Contest Update!

The Illinois History Day competition is on the move!

Illinois State Museum is the new affiliate office for IHD and we are excited to welcome Jenn Edgington to the program as the new interim state coordinator. She can be reached at jennifer.edginton@illinois.gov. The ALPLM staff is still available if you have any questions or need assistance with your projects and we can be reached at ALPLM.Education@Illinois.gov

 2024 Theme
Turning Points in History

 

As the state affiliate of the National History Day program, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum oversees the Illinois History Day competitions across the state each year. Seeking to cultivate the development of young historians and inspire a love of history, Illinois History Day asks students to choose a topic related to National History Day’s annual theme and conduct research on the topic using the collections in libraries, archives and museums, collect oral histories or interviews, and visit historical sites. After participants collect enough sources to answer their research question, they craft an interpretive project using one of five formats: paper, exhibit, performance, documentary, or website.

Illinois students compete in two divisions, Junior (6th-8th grade) and Senior (9th -12th), across four regions -- Northern, Central, Southern, and Chicago Metro. Within each of these regions, students participate in local and regional competitions to determine who will advance to the state competition held in Springfield each spring. Students who rank highest at the state competition advance to the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland. At the national competition, Illinois students compete against students from 57 other affiliate National History Day states and regions.

Getting Started 

Before a student begins a project for the Illinois History Day competition, we recommend they, their adults, and their teachers review the 2023-2024 NHD Theme Book. These resources will help them select a topic and decide what type of project they want to create. These books also provide guidance for parents and educators on how best to support participants as they develop their projects.

Creating a Project

Once you’ve followed the instructions in the Students section to select a topic, we recommend you use this section as a Hub to assist you as you develop and complete your project. 

Student Resources 

The student resources tab is developed to aid you in the development of your project. Here we provide you access to databases to source primary and secondary documents that relate to your topic and guides as to how to properly cite your sources in either MLA or Chicago formats.  

Competitions

To learn more about the competitions, please see the specific contest tabs below.

Get Involved

If you are an educator, student, or parent who wants to know more about Illinois History Day, or are interested in helping judge competitions, email ALPLM.Education@Illinois.gov and we would be happy to put you in touch with the affiliate coordinator.

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