historical person presentation

Cassandra Good

Historian of american politics, gender & culture, historical figure presentations.

This semester in my upper-level early national and Jacksonian US class (1790-1848), I tried out an alternative to a short paper: oral presentations on historical figures which focused in on one primary source by that figure. Students chose from a list of figures I provided that would mesh well with the reading for that week, and I gave a sample presentation early in the semester to model what I was looking for. To encourage students to take notes, I gave them notetaking worksheets and explained that they could bring these to the midterm and final. They would serve as cheat sheets for short answer questions asking them what selected pairs of figures would discuss. You can skip down to the prompt , or read about pluses and minuses first.

Some big advantages of this kind of project: -it’s student-centered learning–not just a buzzword, but something the students specifically said they liked -gives students a stake in the work–some of them got really excited about the people they researched -encourages independent research and analysis of primary sources -builds public speaking skills -less grading–I filled out a rubric as they spoke and just made a few additional notes before giving a grade -created a very successful set of exam questions which drew out thoughtful and creative replies

Some challenges: -getting students to use books and scholarly articles; perhaps setting a required number would help -students often found great images of historical documents online, but if the transcription wasn’t posted with the images, they didn’t do good research to find it (esp. if it was only available in a book) -they generally copied the format of my sample talk -the biggest miss was on the supplemental images, objects or documents–they would show images, often from later eras, as illustrations but failed to analyze them

Assignment Prompt

For this assignment, you will choose one historical figure from the list of options for your chosen date and find one primary source document by or about that person. You will then craft an oral presentation that connects the person and source to that week’s theme.

Your presentation must include:

• Brief background on the life and significance of the historical figure
• One primary source document, a copy of which you can post digitally or hand out paper copies
• Two supplementary images, objects, or documents
• Analysis of your source and supplementary items in connection to the theme and reading for that week
• Visuals of some sort, via handouts or digital presentation
• Bibliography of web and scholarly sources

The presentation can take any form you would like: a powerpoint with a talk; an historical reenactment; a short film or media presentation. You may work individually or in pairs. Individual presentations should last 7-10 minutes, while those crafted by a pair should be 15 minutes.

A list of websites and databases which will be useful for locating primary sources is available on Canvas. Cite all sources. Your biography should draw from reputable scholarly sources; do not rely on websites.

You will also take notes on each presentation on a worksheet, which you will be able to bring with you to the midterm and final.

I scored the presentations based on the following:

• Presentation
• Visual Aids
• Organization
• Primary Sources and Supplements
• Knowledge of Content

Figures as options, by week :

4: Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr 5: Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Judith Sargent Murray, Phyllis Wheatley 6: James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Tecumseh 8: Nat Turner, Harriet Jacobs, William Lloyd Garrison 10: Joseph Smith, Charles Finney, John Jacob Astor, Robert Fulton 11: Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, Margaret Eaton, John Ross (cherokee chief) 13: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Elizabeth Peabody, Emily Dickinson

Share this:

Category: Uncategorized    

Blog at WordPress.com.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

• Collections
• Famous People

Free Famous People Presentation Templates

Spotlight the iconic stars with free famous people powerpoint templates and google slides themes share the stories of icons, athletes, poets, and scientists, like einstein, shakespeare, elon musk, and more with stunning designs and ready-made slides. easy to edit, perfect for school projects, and presentations. get yours now - it's free to be famous.

• Minimalist design: Our templates boast clean, modern layouts that let the content shine through without overwhelming your audience.
• Content-ready decks: Each deck comes pre-filled with engaging narratives, historical context, and key achievements, saving you precious research time.
• 100% editable: Make it your own! Customize the text, images, and layout to perfectly match your presentation style and message.
• Multiple formats and orientations: Choose the canvas that fits your needs. We offer both 4:3 and 16:9 formats, in portrait and landscape orientations, for maximum flexibility.
• Royalty-free images: No copyright worries! Use the stunning visuals with confidence in any presentation setting.
• Free slides available: Try before you buy! We offer a selection of free templates to let you experience the quality and ease of use firsthand.
• Pick your hero: Choose a figure who ignites your own passion, ensuring your enthusiasm shines through.
• Find the right deck: Browse our library of famous person presentation templates and select a template that complements your hero's story and your presentation style.
• Personalize it: Make it your own! Add anecdotes, quotes, or even multimedia elements to bring your hero to life.
• Practice your delivery: Speak from the heart, connect with your audience, and let the story unfold.

We're here to help you!

What famous people are included in the templates.

Our collection features a diverse range of iconic figures, from historical leaders like Martin Luther King to modern innovators like Elon Musk, and everything in between! Explore scientists, artists, musicians, athletes, and more!

Are the templates free to use?

We offer a range of free slides to download and use for personal and educational purposes. No hidden fees or subscriptions!

Can I customize the templates?

Yes! You can easily edit the text, images, colors, and layout of each template to match your presentation needs. Add your own content, photos, and videos to make it truly your own.

Which presentation software are the templates compatible with?

Our templates are compatible with both Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides, so you can choose the platform that best suits you.

Do the templates come with pre-written content?

Our slide decks include text, quotes, and images related to the featured famous person, but you can easily replace them with your own information and research.

How do I download the templates?

Simply click on the "Download" button for the template you like, and choose your preferred format (PowerPoint or Google Slides). It's that easy!

