2024 year end review and a look ahead

We delivered more programs than ever before in 2024:

  • The Pursuit of History: Rebellion in New England—The first Pursuit of History Weekend in our series for the 250th
  • The Pursuit of History: Santa Fe—The first Pursuit of History Weekend outside of the East Coast, and we covered a very different time period, different peoples and cultures, and a different landscape
  • History Camp Boston 2024—350 people and 50 sessions scheduled; 65 Friends of History Camp supporters
  • History Camp Author Discussions—30 new author discussions, including both of this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners for Biography
  • The Pursuit of History Publications—A new effort, starting with a book that builds on the research for The Pursuit of History: Rebellion in New England.  This first book focuses on 1774 and will be published in the first quarter of 2025. With financial support, we’ll continue and cover 1775 and 1776.

The slides below go into greater detail and include photos.

100% of our funding comes from individuals

On behalf of myself and our board, our thanks to the many individuals who supported The Pursuit of History this year through their donations and their participation in our programs.

As you’re making your year-end contributions, here are some things to consider when thinking about investing in The Pursuit of History:

  • First and foremost, 100% of our funding comes from individuals
  • We are the only national organization dedicated to bringing together people from all walks of life to engage with history
  • 100% history — No current/recent politics and no agenda
  • We have essentially no overhead, so  every donation, of any size, makes a meaningful impact on our small organization.

With your support and that of others who believe in what we’re doing, here is where I’d like to see us invest in 2025:

  • Savings so that we can get to the point where we can hire someone to work part time and be dedicated to program development and execution
  • Putting together an outstanding program for April (“Outbreak”) and for August (“Siege and Liberation”) in our series of 250th Pursuit of History Weekends
  • Continuing the publication series with one for 1775 so that the research done for these two Pursuit of History programs can be made available to everyone
  • Developing an outstanding Pursuit of History Weekend in October  and taking place in the New York City area. This would be focused on Teddy Roosevelt and be done in conjunction with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation
  • Improving the reliability of History Camp Author Discussion streams and the timely communications about them each week
  • Making History Camp Author Discussions available in more formats and raising awareness of them, both to stream live and to view in the archive

If you love history and believe that our programming is the kind of thing that should be supported, I hope you’ll consider including a donation, of any size, to The Pursuit of History in your year-end giving.

And if you’d like to be included in our first publication, Rebellion in New England — 1774, as a Supporter, the deadline to make a contribution of $250 or more is Tuesday, December 31. You can make your donation here, or learn more and donate here. You will also receive a limited edition hard bound copy of the book.

If you have questions or would like to discuss deeper cooperation or more extensive support, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

— Lee Wright | Founder | History Camp | The Pursuit of History

The Pursuit of History 2024 Review_compressed