Humanizing History™ is a resource for educators and families who want to talk to kids about race, culture, and our inspiring collective story.
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Who was
Mitochondrial Eve?
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A Country’s Story: When and Where Do We Begin?
This year — July 4 — marks the 250th anniversary since the United States Declaration of Independence.
Anniversaries like this matter. For many, they invite reflection, celebration, critique, and conversation.
They ask us to look again at the moments we consider to be foundational. Inspiring.
But they also raise another question — perhaps one less often asked: What came before the beginning we were given?
How Dogs Shaped Human History
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Humanizing History™ is a resource for educators and families who want to talk to kids about race, culture, and our inspiring collective story.
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Humanizing History™ is a resource for educators and families who want to talk to kids about race, culture, and our inspiring collective story.
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Join us for in-person workshops in San Francisco, June 29-July 1 & in Boston, July 13-15, 2026! Monique Vogelsang of Humanizing History, and Mike Matthews of Authentic Education, will be hosting a workshop for educators. To learn more and to register, click here.
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Few things are as important as how we tell the human story — the version we tell ourselves, how we view others, and especially the one we teach to children.
Far too many of us have been taught limited versions of World and U.S. history. Essential stories have been erased. But we can change that. We can expand the ways we frame the historical narrative. We can name people who contributed to and changed our world. And for those we cannot name, we can trace their fingerprints and footprints to better understand how the past informs our present, and how we too can impact our future.
Welcome to Humanizing History
Meet Katherine Johnson: Behind the Mathematical Journey to Space
How Beavers Shaped Human History
A Country’s Story: When and Where Do We Begin?
Meet Bayard Rustin: Behind the Story of the March on Washington
Meet Eleanor Roosevelt: Behind the Making of Global Human Rights
Sacred Water: Cultural Innovations from Ancient Civilizations
Meet Jim Thorpe: More Than a First
How Dogs Shaped Human History
Meet Junko Tabei: More Than a First
How Camels Shaped Human History
The Search for Hidden Water: Innovations from Ancient Civilizations
The Sound of Heritage: Rosetta Tharpe and the Roots of U.S. American Music
Constructing Water Highways: Innovations from Ancient Civilizations
100 Years of Opening Doors, The Legacy of Heritage Months
The Potato’s Journey, Through Mountain Landscapes to the Global Table
Dr. Cobb vs. The Bone Collectors Who Invented Pseudoscientific Racism
Cinnamon’s Journey, From Soft Bark to Global Spice
Meet Rosalind Franklin: Behind the Discovery of DNA
How Horses Shaped Human History
Heritage In Motion: Exploring Identity, Story, and Connection
Learning to Read the World, The Power of Identity-Based Literacy
Mapping the World, From Songlines to Satellite Data
Rice’s Journey, From Asia and Africa to a Global Staple
The Tomato’s Journey, Through Time and Taste
Guidelines and Guardrails for Teaching Challenging History
Meet Rigoberta Menchú Tum: More Than a First
Beyond the Crayon Box, How Culture, Science, and Technology Shape Color
Field Trip: Terracotta Army, Xi’An China
From Story to Agency, Students as Co-Creators of Learning
Meet Ada Lovelace: More Than a First
When Living History Knocks, Teaching Through Big Feelings
Shining a Light on Earth & Safeguarding Our Planet
Who was Mitochondrial Eve? And No, She’s Not Lucy
The Invention of Timekeeping, From Sunlight to School Bells
Reframing Squanto and Thanksgiving
What Systems of Counting Count
Corky Lee, Expanding the Lens One Photograph at a Time
Field Trip: Hal Saflieni Hypogeum
Ida B. Wells, Truth Seeker, Truth Teller
Humanizing Classrooms, Adding “Good Friction”
How Spelling Became Standard — And What Is Left Behind
Larry, Dolores, César & The Power of a Multiracial Movement
How to Talk to Kids About Human Rights
Field Trip: Nazca Lines, Peru
Are We Still Living in a Civil Rights Era?
Heritage Months, What Comes Next
Field Trip: Bandelier
Reconstruction as a Mirror for Today
Field Trip: Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela, Ethiopia
Humanizing Classrooms, Our What, Why & How
Humanizing Classrooms, Expanding How We See & Make Space for Identity
The Danger of a Single Story and How We Benefit From Many Lenses
Who’s on the Page? Picture Books as Windows and Mirrors
Field Trip: Angel Island, The “Ellis Island” of the West?
How Curiosity Can Help Us Name and Reframe, An Expansive Approach to Teaching Slavery
Race is Not Biologically Real, But It Is Socially Powerful: The Impact of Pseudoscientific Racism
A Different Timeline for Corn
Harriet Tubman, The “Ultimate Outdoors-Person”
Migration is a Human Experience, A Brief History of Our Global Diaspora
How Laws Around Immigration and Migration Impact Belonging
What Is History? What We Lose With Erasure
Field Trip: Cahokia
Humanizing Classrooms, Where the Work Begins
How to Talk to Kids About Race and Culture
The Skin We Live in Is a Beautiful Thing
The Human Story Begins in Africa
Field Trip: Blombos Cave and the World’s “Oldest Doodle”
“Civilization” Does Not Equal “More Civilized”
Would You Risk Your Life for a Book? Timbuktu Manuscripts
The Powerful Social and Legal Construction of Race
How to Talk to Kids About Dr. King
Reading Matters & How to Navigate the Current Climate
“Why Is There a Black History Month?”
Banner image credit: Cihak and Zima, Horatio Seymour Squyer, Jay Godwin, Warren K. Leffler, Library of Congress, Alex Lozupone, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.