Can I use the templates for commercial purposes?

Yes, you can use our templates for both personal and commercial presentations. However, please be sure to credit Slide Egg when showcasing your final slide.

• testimonials
• Our Lady of the Angels School Fire
• Alex Trebek
• Alexander Hamilton
• Alfred Hitchcock
• Amelia Earhart
• Andrew Carnegie
• Andy Griffith
• Battle of the Bulge
• Battle of Iwo Jima
• Battle of Okinawa
• Berlin Wall
• Bobby Kennedy
• Brothers Grimm
• The Candy Industry
• Charles Dickens
• Charles Lindbergh
• Charles M. Schulz
• Cherry Mine Disaster
• Chicago Fire
• Chicago World's Fair
• Chicagos Yesteryear
• Chicago’s Ethnicities
• Chicago's Nationalities & Cultures
• Chicago Gangsters vs. Eliot Ness
• Chicago's Landmarks
• Chicago's Neighborhoods
• Colin Powell
• Dr. David Livingstone
• Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Eleanor Roosevelt
• Eleanor Roosevelt and The Civil Rights
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Gerald R. Ford
• Goebbels' & Hitler's Propaganda
• Harry S. Truman
• Helen Keller
• Hindenburg Disaster
• Iroquois Theatre Fire
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
• James Stewart
• John Kennedy Jr.
• Johnny Cash
• Johnstown Flood
• Judy Garland
• Katharine Graham
• Kennedy Assassination
• Kennedy and Lincoln Similarities
• Life of Abraham Lincoln
• Life of John F. Kennedy
• Lincoln Assassination
• Lyndon B. Johnson
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Margaret Thatcher
• Marilyn Monroe
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Mayor Richard J. Daley
• Mississippi River
• Mother Teresa
• Mr. Fred Rogers
• Nelson Mandela
• 9/11 Attacks
• Pearl Harbor
• Princess Diana
• Queen Elizabeth II
• Richard Nixon
• Robin Williams
• Rod Serling
• Ronald Reagan
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Samuel Insull
• Shirley Tempel
• SS Andrea Doria
• St. Patricks Day Chicago History
• Spanish Flu Pandemic
• The Presidents
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• USS Indianapolis
• Vietnam War
• Walter Cronkite
• War in South Pacific
• Winston Churchill
• Woodstock Music Festival
• World War I
• World War II
• World War I & II Combined
• THE DECADES
• program schedule
• Jim in the News
• Jim on Radio & Video
• Presentations

Jim Gibbons Historical Presentations

Pictured is Margaret (Peggy) Anne Sansonetti who died in the Our Lady of the Angels School Fire at 10 years-old.

Based in Marengo, Illinois, Jim Gibbons Historical Presentations offers over 170 presentations for groups of all sizes. Jim and Michelle are available for in-person and virtual presentations in the morning, afternoon, or evening, 7 days a week. Programs are available statewide and nationwide.

New programs now available to book select the Photos below to view program information!

Be sure to check out the presentations page on this site for more details and the program schedule to see one of jim or michelle's programs, contact us to book a presentation for your library, park district, senior group, school or event. available 7 days a week for morning, afternoon and evening presentations.

• Testimonials
• Program Schedule
• Photo Gallery
• News Articles
• Radio & Video
• Michelle Gibbons

Blue Book Diaries

Notes on History Teaching by Jonathan W. Wilson

PowerPoint Basics for Historians: Part 1

Part 1: Design Fundamentals

This is the first installment of a series designed to help historians use Microsoft PowerPoint effectively in the classroom. (You may want to read the series introduction first.)

Today, I’m writing about the big picture of PowerPoint design. This post is about how to set up a slideshow to communicate in the classroom (or conference hall) clearly and effectively. It’s not really about the technology, per se—at this stage, we’re just talking about how to build a visual communication element into a history talk.

As you design your presentation, you should keep three core principles in mind:

When I was in college, you sometimes knew when an enthusiastic professor had just switched from overhead projector transparencies to PowerPoint. His or her slides would be full of clip art, bouncing and flying effects, elaborate transition animations, and garish colors. It was endearing—the first time. But that was another technological age. To impress the jaded young snapchatters in your classroom today, you need a different approach. You need to begin with restraint.

Simple Text

The single most effective thing you can do to make your slides better? Delete things.

Every time I teach a lesson with previously used PowerPoint slides, I cut things. Topics I’m now confident I will remember to discuss. Excess words. Complete sentences that can be single words or short phrases. Supporting points I can extract and place on their own slides. Ideas that could be better expressed through a quick class discussion.

The most common complaint about professors who use PowerPoint is that we just stand in class and read our slides aloud. The easiest solution to this problem is astonishingly effective: Leave things out. You want to leave things unsaid on your slides so that you can say them in person. Don’t make slides that could replace you.

A Restrained Palette

A few colors go a long way. Typically, excluding images, I think you need only about four colors or shades in your presentation: a very light color (or white), a fairly dark color (or black), something in between (to be used less often), and maybe a special highlight color (to be used sparingly).

When choosing these colors, keep a few things in mind. First, they will show up differently on different screens, especially when you move the presentation from your computer monitor to a projector screen. Very subtle differences of hue or shade will be lost in the typical classroom.

