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 TRAVELING TRUNK PRESENTATIONS
To inspire interest and facilitate understanding of our regional heritage, the Cumberland County Historical Society brings comprehensive historical presentations with hands-on artifacts into your classroom.

NATIVE AMERICANS OF THE EASTERN WOODLANDS TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: A wide variety of skins and pelts once indigenous to the area, accurate clothing and accessories, selected games, foods, cooking implements, tools, hunting equipment, musical instruments, and religious icons.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Explore the vibrant culture and lifestyle patterns of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands before and after European settlement. Focusing on Iroquois traditions, we will explore relationships between nations, language, hunting, weaponry, food and clothing preparation, cultural rituals, religious practices, music, gender roles, medicine, and the political structure of our area’s earliest settlers.

EARLY SETTLERS TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Complete period attire for three males and three females representing several social classes as well as materials for the production of textiles.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Social status and gender were clearly defined through clothing.  Students will learn why early settlers wore the amount and types of apparel they did and the many ways in which textiles reflected available resources and cultural expectations.  Eighteenth century posture and movement exercises will also be employed.

EARLY OCCUPATIONS TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Bed warmer, handmade nails and screws, chamber pot, hats, wigs, cups, furniture, grain, tin ware, iron work, leather, kegs, and other local products.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
From packers and criers to saddletree makers and skin drapers, Cumberland County was home to many fascinating trades.  Have fun learning how local people made a living, ways in which the trades interacted with one another, and the impressive array of goods and services once offered in downtown Carlisle.

ASSIMILATION, ADAPTATION AND TRADE IN EARLY SETTLEMENT
Hands-On Items Include: Animal furs and skins, hunting equipment, tools, cookware, wampum, trade blankets, beads, face paint, silver, and other common trade goods.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Even in our earliest years, Cumberland County was a vital hub for trade and transportation. Need for trade goods and desire for profitable furs heavily influenced relationships between white settlers and Native Americans. Comparing native and European trade goods, we will uncover ways that trade altered Native American culture while it simultaneously introduced new concepts to white settlers.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Regimental uniform and gear, British red coat, Highland regiment uniform and equipment, Rifleman uniform and equipment, and games.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Discover how vital Cumberland County was in the war for empire. Learn about the great negotiator, George Croghan. Find out how Indian captive, James Smith, returned home and became a local hero. Hearing about local events you will be moved by the tale of Regina and fascinated by stories of the John Armstrong and the Kittanning massacre, the infamous Paxton Boys, and the intriguing Stump Affair.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Pennsylvania infantry uniform and a broad assortment of military equipment, Pennsylvania Rifleman regalia, and female clothing and accessories.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Thomas Penn once said, “Every man in Cumberland County is a rioter at heart.”  Explore the role of these “rioters” in early settlement and the American Revolution. This presentation will provide insight into the technology of the period while revealing the genuine hardships faced by several of the areas most noted personalities including Molly Pitcher, William Hendricks, and Colonel William Thompson.

EARLY AMERICAN MEDICINE TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Blood letting cups and other blood letting devices, chamber pot, a variety of herbal and plant medicines, poultices, and fabric bandages.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
A wide range of diseases and infections stalked early settlers.  In a survey of medical history we will investigate the progress of medicine and learn why blood letting and purgatives become popular “cures” for illness.  We will also examine Washington’s gamble in variolating his troops against smallpox and the role of Dickinson president Benjamin Rush in early medical advances.

ONE ROOM SCHOOL DAYS TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Slates and slate pencils, quill and fountain pens, McGuffey’s schoolbooks, “fire wood,” school clothes, lunch pail, dunce caps, and recess games.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Influenced by the work of local politician James Hamilton, Cumberland County became part of the common school movement. Return to the time when a child’s school day experience included slate boards, inkpots, dunce caps, outhouse pranks, desk snakes, and eight grades in one room. Learn about our local heritage and relive a typical school day through hands-on activities, lessons, games and “consequences.”

SLAVERY AND UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Period clothing, wrist and leg shackles, various musical instruments, an assortment of games, music, and dances.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Cumberland County held slaves longer than any other county in the state of Pennsylvania and yet was also known as a route on the Underground Railroad.  Explore the complex attitudes of local persons towards slavery and learn ways in which African Americans adapted to a life of slavery using call and response songs, pacing games, community building activities, memory skills, and dance.

