Please choose the programs you wish to request by entering the number of students to be assigned to each program. Only enter a number of students in the programs you wish to attend. Please note that this is an estimated number which will be finalized when your request is scheduled.
Village Classroom
Traveler's Trunk
The District School How did New England achieve the highest literacy rate in the country by the 1820s? Compare educational practices of the New Republic to those of today. Participate in a school lesson led by a schoolmistress or schoolmaster. Curriculum is available online.
Resources:
Going to Market Who made, distributed, and consumed the goods and services available in a country store? Explore how new technologies and global expansion made merchandise from distant lands available to New Englanders. Learn about account books and their role in documenting debit and credit transactions.
Resources:
Grandma's Trunk Tells a Story Put the ‘story' back in ‘history'! Using a timeline and objects from pre-Revolutionary War to early 1800s, help put events and reproduction artifacts in sequence to tell the story of how the Colonies became a new nation.
Resources:
Lewis & Clark - Available October 3, 2011!
Going West! - Available October 3, 2011!
Your Day in Court Discover the democratic principals and customs that our justice system was built upon. Through observation and participation in an authentic 19-th -century court case under the authority of a 19-th century Justice of the Peace, students actively learn about United States citizen's freedoms and rights.
Additional information on town officers and town government in early 19th-century New England:
Hands-on Activities
Hands-on Studio Activities
Civic Programs
Anti-Slavery Petition Campaign Requires pre-visit classroom preparation using online materials. Help end slavery and the slave trade in Washington, D.C! Use our online resources prior to your visit to explore the constitutional rights and attitudes toward slavery and abolition in 1830s New England. At the museum, students visit with Villagers and try to convince them to sign a petition to abolish slavery in the Capitol.
The program concludes with a focused group discussion moderated by a museum educator.
New England Town Meeting Requires pre-visit classroom preparation using online materials. Participate in a Town Meeting and see how local government functions! Should the town purchase a “poor farm” to replace the “vendue” system of auctioning off the needy to the lowest bidder? Use online resources prior to your visit to explore early methods of local poor relief. At the museum, students interview Villagers to gather different points of view, then join our costumed Town Moderator at the Center Meetinghouse to debate and vote on the issue.
Village Performances
Tales From Long Ago
The Art of 19th-Century Puppetry
Meet a 19th-Century Character
Remembering the Revolution
