War II and the Frontier Wars/Spanish-American War/Philippine Insurrection.

Defending the Long Road to Freedom
Focuses on the African American community’s 180-year long experience with the American military. The centerpiece of this disc is the fifty-year career of Brigadier General Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., the first African American general officer in the U.S. Army.

Designing for Victory 1914-1945
Examines the central role of posters as vital tools of communication on the "home-front" during World War I and World War II. This selection of vintage posters includes examples from both wars and features designs from various countries including the United States, Germany, Great Britain, France, Canada, and Russia.

Teachers interested in receiving a CDROM or an email listing of history standards for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland , Virginia or the National Standards for Teaching American History as they link to the Foundation’s current educational teaching tools, call Lorraine Luciano, Education Director Toll Free 1-866-ARMYHTG or send an email request to lluciano@armyheritage.org