Your beautiful forest green may just look black. Your warm sky blue may look purplish. Your cheerful orange may disappear completely into the white background behind it, leaving audience members squinting like spotters trying to find airplanes in a summer sky. For the sake of people in the back row, be a little unsubtle with your colors.

Another reason for this: You want to choose colors that will provide crisp contrast—especially if your presentation involves much text.

The cruelest thing I ever did with PowerPoint was a presentation I delivered in an early-morning economics class. I placed all my text—walls and mountains of it, since I lacked confidence—in dark green on a dusty green background. I suppose I was going for a currency theme (my topic was the collapse of the Thai baht in 1997), but maybe I was just feeling vindictive. The green fog on all my slides put everyone but the professor to sleep—including me.

It was a really good talk otherwise.

Clean Slides

“Cleanness” in visual design is about the empty space. A clean house has empty counters, floors swept free of debris, furniture you can sit on. It’s a space where whatever thing is in front of you has your full attention. A clean PowerPoint slide has plenty of empty space around the words—or if it displays an image, it isn’t cluttered unnecessarily with other images or words.

Why does this matter to the teacher? It matters because attention is always about empty (or “negative”) space. You don’t want your audience’s gaze roaming randomly all over the slide; you want it focused on exactly what your students need to see at a given time.

In practice, this means you should avoid using most pre-made PowerPoint templates or backgrounds, which fill the screen with unnecessary decorative elements. You should also maintain healthy margins around any text you use. And don’t put too much of anything on one slide.

Consistency

Consistency matters because inconsistencies are distracting. The mind treats new patterns as puzzles to solve instead of paying attention to what you want it to see. A slide presentation full of randomly different typefaces, sizes, and colors sends the audience’s attention in all different directions trying to figure out the patterns.

Of course, some variety is good—even necessary to keep the audience awake. But consistency doesn’t mean sameness. You want variations on a clear theme.

When the size or style of your text changes suddenly, it should mean your text is up to something unusual. When you insert a picture where normally there isn’t one, it should mean the picture is significant. Conversely, when things look similar in different places in your slideshow, they should probably be doing similar things: the same typeface, for example, might always be used to set aside a keyword your students will need to define later.

The audience unconsciously uses your design choices to save time when deciphering what you mean. Inconsistency wastes time and thus makes comprehension harder.

There’s another reason some teachers can’t resist the temptation to read their slides verbatim. They think the main purpose of PowerPoint is to make information easier to memorize. That notion is deadly to the history teacher.

It’s surprisingly easy to forget this, but you should be using PowerPoint the same way you should be using any other medium: to persuade. You aren’t pouring information into passive students; you’re trying to get them to change their own thinking.

Maybe you don’t need the reminder. But either way, how can you use PowerPoint in a rhetorically effective way? How can PowerPoint make the argument of a lecture stronger? Here are a few ways.

The most obvious (and sophisticated) rhetorical advantage of PowerPoint is that it can display actual pieces of historical evidence while you talk.

Sometimes you can do this with images—either as illustrations of points you’re making yourself, or as primary sources to pause over with your students, breaking up your lecture with discussion. Either approach can have a powerful effect on your audience.

You can also do this with quotations and citations. In effect, PowerPoint slides can serve as “footnotes” to your lecture. You don’t need to read aloud what such slides say, at least not in full; it’s usually enough to make them visible. By displaying them, you are proving to your students that a snippet quotation has a fuller context, or that you know where your information is coming from, while providing the option of exploring the source in greater depth if students have questions or concerns.

Visualization

Another key advantage of PowerPoint: It can help students imagine things they haven’t seen before.

Remember, as a trained historian who was probably interested in history from a young age, you have a vast bank of mental images that your students don’t have yet. A lot of lecturers take these images for granted when they speak—assuming that students will somehow magically know what a ziggurat is, or what a Mary Wollstonecraft might be, or what a struggle session was like during the Cultural Revolution.

For your students, these mental images are not mere decoration for historical facts. They are crucial for understanding what the heck you’re talking about.

However imperfectly, students have to be able to imagine the scenes you’re implicitly describing. Their ability to do this is critical to the success of your argument. Unless students can visualize a scene (whatever that means for them), they have no way to assess the mechanics or the power relationships or, ultimately, the plausibility of what you’re claiming.

So when you build a PowerPoint presentation, you want to fill it with materials that students can use to help visualize what you’re talking about.

Highlighting

A third way PowerPoint can strengthen your argument is by showing its structure, and especially by highlighting important points. Presenters and students alike can easily get lost in the branching trails and undergrowth of a lecture. PowerPoint can provide breadcrumbs back to the main trail or identify landmarks by which to orient yourself. This is not only a matter of organizing the lecture for narrative purposes; it also makes your central claims and use of evidence more comprehensible.

This brings me to a final fundamental principle of PowerPoint design.

I think of a PowerPoint presentation as a storyboard rather than an outline. As the lecture unfolds around it, the PowerPoint presentation is a sequence of impressions, not paragraphs. These impressions are representations of ideas, not the ideas themselves.

As an impression, each frame in your storyboard sequence should connect to the next one according to the logic of drama—the way one scene gives way to another in a film.

Some of what I’m tempted to say about that is too complicated for this post. It touches on the design of the lecture itself. But let me put it this way.

