Programs

Education

One of our youngest readers from University School of the Lowcountry in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Photograph by Jason Kreutner.

This page collects resources for educators interested in using Lapham’s Quarterly in the classroom.

 

The Quarterly’s education program is funded by a grant from the Alumbra Innovations Foundation, which is generously underwriting the cost of sending print and digital subscriptions of the magazine, as well as back issues and classroom sets, to schools across the U.S. See below for information about how to order copies of the magazine for your classroom.

 

Sign up for our education newsletter here to receive more information about our forthcoming offerings and suggestions for ways to use the Quarterly to connect the past to the present in your classroom.

 

 

Subscriptions and Back Issues for Schools

The Alumbra Innovations Foundation is generously underwriting the cost of sending print and digital subscriptions to Lapham’s Quarterly to K–12 and community-college classrooms across the U.S. To request a subscription for your classroom or institution at no charge, please fill out the form here.

 

Back issues and classroom sets of Lapham’s Quarterly are also available at no cost to educators, subject to availability. (See this list of currently available back issues.) To inquire about ordering materials for your class, email education@laphamsquarterly.org.

 

 

Need Help Using Lapham’s Quarterly in Your Classroom?
If you’d like to discuss the resources on this website or need help identifying resources for your classroom, sign up here for a time to speak via phone during our open hours. Or email us at education@laphamsquarterly.org.

 

Online Resources

Each issue of Lapham’s Quarterly collects ninety texts, from ancient to contemporary, on a topic of current interest and concern. Texts are selected from the world’s greatest books, representing the diversity of world literature. Abridged rather than paraphrased, none of the texts in the Quarterly runs to a length longer than six pages, some no more than six paragraphs. The connecting of the then with the now is further augmented with testimony found in letters, speeches, and diaries; with maps, charts, and lists; and with original essays by contemporary writers and scholars. You can browse all past issues of the magazine here.

 

This website contains an archive of texts from more than fifty past issues of Lapham’s Quarterly, including more than a thousand extracts from great works of history and literature, all available without a subscription or paywall. (Many excerpts that appear in the print magazine are not available online due to copyright restrictions.) You can browse readings by region, time period, or theme. Or search the site here. Also available are maps, infographics, quotes, historical miscellany, and original essays. The site is also host to an archive of web-native content, including essays and interactives.

 

Posters

If you are looking to decorate your classroom with educational posters about history, science, literature, and art, browse our online store, which features dozens of intricate maps and infographics on everything from the history of music notation to the world’s oldest fairy tales. Use discount code EDU2022 at checkout in our online store, and you will receive 20 percent off any poster purchase.

 

Interested in Working Together?

Lapham’s Quarterly eagerly collaborates with educational partners. Past projects have included a series of interactive course packets produced for Amplify with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; an adaptation of an essay about the pagan philosopher Hypatia into a TED-Ed Animation with accompanying lesson materials; a conference on education in partnership with the New York Public Library; and a collaboration with the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum’s fortieth-anniversary exhibition Days of Endless Time. If you are interested in working together, please email Paul W. Morris, Publisher, at paul@laphamsquarterly.org.

 

Help Us Distribute Lapham’s Quarterly

Generous individual donors to Lapham’s Quarterly support sending subscriptions to public schools, community colleges, prisons, libraries, shelters, community centers, and other nonprofit institutions.

 

Prison Distribution Program

A photograph of Friendship and other Lapham's Quarterly issues

Since 2014 Lapham’s Quarterly has partnered with prison libraries, grassroots organizations, and educators to deliver copies of the Quarterly at no cost to incarcerated readers. In partnership with state and local governments and more than a dozen nonprofit organizations, we have distributed thousands of copies of Lapham’s Quarterly in more than forty states.

 

There are 2.3 million people living behind bars in America. Incarcerated people live in state and federal prisons, local jails, immigration detention facilities, and state psychiatric hospitals in every U.S. state and territory.

 

Studies suggest that creating access to educational resources for incarcerated people is the single most important method to reduce recidivism, decrease violence within penal institutions, and prepare them for success upon their reentry.

 

Lapham’s Quarterly can be read outside the context of organized educational programs and is of genuine value no matter the quality of the library or educational offerings of the facility in which incarcerated readers find themselves. The magazine and its focus—on the world’s great texts, art, and history—is a unique resource for independent learning and thinking.

 

We’re working to expand distribution of Lapham’s Quarterly to incarcerated readers via additional partnerships with state and federal prisons and with prison educators. If you can help, would like more information about our program, or would like to request copies of Lapham’s Quarterly for your institution or for a community you serve, email Paul W. Morris, Publisher, at paul@laphamsquarterly.org. We’d love to hear from you.

Support for the Prison Distribution Program has been made possible by a lead gift from Ben and Donna Rosen, matching donations from readers of Lapham’s Quarterly, and additional support from:

 

Nicholas Acquavella

Teresa Connors
The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
Annie Dillard
Barton Eberwein
Gerald and Sheree Friedman, in honor of Sarah Friedman
Lucy Hamilton
Madeleine Houston
Hoa Nguyen
Carmella Kletjian
Christopher and Lisa Lloyd
LaRhonda Newman
The Pinkerton Foundation
Elizabeth “Lisette” Prince
Bill and Deb Ryan
Mark and Lynn Thomas
Donald Traver
Dr. Samuel Waskal
Bob and Nancy Whitcomb

Events

A woman and man onstage reading in front of an image from North by Northwest

Lapham’s Quarterly presents public events for diverse audiences—lectures, discussions, forums, conferences, and performances—that advance the magazine’s mission and foster public conversations about history and ideas.

 

Past events produced by the magazine include a conversation about the Time issue (presented with the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum); a dinner focused on the art of the toast (produced for the magazine’s Janus Society and covered by the New York Times); a cabaret-style program of historical readings and songs by actors and writers on the theme of bravery (presented by the PEN World Voices Festival); conferences on philanthropy, education, and World War I (presented by the New York Public Library with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York); and musical and theater performances (presented by the Public Theater in New York). The magazine also twice hosted the literary stage at the music festival All Tomorrow’s Parties.

 

We eagerly collaborate with partners to present events. If you’d like to propose a partnership or work together, please write to us at events@laphamsquarterly.org.

 

Public programs presented by Lapham’s Quarterly are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.