CIVIL WAR TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Full uniform and equipment for a Union infantry soldier including military supplies and accessories, food, munitions, medicine, and entertainment.  Period female clothing including undergarments, corset, and hoops.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
In the summer of 1863, as the battle of Gettysburg raged, Cumberland County was invaded and attacked by Confederate troops. Throughout the county chaos ensued. Using diaries and letters, we will reconstruct civilian life in the Cumberland Valley during this difficult time, as well as address the trials of being a Civil War soldier.

CIVIL WAR MEDICINE TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include:  A selection of bandages, arm slings, stretchers, munitions, sanitation items, foods, herbal poultices and remedies, and corsets.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Examine attitudes of the era towards the pathogens of illness, personal hygiene, sanitation, and nutrition that contributed to the spread of disease.  While learning how to bandage and treat the injured, we will look at the major problems and medical innovations of the period from the perspective of both soldiers and civilians.

CARLISLE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Comparative clothing from Native American and middle class Caucasian cultures, religious icons, tools, decorative arts, and music.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
As westward expansion and industrialization brought native and white cultures into direct conflict, Carlisle, Pennsylvania became central to one of the most extensive social experiments in American history.  Students will scrutinize the intense nature of organized assimilation and learn how the Indian school was reflective of national policies at the turn of the century.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: “Gibson Girl” clothing including corset, petticoat, and undergarments, women’s and men’s bathing suits, men’s vintage tuxedo suit, button up shoes, period toys and tools, stereoscopes, toys, and other household items.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
In this dynamic time period, textiles, shoes, iron products, clay, paper, ribbon, and rubber tires were being produced throughout the county, and philanthropic business owners were improving the quality of life. Beginning with the Cumberland Valley Railroad, we will learn about a variety of local businesses and how they helped fuel an exploding consumer culture, the expansion of leisure activities, and widened the social sphere of women.

WORLD WAR I TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Authentic military uniform, helmet, and gear, gas mask, binoculars, vintage post cards, toys from the era, recruiting posters, medical equipment. Period women’s clothing including suffrage accessories.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Trenches, disease, gas attacks, hand grenades, tanks, rats and shell shock characterized the war.  Find out how technological advancement outstripped military strategy and dramatically increased the death count. Learn about our local men at the Second Marne, Fismes and Fismette, and the Argonne Forest, and ways in which area women contributed to victory.

ROARING TWENTIES TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Men’s knicker leisure suit, women’s 1920s styled clothing, female undergarments including period corset, popular, and prohibition material culture.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Rapid cultural changes taking place in the 1920s were reflected in dramatic clothing styles and pop crazes.  “Park” your corset, listen to jazz, try the Charleston, visit a speakeasy and explore ways that the WWI increased social awareness and economic prosperity, gave rise to a youth culture, and earned women the right to vote.

DANCE AND POPULAR CULTURE TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Music and clothing accessories to perform a selection of movement exercises and dances from colonial social dancing, African harvest dance and the limbo, Civil War era reel, Victorian waltz, and the Charleston.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Culture is reflected through movement. Early settlers, following the patterns set by Europe, emphasized posture and dance to distinguish gentry from lower classes. African traditional dances were mocked and manipulated to demonstrate white superiority. Ironically, in the twentieth century, African movement would become mainstream and today dominates popular culture. We will explore how movement reveals cultural expectations and lends itself to adaptation.

GREAT DEPRESSION TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: 1930s vintage clothing, sackcloth, and prohibition articles.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
From amusing tales of chicken thieves, and bootlegging, to the tragedy of the Three Babes in the Woods, Cumberland County experienced drama and change when the economy faltered.  We will examine the effects of local WPA projects, the Civilian Conservation Corps at Michaux (CCC camp), reemployment offices, bank closures, suicide, murder, and community gardens during the Great Depression.