If you treated each PowerPoint slide as a paragraph, you’d be constructing the argument of your lecture in a way that would feel fundamentally unnatural and stilted in the classroom. A lecture—even if you transcribe it word for word—shouldn’t flow like a written essay. (Not an academic essay, anyway.) Neither should the PowerPoint slides playing behind it.

The lecture is an oral and visual experience. Like other oral and visual experiences, it should have digressions, pauses and intensifications, and an overall sense of movement through time and space. Your slides are a storyboard helping you and your audience move through time along with your subject matter.

If you, when speaking informally with your friends about the subject of your lecture, would be likely to include an interjection or illustration of some kind at a certain point in the lecture, then consider making a slide for it. If you need to explain the stakes of your topic, or set a scene, or pose a riddle, consider making a slide for it. If you want to slow down to talk about the life story of a certain key character, consider making a slide for it. If you’ve introduced an unusual word and you need to make sure your students understand how historians use it, consider making a slide for it.

The connections among slides that flow this way aren’t always obvious. So to make sure the lecture flows well in practice, I write brief notes for myself—not visible to the audience—explaining what the transition should be like after each slide. If I’ve been talking about a social problem and then want to introduce a character on the next slide, for example, I write myself a note, usually something like TRANS.: We can see the problem clearly in the life of …

This way, the flow of my storyboard becomes the visual backbone of a compelling oral story.

There is no single correct way to design a PowerPoint slideshow. After all, sometimes you may use PowerPoint to display large amounts of text; sometimes you will show only images; sometimes you may use a single slide as a background for a whole talk. Sometimes you will want to strategically break the design rules you’ve been following previously. The principles in this post, however, are widely applicable.

My next post in this series will be shorter and more concrete: In a few days, I plan to examine some simple ways to ensure a smooth experience when you’re actually showing PowerPoint slides to an audience.

• Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

3 thoughts on “PowerPoint Basics for Historians: Part 1”

[…] in my first post, I’ll begin with a few fundamental […]

[…] the previous post in this series, I discussed three key design […]

Under the topic of “flow,” I like to ensure that whatever image I’m showing fits with what I’m talking about, and not what I was talking about two minutes ago. If that means repeating a more general slide, so be it. Duplicating a digital slide doesn’t cost extra.

Comments are closed.

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Home — Blog — Topic Ideas — Captivating History Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience

Captivating History Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience

Introduction

When it comes to delivering a history presentation, incorporating creative and engaging ideas can make all the difference in captivating your audience. Whether it's a school project, a celebration of Black History Month , Women's History Month, or simply showcasing your family's legacy, we have compiled a list of exciting history presentation ideas that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. Let's dive into the fascinating world of historical storytelling!

• Incorporate Multimedia Elements: Enhance your history presentation with multimedia elements such as images, videos, and audio clips. Visual aids not only make your presentation visually appealing but also help reinforce the historical context, making the information easier to remember. (Reference: University of Michigan - Center for Research on Learning and Teaching )
• Interactive Timeline: Create an interactive timeline that showcases key events, significant figures, and historical milestones. You can use digital tools or traditional poster boards to present the timeline, allowing your audience to visualize the chronological progression of historical events. (Reference: Education World - Interactive Timelines: A Powerful Tool for Student Projects )
• Role-Play and Reenactment: Bring history to life by incorporating role-play and reenactment. Encourage your classmates or family members to portray historical figures and act out important scenes, making the presentation immersive and memorable. (Reference: Scholastic - Teach the Way They Learn: Role-Playing as a Teaching Tool )
• Historical Artifacts Display: If possible, include authentic or replicas of historical artifacts related to your topic. For example, if you are looking for black history month presentation ideas, you can display items that represent the culture and accomplishments of prominent African American figures throughout history. (Link: Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture)
• Personal Connections: For family history presentation ideas, use personal stories and anecdotes to connect emotionally with your audience. By sharing family traditions, tales of resilience, and ancestral accomplishments, you can have a fascinating and touching experience. (Reference: FamilySearch - Connecting Generations: Capturing Stories and Memories )
• Engaging Quizzes and Games: Incorporate quizzes, trivia, or interactive games to make the presentation enjoyable and educational. Challenge your audience's knowledge of historical facts and events while fostering a fun learning environment. (Reference: TeachHub - Using Quizzes in the Classroom )
• Creative Storytelling: Craft your history presentation as a compelling narrative. By storytelling, you can unfold the historical events in a way that captures the attention of your audience, leaving them eager to learn more. (Reference: TED-Ed - The Art of Storytelling )
• Collaborative Projects: If you need middle school history presentation ideas, consider teaming up with classmates for collaborative projects. Working together can encourage creativity and allow you to delve deeper into different aspects of the story. In addition, such experience can be useful for many high school students, since admissions committees often pay attention to the experience of applicants in joint research work when entering colleges. (Reference: Ed utopia - The Power of Project-Based Learning )
• Diversity and Inclusion: When discussing women's history month presentation ideas, you can celebrate the contributions of women from different walks of life and cultures. Highlight their achievements in various fields by raising awareness and recognizing the role of women in history. (Reference: National Women's History Museum )
• Embrace Technology: Explore the use of modern technology like augmented reality or virtual reality to create an immersive historical experience. This cutting-edge approach can transport your audience to significant historical moments. (Reference: EdSurge - Augmented Reality in Education: Bringing Learning to Life )

By incorporating these history presentation ideas, you can transform a traditional lecture into an engaging and memorable experience. Whether you're celebrating historical milestones, family heritage, or the achievements of underrepresented groups, these creative approaches will undoubtedly make your presentation stand out and leave a lasting impact on your audience. Happy presenting!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Got any suggestions?

