May 6, 2009 — University of Virginia third-year student Megan Claar has been named a 2009 Gilder Lehrman One-Week History Scholar. One of 50 students nationwide selected for the distinction, Claar will take part in a weeklong program in New York City designed to honor and support outstanding students of history.

The Gilder Lehrman One-Week Scholars will meet with a series of eminent historians and enjoy behind-the-scenes access to several historical archives and museums across New York City. Applicants to the Scholars Program this year represented 170 colleges and universities in the United States.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history. The institute serves teachers, students, scholars and the general public. It helps create history-centered schools, organizes seminars and programs for educators, produces print and electronic publications and traveling exhibitions, sponsors lectures by eminent historians and administers a History Teacher of the Year Award in every state. The institute also awards the Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and George Washington Book Prizes, and offers fellowships for scholars to work in the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

The institute maintains two Web sites: www.gilderlehrman.org and the quarterly online journal www.historynow.org.