WORLD WAR II HOMEFRONT TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Factory coveralls for “Rosie the Riveter,” WACC military and Red Cross nursing uniforms, foodstuff, clothing, stockings, coins, ration books and tokens, gas and sugar certificates, and other rationing artifacts from the Homefront.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Carlisle Garden Club did fundraising for victory gardens, and Enola boy scouts collected milkweed pods for life preservers: victory during World War II was dependent upon support from the homefront. The massive military effort necessitated sacrifice from the civilian population. With gasoline, metal, and rubber all in short supply and food “a weapon of war” we will delve into ways in which local people were “making do” on the homefront.

WORLD WAR II MILITARY TRUNK
Hands-On Items Include: Complete authentic uniforms, gear, and personal artifacts from the era including original rations and military equipment.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
It was a time of total warfare. Plan spotting observation towers were spread across the county, Camp Michaux had an interrogation camp for German P.O.W.’s, a huge Naval Depot was built in Mechanicsburg, and the army installations at Carlisle and New Cumberland boomed.  Learn about our area’s involvement in the war, the heroics of Congressional Medal of Honor winners, Minick and Zeamer, and the lives of other local men and women during World War II.

DISTINGUISHED PERSONS FROM CUMBERLAND COUNTY
Hands-on Items Include: Various clothing and material culture items related to county residents.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Native American warriors and frontiersmen, Indian captives, traders, war heroes, industrialists, negotiators, Founding Fathers, artists, poets, athletic champions, and politicians; Cumberland County has been home to many fascinating individuals. “Try on” the accomplishments of local individuals and learn the significant contributions of area residents throughout history.

WORLD CULTURE AND ASSIMILATION THROUGH TOYS AND GAMES
Hands-On Items Include: An extensive collection of early and handcrafted wooden toys, corn games and toys, dolls, tin playthings, iron toys, and contemporary plastic toys.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Expansion of Western Civilization from Phoenicia to Egypt, Greece, and Rome is explored through amusements. Find out how contemporary playthings made the trek through history with the Roman army and investigate ways in which toys reveal patterns of assimilation, adaptation, technology, politics, religion, and gendered expectations.

ADAPTATION IN HOLIDAY CELEBRATIONS TRUNK
Hands-on Items Include: Roman holiday costuming, Christmas stockings and straw shoes, plum pudding, mincemeat, dreidel, menorah, mistletoe, and evergreens,
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
December uniquely displays our American heritage.  Each wave of immigration, from Scots-Irish and English to German, left its own distinctive mark. Nowhere is this more evident than in holiday customs.  This presentation will cover the roots of the holiday in Europe and the adaptation and assimilation of various customs by a variety of ethnic and religious groups in Central Pennsylvania.

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN BELSNICKLE TRUNK
Hands-on Items Include: Various Belsnickle and Belsnickling costumes, noisemakers, toys and Pennsylvania German foods of the season.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Prior to the Civil War more masks were sold in Cumberland County in December than in October for a tradition called belsnickling. While many holiday customs blended and became mainstream, other rituals maintained ethnic origins or faded away. Reflecting on Pennsylvania German influences in contemporary culture, we will look at ways in which the mischievous German Belsnickle evolved and melded into modern Santa Claus and Halloween traditions.

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN TRUNK
Hands-on Items Include: Clothing, paper cutting, basketry, fraktur, braided rugs, slaw boards, cookie cutters, butter molds, and fancy needlework.
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
With encouragement from William Penn, Germanic peoples seeking a better life, flowed into Pennsylvania. Diverse German ancestry in a new land gave birth to a unique American culture known as Pennsylvania German. Within this fascinating culture, literacy, farming techniques, architecture, animal husbandry, food ways, language, superstition, and holidays evolved and influenced the growing nation.

WHAT CLOTHING REVEALS
Hands-on Items Include: Reproduction and vintage clothing selections in any combination from the following subjects:
Native Americans-Colonial-Post American Revolution-Civil War-Westward Expansion-Industrial Revolution-World War I-Roaring Twenties-Great Depression -World War II, Cold War, and Vietnam .
Perspectives that can be covered in this program:
Transformation and upheaval are often expressed through dramatic shifts in style. In a socially acceptable format unspoken messages conveying economics, class structure, politics, gender, and technology are subliminally expressed through clothing.
These overview programs using textiles provide contextual understanding of major political and social movements throughout American history

Hands-On in the Himes Education Center can be expanded to include time at our interactive workstations. These rotating themed centers provide hands-on experience with the past.