We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo

Top searches

Trending searches

15 templates

pink flowers

255 templates

62 templates

11 templates

49 templates

student council

Historical figures and leaders - history - 1st grade, it seems that you like this template, historical figures and leaders - history - 1st grade presentation, free google slides theme, powerpoint template, and canva presentation template.

Throughout history, there have been many notable figures and leaders who have left their mark on the world and shaped the course of events. From ancient times through to the present day, these individuals have achieved remarkable feats, whether in the realms of politics, art, science, or warfare. With this template, you'll have two things: a great set of slides to give a lesson on historical figures and leaders, and a nice collection of slide frames that you can individually use for other purposes! A little bit of a vintage touch, a hand-written font and... yes, this is perfect!

Features of this template

• 100% editable and easy to modify
• 35 different slides to impress your audience
• Contains easy-to-edit graphics such as graphs, maps, tables, timelines and mockups
• Includes 500+ icons and Flaticon’s extension for customizing your slides
• Designed to be used in Google Slides, Canva, and Microsoft PowerPoint
• 16:9 widescreen format suitable for all types of screens
• Includes information about fonts, colors, and credits of the resources used

How can I use the template?

Am I free to use the templates?

How to attribute?

Attribution required If you are a free user, you must attribute Slidesgo by keeping the slide where the credits appear. How to attribute?

Register for free and start downloading now

Related posts on our blog.

How to Add, Duplicate, Move, Delete or Hide Slides in Google Slides

How to Change Layouts in PowerPoint

How to Change the Slide Size in Google Slides

Related presentations.

Premium template

Unlock this template and gain unlimited access

Before History is Historical: Researching Personal Narratives

“… No, it is impossible,” says Marlow, the fictional narrator of  Heart of Darkness (1899) by novelist Joseph Conrad, “it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence—that which makes its truth, its meaning—its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream—alone…”

Despite the existential insistence of Marlow, novelist Joseph Conrad’s narrator, self-expression is elemental to human nature, and the “personal narrative” is a literary form as ancient as the written word. For future generations seeking insight into the “penetrating essence” of what things were like back in the day, personal narratives prove one of the most compelling resources for conducting historical research. For the steps and strategies involved in using these resources for research, explore the companion guide  Researching Personal Narratives at NYPL .

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806).

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1559520

The use of personal narratives in historical research combines a healthy skepticism of historical truth and a certain faith in the impressions of a past experience. First-person accounts of direct experiences provide both context and complication, since such works are subjective and dependent on the author’s memory. These complications enrich historical research and invigorate the interpretation of historical perspective. What was the social context in which the work was published? Was it never published? Was it a bestseller? Who was the author? Anonymous? Famous? The galactic spectrum of published personal narratives includes  Britney Spears , in the second-largest book deal in publishing history;  Cassidy Hutchinson , whose autobiography was prompted by testimony before the January 6th Committee and recounts a political career of about five years; and  Elizabeth Keckley , an enslaved woman who purchased her own freedom and was later employed as White House dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln. How different or similar are these written works from the unpublished  late 18th century diaries of Martha Ballard , or the  journals of Lewis and Clark ? “There’s never been a moment in American society when people weren’t writing and reading memoirs,” Michael Korda, vice-president and editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, told  New York magazine in a 1985 piece called " Memoir Mania ."

Author of "The memoirs of the affairs of Europe."

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 2014980

The multitude of forms in which personal narratives appear in print are typically distinguished by the length of time between the events of the narrative and the narration itself. “Diaries” or “journals” might indicate the most immediate compositions, with “recollections” or “memoirs” or “reminiscences” evoking a narrative based on memories of things long past. 

“Now I cannot recall all the names because it was too long ago and too many things have happened,” Ron Casanova opens his “as told to” memoir,  Each One Teach One . “I use my art work as a way of escape and a way of remembering… You want a picture, I’ll give you a picture.” 

"Slave Narratives"

The circumstances in which an account was published often provide a more dimensional perspective on the text itself. Prior to the Civil War, the “slave narrative” developed as a widely popular first-person publication for American readers, where formerly enslaved individuals published accounts of their experience in bondage. Yet, many of these accounts were prefaced by white men abiding or confirming their authenticity, reflecting the institutionalized racism of a reading public conditioned to be skeptical of African American authors. The imprimatur of a white mind was required to serve both book sales and the antislavery movement. Abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier was involved in publishing  Narrative of James Williams , the  first slave narrative published by the American Anti-Slavery Society . “Clearly the words were Whittier's even if the experiences belonged to Williams… a murky area of authorial collaboration, one marked by a distinctive mix of truth and invention" (Ann Fabian,  The Unvarnished Truth: Personal Narratives in Nineteenth-Century America , c2000). Here, the personal narratives developed into a formulaic genre, and when read 175 years later might convey less about the experience of the formerly enslaved narrator, than the cultural history of the period in which the account was published. As noted in the  Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History ,   volume 5, Frederick Douglass—author of arguably the most famous slave narrative in U.S. history—found “some of the same paternalistic attitudes that had characterized his former masters in the South" in abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison Garrison and other antislavery advocates. 

