In the early 1930s, Phillips Academy Headmaster Claude Fuess created the course “The United States” in the History Department. Currently known as History-300, the course aims, according to the Course of Study, to develop “critical thinking and writing, research, and informed and engaged discussion” skills. A key component of the course’s spring term is the History-300 Research Paper.
Keri Lambert, Chair in History and Social Science, gave an overview of the assignment, noting that the paper has changed significantly over the years.
“During the Spring term of History 300, students complete a major research project that culminates in a 9-11 page argumentative research paper. While the exact details—from the length of the paper to the technology used to produce it—have changed over time, this project has been a staple of the Andover student experience for decades,” wrote Lambert in an email to The Phillipian.
In the 1930s, according to archival reports, Andover shifted from a classics-based education to a more history-focused one in response to widely held public beliefs that schools like Andover were overly insulated. In a 2003 speech, Vic Henningsen ’70 noted that history classes were initially test-based; however, the paper evolved in response to the need to prepare students for writing in college. Smaller papers beyond the History-300 capstone were subsequently introduced.
“The American history course focused exclusively on timed tests and examinations and demanded no analytical or research essays, with the result that Andover students were caught highly off guard when asked to undertake such assignments in college. Not until the 1970s was a required research paper added to this course; not until the 1980s would the assignment of out-of-class analytical essays become routine,” said Henningsen, cited from the archived transcript of the speech.
Rather than an abrupt shift from tests to papers, there came a period where both were incorporated into the curriculum. The 1968-69 Course of Study reveals that students were allowed to write a final paper in place of a final test if they were doing well enough in the class. However, by the 1974-75 school year, an extensive paper was standard for all sections of U.S. History. The 1974-75 Course Catalog emphasized the importance of drawing upon primary sources in this paper, and hints that students had significant freedom in deciding their topic.
“[Students] are encouraged to use the raw materials of history – newspapers, letters, diaries, interviews. One student wrote a paper on the attitude of the New York Times toward the Russian revolution; another edited the diary his great grandfather wrote while on a voyage to Zanzibar,” writes the Course of Study.
Kaya Mangani ’27, currently working on her History-300 research paper, said that she enjoys the process and values its student-centered approach.
“I’ve always liked research. I really like finding a bunch of stuff, reading all of it, and taking notes on it. It’s been a lot of work, I would say, especially because now is the main ‘finding’ stage,” said Mangani. “It’s been an interesting process because I like the topic that I chose. The beauty of it is you can pick whatever you want, so if you pick something you’re really interested in, it doesn’t feel tedious or like a lot of work. It just feels like exploring something you’re really passionate about.”
Last year, Hillary Tufino ’26 received the History and Social Science Department’s Marshall Kates Prize for the strongest History-300C paper. Tufino explained how she landed on and researched the topic of the AIDS crisis, and encouraged current students to choose a media form that is interesting for them to explore.
“I’m looking to go pre-med, so I was initially really interested in the medical journal side of it, and that’s what got me into AIDS as a topic. I did a lot of work with the world’s journals. Because I was already so interested in the medical aspect of it, that helped me dive deeper into the actual systemic and political aspects of what was going on. I know a lot of kids in my class were pulling from videos and movies that were from the time,” said Tufino. “Finding the type of source that you like to read or the type of writing or media that you’d like to actually explore is really important, just so that you don’t drain yourself during the process.”
Lambert reflected on the many purposes of the essay: mainly as a culmination of the three years of work students have done in the History Department, as well as giving students the freedom to think critically and independently.
“It’s significant for many reasons beyond its iconic intergenerational reputation, though. In many ways, a research paper presents an opportunity for a student to synthesize and showcase the skills that they’ve worked so hard to build in Sam[uel] Phil[lips Hall] classrooms from term to term and year to year. As the saying goes, Humanities teachers don’t want to teach a student what to think, but rather how to think, and that ethos is perfectly encapsulated in a research assignment,” wrote Lambert in an email to The Phillipian.
