What are National Historic Landmark Theme Studies?
National Historic Landmarks are often identified through theme studies.Theme studies are an effective way of identifying and nominating properties because they provide a comparative analysis of properties associated with a specific area of American history, such as the fur trade, earliest Americans, women's history, Greek Revival architecture, Man in Space, or labor history. Theme studies provide a national historic context for specific topics in American history or prehistory. In order to make the case for national significance, a theme study must provide that necessary national historic context so that national significance may be judged for a number of related properties.
Theme studies that highlight European heritage:
American Labor History: This study identifies key sites that commemorate the history of American laborers and their activities, the impact of industrial and technological change, and the contributions of workers to the country's development. The essays show how labor history can identify potential National Historic Landmarks against the complex backdrop of civil rights, race, gender, and democracy. An overview is provided with the intent that additional research will yield new chapters illustrated by authentic places in labor's continuing story.
Historic Contact: Early Relations between Indian Peoples and Colonists in Northeastern North America 1524-1783:This theme study surveys archeological, documentary, documented oral, and other physical evidence to identify, evaluate, designate or thematically upgrade properties in three regions of the Northeast associated with the earliest phases of historic contact between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans from 1524-1783.
Protecting America: Cold War Defensive Sites: This historic context enables readers to understand the basic developments and ways in which the weapons systems and defense programs of the United States were affected by international affairs and the political and military challenges of the Cold War.
WWII and the American Home Front (.pdf | 7.2MB):This theme study identifies historic places that best represent the wartime mobilization that occurred in the US and its territories between 1939-1945.This four part historic context includes a section on organized labor and the effects of the massive industrial mobilization on working people.
Last updated: March 29, 2018