James Williams, 1838.

Elizabeth Keckley, enslaved for 30 years, prefaces in   Behind the Scenes that “everything I have written is strictly true.” Though born the daughter of an enslaved mother, she describes herself “free in God-like thought.” Modern readers might be confused, and shocked, when Keckley states that “if I have portrayed the dark side of slavery, I have also painted the bright side.” The modern reader might look for irony where it does not appear. Keckley addresses her prior life in enslavement with a severely spiritual sense of “solemn truth;” the institution is an evil perpetuated after the Revolutionary War that grew to such “monstrous proportions” that finally “efforts to destroy it become earnest.” Keckley frames the memoir in the traumatic horrors of her experiences, the utter reality of evil, but the human ability to transcend: she earned money as a dressmaker while enslaved in Missouri, and eventually bought herself free. However, there is a jab of wry humor in the subtitle, using the somewhat standard yearspan in bondage, “Thirty Years a Slave,” followed by “four years in the White House”—a staggeringly one-of-a-kind arc.

Despite the niche popularity of slave narratives in the antebellum U.S., in particular such lasting works by  Frederick Douglass and  Sojourner Truth , African Americans are one of numerous population demographics with a historically low representation in surviving personal narratives.  “ Few first-person accounts remain from the eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries in which Black individuals tell their own stories" (W. Jeffrey Bolster, “Letters by African American Sailors, 1799-1814,”  The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 64, No. 1, Jan, 2007). If history is written in the preservation of certain voices and the suppression of others, personal narratives by underrepresented voices become highly sought-after sources for the study of the past. History unfurls in the control of who gets to say what, and who does not.

For research methods in finding potential first-person accounts authored by underrepresented voices, see the section under “Type” in our companion research guide  Researching Personal Narratives at NYPL .

Changing Asian American Experience

Narrator Huie Kin, in   Reminiscences , published in 1932, describes the very small village in “southern Kwangtung [Guangdong], not far from the sea," in which he was born in 1854, as a "fairly large world for me," with a "population of seventy souls." Kin immigrated to Northern California at age 14, at a time when formerly tolerant relations between Americans and Chinese immigrants were beginning to degrade. "Chinese workmen got into trouble with white immigrant workmen on the Pacific coast,” Kin says, “and the latter won, not in the field of labor, but through politics and propaganda." Threatened by Chinese American labor, white working class anger mutated into bigotry, and a "mob psychology" that "overnight" transformed "the useful and steady Chinese worker” into "the mysterious Chinaman, an object of unknown dread." Culminating in 1876–77, the Chinese were victims of "political manipulation and journalistic propaganda.” Indeed, in 1878 anti-Chinese riots took place in San Francisco, followed four years later by the federal passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Huie Kin converted to Christianity soon after his arrival in the U.S., and later settled in Lower Manhattan, becoming the Minister of the First Chinese Presbyterian Church in New York, located at 223 East 31st Street.

New York City, 1916.

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 56852262

Asian American Experiences in the United States is a collection of oral histories of “first to fourth generation Americans” from a variety of Asian nations, collected “randomly” by a second-generation journalist born one year after her parents and sisters left China. ”The majority are people I didn’t know; names I gathered from friends and colleagues,” mostly in the New York tri-state area. Still, the book is arranged by common subjects, like “Americanization” and “Religion and Rites within the Family,”  intended to “come as close as possible to Asian American attitudes and lifestyles as defined by their cultural past and American present.”

19th-Century LGBTQ

Portions of the  diaries of Anne Lister (1791-1840) were published in the series “ The Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature ” by New York University Press. “An outwardly conventional upper-class woman,” notes the introduction, Anne Lister had “come to terms psychologically and emotionally with her own sexuality” by age 26, and “throughout her life had no difficulty in attaching to herself the passionate and jealous affection of a number of women whose love she returned in varying degrees of intensity.” “Soon began on the erotics last night,” she writes about an intimate and longtime lover, “her warmth encouraging… Both awoke at five in the morning and talked till seven… ‘I always considered your marriage legal prostitution. We were both wrong. You to do it and I to consent to it.’” All passages related to sexual relationships are written in a “crypthand code” developed by the diarist, and first deciphered by a Lister descendant in the late 19th century. The diary has also served as the  basis for the recent TV series  Gentleman Jack ; the title references the microaggressive nickname locals used based on Lister's masculine sartorial choices.   

I know my own heart : the diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840 / edited by Helena Whitbread.

Pop Culture

In one year, out the next: the tastes, fads, and trends that shape the pop mind are protean, shiftless, and unpredictable. Personal narratives can prove useful in the study of how people, at the time, apprehended vogue patterns in pop culture. In  Out on a Limb (1983), Hollywood actress Shirley MacLaine explains how her close friend (likely a composite character of real-life people, as noted in the preface) was contacted by an alien life form named Maya who proved that the human soul is eternal and exists through time by reincarnation. “I found that the theory of progression of souls through the process of reincarnation had become part of new age thought systems, not only in California, but all over the Western world.” At the time, pop critics and talk show hosts spewed ridicule at Shirley’s aspirations to “take a trip to the Pleiades and see what was on the other side;” meanwhile, the book spent 15 weeks on the  New York   Times “Best Sellers” list, and then topped the paperback list for over three years. There may be a handful of interesting uses for  Out on a Limb to examine New Age trends, American narcissism, or generational malaise in the early 1980s. It is not a private diary, but expressly written to raise the awareness of the public about "human and extraterrestrial spirituality," and how to live without fear.

