National History Day

Special Prizes for Maritime Projects

National History Day (NHD) is a highly regarded year-long educational program for middle- and high-school students that involves them in a competition to prepare a history project on a designated theme, culminating in state and national competitions.

Each year, more than half a million students, encouraged by thousands of teachers nationwide, participate in the NHD contest. Students choose historical topics related to a theme and conduct extensive primary and secondary research through libraries, archives, museums, oral history interviews and historic sites. After analyzing and interpreting their sources and drawing conclusions about their topics’ significance in history, students present their work in original papers, websites, exhibits, performances and documentaries—either individually or in groups.

Watch a short video on National History Day 

National History Day MedalNational Maritime Historical Society offers special prizes for maritime-related projects.

In order to encourage the study of our maritime history, the National Maritime Historical Society offers special prizes for maritime-related projects in 22 states - Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.  Don’t see your state listed here?  Let us know you’d like your contest to be considered for next year!

For information on your state contest, go to the NHD Affiliate page.  For information on participating as a judge, please email nmhs@seahistory.org.

See 2023 NHD Winning Maritime Projects

Prizes for 1st Place

One each for middle and high school divisions: include a $100 cash scholarship (divided equally for group projects), a one-year membership in NMHS (which includes Sea History magazine), recognition on the NMHS website, and a certificate of achievement. The mentoring teacher also receives a one-year membership in NMHS and recognition on the NMHS website.

Prizes for 2nd Place

One each for middle and high school divisions: include a $50 cash scholarship (divided equally for group projects), a one-year membership in NMHS (which includes Sea History magazine), recognition on the NMHS website and a certificate of achievement. The mentoring teacher will also receive a one-year membership in NMHS and recognition on the NMHS website.

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This year's National History Day theme is "Turning Points in History."

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, NHD’s theme will be Turning Points in History. This year’s theme invites students to consider questions of time and place, cause and effect, change over time, and impact and significance.

A turning point in history is more than just an important event that happened a long time ago. It is more than a new idea or a particular action taken by an individual. A turning point is an idea, event, or action that directly, or sometimes indirectly, causes change.

That list covers a lot of possible historical research topics! To help students get started, NHD has made helpful booklets and videos with guidance on the theme, selecting a topic, and competition rules.

Do you have suggestions for maritime topics for this year's theme?  Let us know by emailing nmhs@seahistory.org!  Are you planning a project around a maritime topic and want to be considered for an award?  Let us know! >>