Education by Design: Using Visual Aids

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Puzzle, Kindergarten cut-outs
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This site offers an online exhibit and an image database of more than 70 historic educational visual aids created for use by schools, libraries, and museums beginning in 1935 by the WPA's (Works Progress Administration) Museum Extension Project. The collection features items such as puppets, toys, architectural models, dioramas, jigsaw puzzles, handbooks and pamphlets, lantern slides, miniature furniture models, prints, and posters. Each item contains information about its size and place of production.

The collection is searchable by item and by state of manufacture and contains materials from Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Suitable for those interested in material culture or government-sponsored education projects.

Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Culture

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Detail, home page
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This website is the virtual home of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Culture, devoted to preserving the languages and cultural traditions of this region, roughly defined as Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. While originally home to Woodland and Plains American Indians, and then a varied population of European American populations, this region more recently has welcomed increasing numbers of African, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants.

A glimpse at some of the materials the Center has gathered is available through six virtual exhibits accessible through the website. These exhibits include one devoted to Heikki Lunta, a folk legend born during the reawakening of Finnish ethnic consciousness on Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the 1970s; another on bread-making traditions in Wisconsin, including several images from German American cookbooks; and another including images depicting European American ethnic life on the South Shore of Lake Superior; other exhibits feature German American folk music in Wisconsin, some of which dates to the 1930s.

The website also features 20 video podcasts on aspects of community life in southwestern Wisconsin, as well as extensive guides to archival collections on Upper Midwestern life at physical archives at the University of Wisconsin and throughout the region.

At Home in the Heartland

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Logo, At Home in the Heartland Online
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Visitors can explore family life in Illinois from 1700 to the present in this site based on a 1992 museum exhibit. The site is divided into six time periods, each featuring biographical sketches providing "glimpses into the lifestyles and domestic situations of real people" at critical moments in Illinois and American history.

In addition, each period contains audio components; timelines; maps; examples of material culture; exercises comparing the lifestyles and experiences of various racial, ethnic, and economic groups; methodological explanations; and teaching aides such as grade-specific lesson plans, discussion ideas, classroom activities, and links to related sites.

Activities can be accessed at three levels of difficulty: Level I (grades 3-5), Level II (grades 6-9), and Level III (grades 10-12). A valuable resource for teachers interested in exposing students social history.

Oral History Digital Collection

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Image for Oral History Digital Collection
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These full-text first-person narratives present the voices of more than 2,000 people from northeast Ohio discussing issues significant to the state and the nation. These oral histories, collected since 1974, focus on a range of topics such as ethnic culture, including African American, Greek, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Romanian, and Russian, and industry, such as steel, pottery, brick, coal, and railroads.

Others discuss labor relations, including women in labor unions, wars (World War II, Vietnam, Gulf War), college life (including the shootings by National Guard troops at Kent State in 1970), the Holocaust, and religion. Subject access is available through more than 200 topics listed alphabetically.

Boot Hill Museum [KS]

Description

The Museum preserves the history of Dodge City and the Old West. Its Front Street buildings are reconstructions, representing Dodge City in 1876 and exhibiting hundreds of original artifacts. The various exhibits throughout the museum depict life in early Dodge City, and include a collection of over 200 original guns, a working print shop, and an extensive collection of drugstore items.

The museum offers exhibits, living history demonstrations, historically-inspired variety show entertainment, stagecoach rides, and chuckwagon-style dinners.

French Lick/West Baden Springs

Description

Unprecedented in the nation, the grand hotels in French Lick and West Baden Springs—both listed in the National Register of Historic Places and located one mile apart in southern Indiana—offer a window on the grand hotel era of the early 20th century and the tradition of "taking the waters." Guests from Al Capone to FDR, Bing Crosby to Helen Keller, captains of industry and pampered socialites, came to imbibe the waters and take spa treatments, enjoy sports and entertainments, and test their luck in the casinos. Today, the restored French Lick and West Baden Springs Hotels still draw visitors for the same pursuits. Like Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, and Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, French Lick and West Baden Springs offer overnight accommodations in an atmosphere steeped in history.

The hotels offer tours.

Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum [WI]

Description

The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum claims to be the only museum focusing solely on the creation of wooden type and the printing process involving said type. Collections include more than 1.5 million individual pieces of wooden type. In the 19th century, pieces such as those in the collection were a necessity for mass communication. Aside from type, the museum displays printing tools, type specimen catalogs, hot metal type production, and hand operated printing presses.

The site offers exhibits and demonstrations. Field trips are welcome.

Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site [MN]

Description

The Lower Sioux Agency, founded in 1853, served as the administrative center of the Dakota reservation. The site presents Dakota life and culture prior to European contact, during the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War, and during the reservation period. Gardens and farming plots offer comparison of traditional and reservation farming techniques.

The site offers exhibits, a film, period gardens, period crops, children's programs, guided tours, trails, and interpretive signs. Reservations are required for field trips.

The John Wornall House Museum [MO]

Description

Wealthy Kentuckian John B. Wornall built the John Wornall House in 1858. The home was built in the Greek-Revival style of architecture and became known as "the most pretentious house in the section." The home has been restored to its state immediately after it was built, and is open to visitors year round.

The home offers guided tours, special events, summer camps, and educational trunks. The website offers a history of the home, visitor information, and a calendar of events.