Part of the Milky Way...

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: TROUVELOT_013

The American West

One of the advantages of studying the American West is the immense volume of travelogs and diaries kept by pioneers, explorers, settlers, soldiers, and captives. The overwhelming disadvantage is the scarcity of voices from the hundreds of indigenous tribes inhabiting the continent for centuries prior to the 17th century. In  Path Breaking: An Autobiographical History of the Equal Suffrage Movement in Pacific Coast States (1914), author Abigail Scott Duniway premises her look-back in old age as a curious irony of new frontiers both physical and political, and the presence of ghosts of loved ones: 

"Forty-two years have been folded away into the irrevocable past... My foreman, my father, my daughter, my husband, two of my sisters and my first born son have solved the eternal mystery, and here I sit in the lengthening shadows unavailingly evoking the unseen shades of departed dear ones, as my aging hand records the facts that memory portrays with a vividness which is as ineffaceable as the love of God."

The  Personal Narratives of Explorations and Incidents by John Russell Bartlett is told in the combined tone of a matter-of-fact federal official surveying the territory along the U.S.-Mexico border following the Mexican-American War, which includes zoological and geological studies, and the moral emotion of a devout Christian who leads morning services before marching on the 5,000 mile expedition. When a teamster murders a butcher, it is a “sad” event, “such things being of frequent occurrence at the time.” Killers and roustabouts abound, in addition to the ongoing threat of indigenous tribes hostile to American interlopers, but the most prominent danger is nature itself: one-hundred-plus degree heat, Nor-easters, horses and mules running off or falling into the river. Readers learn how “much sagacity is shown by experienced hunters and frontier men in detecting ‘signs’ on the prairie, when and by whom made, the strength of the parties, their direction, etc., and whether Indians, Mexicans or Americans;” and the differences in Mexican and American foods, like chili Colorado versus American fried pork.

Evening on the prairie.

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1196090

Eyewitness to the Old West is a collection of excerpted accounts between 1531, when a Spanish colonial expedition that began in Florida ended ten years later in northern Mexico with only three survivors, and 1890, the year “ Oglala Lakota visionary and healer ” Black Elk survived the massacre at Wounded Knee, recounted in  Black Elk Speaks . A notable recurring element in these western narratives is the indescribability professed by some frontier authors, whether for brevity, expurgation, or brutality. “Language would fail to convey anything like my sensations during that deadly contest,” John C. Cremony concludes the story of his 1868 knife fight with an Apache brave, “and I will not attempt the task.” Zenas Leonard, 1830s fur trapper, in his  Adventures , refuses to “describe the scene that followed here – the reader may imagine it – an account of it would be repulsive and offensive rather than agreeable.” Such was home on the range.

New York City

As noted in the companion research guide  Researching Personal Narratives at NYPL , there are more personal narratives related to New York City than lightbulbs in Times Square. Life as a cop in the 1910s and 20s is the subject of  Behind the Green Lights (1931) by Captain Cornelius W. Willemse, with chapter titles like “A Punk becomes Gangland’s Hero of a Day,” and “Four of the Most Dangerous Men New York has Ever Known.”  Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maître D' (2022) recounts life in one of the most high-octane professions in NYC, other than reference librarian in the Local History and Genealogy Division at NYPL.

East Village Eye cover. October, 1979.

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 58851962

And the research uses are multifold for Ron Casanova’s  Each One Teach One (1996), the homelessness activist’s first-person account of childhood in a Staten Island orphanage, ongoing drug addiction, periodic prison life, uptown teenage gangs in the 1950s, East Village squatters in the 1960s, and later, a central role in the 1989 protests over “Tent City” in Tompkins Square Park, a section of the park “open to anyone and everyone who rejected the city’s so-called solutions to homelessness.” Populated by a community of “300 to 325 people,” plus locals who donated food and supplies, Tent City evolved as an alternative to the shelter system, and a place of civic awareness: “we began educating people about the politics of poverty.” Harassed by the NYPD, Parks Department, and “skinheads burning American flags,” Tent City residents were finally driven out and the network of makeshift housing was demolished and discarded. “Armed police stood guard with their arms crossed or hands on their guns, making sure that no one stopped the Parks Department workers from trashing the belongings of the homeless… including ID, medication, and clothing.” For Casanova, “that is the moment I became an activist, when I saw the destruction… now it became personal.”

Tony closing the bar. Jack Kerouac Papers.

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: ps_berg_cd10_152

There was a time in world history when maritime navigation was not unlike space travel, or renting a Citi Bike to ride crosstown. Maritime civilization was a world of adventure, disaster, discovery, commerce, and the natural conflation of space and time in human history. An enormous literature of sea narratives recorded the experiences of trans-oceanic passage, with a varying degree of veracity. 

