Two alums have given the history department its largest donation ever.

Kenneth Eisenberg and his wife, Frances Aftel Eisenberg, donated $5 million to support the Institute for Historical Studies. The institute, beginning its second year, aims to bring new voices and programs to campus.

Eisenberg is chairman and CEO of Kenwal Steel Corp. He graduated with a degree in history in 1964.

The institute was renamed the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies in honor of the Eisenbergs' gift.

Kathleen Canning, the institute's director, said the donation will transform the history department, energizing intellectual life on campus and creating a place for sustained dialogue.

"The history department has many professors teaching in different disciplines," she said. "We're scattered. We need to create this space where we can come together again."

Faculty at the institute have big plans for the money.

It will be channeled toward a variety of projects, including research and curriculum development in the history department, expanding the distinguished speaker series and recruiting distinguished professors for fellowships.

One of the institute's priorities this year is extending its outreach beyond campus to elementary, middle and high schools in the area.

"We want to make our faculty available to pre-college teachers," Canning said. "We'd like to have professors running summer programs and workshops, which would provide for these teachers access to cutting-edge information."

In the coming months, the institute will feature presentations by various history scholars as part of its program "The Thursday Series." Discussions in the series will cover a variety of topics, including urban history, cultural hegemony in Europe and global Christianity. The lectures will explore the institute's theme this year, "History and the Visual."

Although the Eisenbergs' donation is the largest ever received by the history department, it's only a quarter of the amount of LSA's largest donation. The largest was a $20 million donation to LSA for the creation of the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies.

The University's history department is frequently ranked as one of the top five programs in the country.

Canning said she believes the department, aided by the Eisenbergs' donation, will eventually take the number-one spot.

"We definitely think we can reach it," she said. "In fact, I think the dean would like to see us reach it."