Washington History Day Topic Guide You can make history live! History Day is a contest for students that encourages the use of primary sources to get an up-close and personal view of an historical event. More than finding a summary in an encyclopedia or locating some pictures on the web, primary sources work to illustrate your topic from a first person point of view. And while you can find primary sources online, the real thrill of historical research comes from holding actual documents from that time in your hands! By doing your own research, asking and answering key historical questions you can become an expert on a topic and tell its story through a History Day project. The phrase “it isn’t just a day…it’s an experience” defines History Day. You become the historian! Extend the walls of the classroom into archives, college libraries and manuscripts collections, museums and other places that hold the information that you will need to interpret your topic. Learn more about your own family and community history, or some other topic that really matters to you. Use this online Topic Guide to search for subjects within Pacific Northwest history that are of interest to you and locate primary source documents on those topics in nearby archives or libraries. You can browse for subjects in the following ways: Explore topics that support the 2017-18 History Day Theme: Conflict and Compromise in History • Browse by Subject Look at general topics in PNW History and then find specific issues you can investigate further • Browse by Time Period Find specific topics broken down by era (examples: 1800s, 1940s) • Browse by Library or Archives Use this method if you want to find out what collections are available at a specific archives or library You'll also want to make sure that any topic you select really reflects this year's theme. Remember: time spent using the primary and secondary research sources in these collections will be rewarded by the firsthand experience of historical discovery and reflected in the historical quality that judges will be looking for in your history day project. Questions? Try asking Ask an Archivist at the Washington State Archives or you can Ask a Librarian at the Washington State Library 2017-18 Theme: During the 2017-2018 school year, National History Day invites students to research and interpret topics related to the theme Conflict and Compromise in History. As is the case each year, the theme is broad enough to encourage investigation of topics ranging from local history to world history, and from ancient time to the recent past. The theme Conflict and Compromise in History is complex and asks students to view history through multiple perspectives. In some cases, the conflicts existed without compromise. In others, compromise was reached before major conflicts ensued. In the end some conflicts were averted with compromises, like treaties. However, more often, events in history reflect both conflict and compromise. Students may choose to focus on a conflict or a compromise, but if the topic includes one as well as the other, the student needs to address both sides of the theme. To understand the historical importance of their topics, students must ask questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance. They must ask not only when did events happen, but why did they happen? What factors contributed to their development? What was the lasting influence in history? How did this topic change the course of events? What effect did the event have on the community, society, nation and world? There are hundreds of topics related to World War II. The war effort at home and abroad provides rich research possibilities that students might investigate. For example, students might analyze Japanese internment as a by-product of conflict that might be unique to a nation of immigrants. How did the treatment of Americans and recent immigrants of German or Italian origin compare with that experienced by people of Japanese origin? Or a student may wish to investigate how African American troops, particularly at Fort Lawton in Seattle, faced segregation and the conflict they felt serving their country abroad while suffering discrimination. A project might examine the conflict over women in the military and the conflicts and compromises to which they were subjected as they tried to serve their country. There is also much to learn from the conflicts and compromises between men and women who came from different social and racial backgrounds to work in factories in Seattle during World War II. What role did the Seattle Civic Unity Committee play in the conflicts between these different groups? Students might be interested in examining the conflicts that led to wars or the compromises that ended the conflicts. A paper might be written on the Indian Rebellion that took place in Washington Territory in the 1850s. An exhibit might be done on the “Pig War” which dragged on for more than 10 years on San Juan Island with the only casualty being a pig that was shot for foraging in a garden. However, this conflict ultimately determined the last segment of the border between the United ‘States and Canada. What role has religion played in the conflicts? How did mistrust and competition between Catholic and Protestant missionaries affect the settlement of the Pacific Northwest and conflicts between native tribes and settlers? Has economics played a role in the inability to reach resolution or compromise in events like the 1919 Seattle General Strike, which was the only General Strike ever to take place in the United States? How do race and class mix with economic concerns in conflicts like the Roslyn Coal Miners Strike or the Anti-Chinese riots that took place in Seattle, Tacoma and other cities on the west coast in the late nineteenth century? Economic growth and environmental change often result in conflict, such as the one between western farmers and eastern railroad companies in the late nineteenth century. How did the economic privations of the Great Depression inspire events like the 1933 Hunger Marches in Olympia? The theme lends itself to a number of topics related to the history of the Constitution since its ratification: conflicts that led to incorporating the Bill of Rights; conflicts and compromises over constitutional guarantees of civil liberties during wartime. How did the theory of the Constitution differ from the outcome of events like the Canwell Committee hearings in the Washington State Legislature in the late 1940s, the firing of Tacoma School District social worker Jean Schuddakopf in the 1950s and student protests in the 1960s and 1970s? Some of the most harsh and agonizing conflicts in history encompass social conflict and compromise. Have the roles of women and minorities in American society changed as a result of conflicts over ideas, such as women’s suffrage, African American civil rights, Indian fishing rights, open housing and school desegregation? A project could be focused on the rise of the Ku Klux in the Pacific Northwest in the 1920s, the experiences of European, Chinese, Japanese or Filipino immigrants moving to the Pacific Northwest. How do their experiences compare to those of Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants who came in the late twentieth century? How does our view of current Latino, Slovak and Asian immigrants who don’t speak English compare with the view our ancestors had of Scandinavian immigrants that did not speak English? As with any NHD theme, this topic presents students with many fascinating opportunities to explore history and to learn to use a wide range of primary and secondary sources. The interpretive challenge is to capture that specific moment in time in which change occurred and explain what impact of that change on history. Topics in the Washington State History Day Topic Guide related to the Theme: Conflict & Compromise in History: African American Civil Rights Movement African American Miners Come to Roslyn Anti-Chinese Riots The Bogue Plan The Boldt Decision Campus Protests and Counterculture The Canwell Committee The Centralia Massacre The Cold War and Loyalty The Conservation Movement Environmental Advocates The Everett Massacre Farmland Preservation in King County Federal Negro Theater Project The Filipino Cannery Workers and Farm Workers Union Fluoridation, Water Quality, Health and Free Choice The Fur Trade: Competition, Compromise, Economic and Cultural Change Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights The Goldmark Trial The Harbor Island Controversy & the Birth of the Port of Seattle Homelessness: Poor Farms, Hoovervilles, Shelters and Tent Cities Hunger Marches in Olympia Indian Treaties Industrial Workers of the World Initiative and Referendum Japanese Internment Who Killed Laura Law? (And Why?) Leschi 1936 Lincoln High School Peace Demonstration Martial Law Declared by Governor Stevens Missionaries in the Pacific Northwest Louise Olivereau: Anti-War Activist Open Housing The Pig War: A Pig and an International Boundary Prohibition: America Tries to go Dry Public Port Districts in Washington Puyallup Indian Tribe Land Claims Settlement The Roslyn Coal Miners Strike The Seattle General Strike The Spokane Free Speech Fight The Washington Public Power Supply System: Projections, Bond Issues, Default and Lawsuits The Washington State Secret Service Women’s Suffrage World Trade Organization Meeting in Seattle Topics by Subject - Washington History Day Topic Guide Washington History Day Topic Guide Home Discussions Photos Videos Updates Members s ea s e e Topics by Subject African American Civil Apply to be a Writer Rights Movement African American Miners Come to Roslyn Topics by Subject African Americans Come to the Pacific Northwest Alaska Gold Rush Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE) Anti Chinese Riots Use this guide to browse general topics in Pacific Northwest History alphabetically.