Sometimes, the title itself comprised its own personal narrative: “ The melancholy narrative of the distressful voyage and miraculous deliverance of Captain David Harrison , of the sloop, Peggy, of New York, on his voyage from Fyal, one of the western islands, to New-York, who Having lost all his Sails in a long Series of hard Weather, and entirely exhausted his Provisions, lived two and forty Days without receiving the least Food, till he was happily relieved by the Humanity of Capt. Evers of the Susanna, in the Virginia Trade. - In this Narrative the Expedients which Capt. Harrison and his Men made Use of for their Subsistence are particularly set forth, who twice cast Lots for their Lives, and were to have killed the second Man on the very Morning they were providentially taken up. - The Whole being authenticated in the strongest Manner, by repeated Depositions, Before the Right Hon. George Nelson, Esq. Lord-Mayor of the City of London, and Mr. Robert Shank, Notary Public. Written by himself.”

NYPL has digitized its unique copy of the  William H. Meyers diary , written and splendidly illustrated in watercolor in the 1830s by a Philadelphia seaman. 

Natural Cascades SE from Cape Henry : Seasick Gentry.

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1153508

The legacy of immigration to America is interwoven with the history of U.S. maritime policy, if only because most traffic immigrants arrived in ships. In researching 19th and 20th century immigration to the United States,  a first-person day-to-day account is an invaluable resource . For example, in  Reminiscences , Huie Kin notes that in 1868, "thirty dollars was the minimum wage fare" for trans-Pacific passage from Hong Kong to the port of San Francisco. Such information is often scarce in other resources.

And as a research correlative on the subject of slave narratives, the transatlantic slave trade was conducted on thousands of ships to North America from the West Coast of Africa. Initiated by the Portuguese and expanded by Spain and England, the international slave trade continued in post-colonial America until abolished in the early 1800s. The trade in human African cargo provided the brutal and supremacist foundation for regional American economies and caused the Civil War which, after 700,000 casualties and the emancipation of four million enslaved individuals, resulted in the first civil rights legislation in U.S. history. Researching any subject in this chronology, as with almost all time periods in human history, should yield some form of personal account.

V.W. Diary, 1941, [Cover].

NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 5267938

If a pattern exists between all these cited examples, it might be the continuing curiosity of the reading public for experiences they will never encounter themselves—like traveling the frontier of the American west, or walking the beat as a New York City cop in the 1920s—or experiences that no one should have ever endured—like enslavement before the Civil War, or an individual forced by oppressive social conditions to hide their true sexual identity. Such experiences of adventure or suffering amplify the narrator’s voice: echoes of a time before history is historical.

16,134 English ESL powerpoints

More From Forbes

From satire to satire: how gen z is revamping the legacy of “death by powerpoint”.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Young Cheerful Handsome Business Manager Wearing a Suit and Tie is Dancing like Crazy in the Office. ... [+] Diverse and Motivated Business People Work on Computers in Modern Open Office.

Fourteen years ago, Don McMillan, a Silicon Valley electrical engineer, recorded a YouTube video called “Life after Death by PowerPoint,” in which—as the title clearly states—he satirized the excesses and abuses of business presentation slides. In a key scene, McMillan says, “Here are the common PowerPoint® mistakes. Number One: People tend to put every word they are going to say on their PowerPoint® slides. Although this eliminates the need to memorize your talk, ultimately this makes your slide crowded, wordy, and boring. You will lose your audience’s attention before you even reach the bottom of your uh—first slide.”

What makes the scene funny is that every word McMillan speaks is on his slide, and that he reads them verbatim with his eyes glued to the screen and his back turned to his audience.

The video has amassed more than four million views and launched McMillan into a successful career as a professional comedian performing at corporate events.

Over the years, McMillan’s satirical campaign against the abuses and excesses of PowerPoint was picked up by New Yorker Magazine cartoons. One of the best, by Alex Gregory , shows the Devil interviewing an assistant and saying, “I need someone well-versed in the art of torture—do you know PowerPoint?”

Flash forward to last week when the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story titled, “Nothing Says ‘Party!’ to Gen Z Quite Like a 50-Deck PowerPoint and a Remote Clicker,” that describes a new trend in which the young generation uses the software to create presentations about frivolous—and therefore humorous—subjects. The authors of the story, WSJ Reporting Interns Sanvi Bangalore and Milla Surjadi, Gen Zers themselves, report that many of their peers “are amused by the irony of using professional technology to present NSFW content.” Bangalore and Surjadi call the trend “comedic ammo” because it used parody as criticism, just as McMillan did.

The reason that these abuses and excesses have persisted for so long can be traced back to the days before PowerPoint (as well as Google Slides and Keynote) and even before 35mm slides when presentations were done on flip charts. Those large cumbersome sheets mounted on rickety easels became the center of attention as a large surface that all the participants could see and share; but it also served to document the ideas that could later be copied and distributed to others who did not attend the session. In their earliest incarnation then, the flip chart served two purposes: as a display during the meeting and as a record capable of duplication and distribution after the meeting.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

Thus, was born the “Twofer”—a mismatched conflation of a display and a document— composed of overloaded slides and inadequate documents. The dysfunctional practice persists despite years of “Death by PowerPoint” jokes and satire. Old habits die hard. Clearly the solution is to separate the functions by creating two entities: a simple headline for display in PowerPoint (or other slide software) and separate documents to record and distribute done with Word (or other word processing software).

The Gen Zers, who became fluent with PowerPoint during their childhoods, are now entering the workforce and creating slides for more senior people to present. Let’s hope that their skills, their satire, and their parties can break the mold.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.