VISIT OUR AWARD WINNING VIRTUAL MUSEUM TOUR WITH MATCHING HISTORY STANDARDS:
www.historicalsociety.com
Winner of the Executive Directors Award from the Pennsylvania Federation of Museums and Historical Societies, our vibrant virtual tour takes visitors through our comprehensive museum galleries and features extensive educational material with fascinating details of county history.

LARGE GROUP MUSEUM SAMPLER
COUNTY SEAT WALKING TOUR
Tours focused on the history of the county may include a selection from the following: Old Courthouse (with trial reenactment), First Presbyterian Church (1766), Old Prison (1751), Old Graveyard (1750)(aka: Molly Pitcher graveyard), CCHS Museum Tour, Hands-On Presentation in the CCHS Himes Education Center.

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD BUS TOUR
Local tour includes: Old Courthouse-1847 McClintock Slave Riot Trial Reenactment, and Hands-On Presentations integrating slave games, rituals, music and dance in the CCHS Himes Education Center.  Boiling Springs to Pine Grove Mansion, The Iron Works, Island Grove, and the Daniel Kaufman House.

HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE INTERNSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE

TEACHER IN-SERVICE PROGRAMS TO DEMONSTRATE EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS ARE WELCOME.  IN-SERVICE PROGRAMS ARE PROVIDED AT YOUR FACILITY OR AT THE CUMBERLAND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

We offer coordination and support for daylong activities for all grades including:
Depression Day: Rotating stations of music and dance, WPA and CCC projects, food station, make it do or do without, old time radio shows.

Colonial Day: Rotating stations with a wide variety of hands-on crafts such as quill pen writing, period clothing, churning butter, maple sugar candy making, taxation, and games.

Civil War Day: Rotating activities with a focus on medicine and munitions, scarcity during war, technology crafts, games, military drill, community building through dance, period clothing.

World War II Day: Rotating stations provide insight into both civilian and military life. Civilian life is reflected in Homefront exercises in food and product rationing, and plane spotting while military aspects are revealed in military gear and munitions exercises.

NARRATED SLIDE SHOWS
Some of our most popular slide and PowerPoint shows:
Carlisle Indian Industrial School
Through images, we will explore the cultural and historical background of the school. Presentation includes individual nametags with biographical information on actual CIIS students.

Flex Time: Rosie the Riveter
Condemned for working during the Great Depression, exalted throughout World War II, and sexualized in the Cold War years, women were in transition from the 1930a through the 1960s. This program looks at changing expectations and examines contemporary depictions of Rosie the Riveter.

Barbie in the 21st Century: Cultural Influence of an Innocent Blonde
Evolution of this cultural icon reflects the ideals of American society and reveals attitudes towards body image and women in the workplace and political arena.
What is it? Hands-on Takeaway Trunk
This trunk is checked out by educators, used independently over a two week-period, and returned to the historical society.  The trunk contains an educational guide and laminated cards to facilitate use.

Kitchen: Contains a variety of visually stimulating early kitchen utensils.  Laminated cards identify the items. A word description on one side and on the other is an image of the article with an explanation of its use.
This trunk is a wonderful way to explore resourcefulness or ways that technology has changed food preparation.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

HISTORY DAY ORIENTATION: We have hands-on programs that instruct students on how to identify and analyze primary documents and library resources.

HOMESCHOOL PROGRAMS: Following state curriculum, an enrichment series for all ages is offered monthly September through April.

SUMMER CAMPS
ADVENTURES IN HISTORY SUMMER CAMP: Annual summer camps geared towards elementary students in grades 3-5. Three-year rotation includes

ADVENTURES IN HISTORY SUMMER CAMP: Annual summer camps geared towards elementary students in grades 3-5. Three-year rotation includes Native Americans, Early Settlers and American Revolution, and Civil War Era.

ADVANCED ADVENTURES IN HISTORY CAMP: Annual summer camp program for grades 6-9. Three-year rotation includes Victorian America and the Industrial Revolution, Depression and World War II Era, and the 1950s and 1960s.

Preserving and sharing Cumberland County history for 130 years, the Cumberland County Historical Society offers award-winning museum galleries, a research library, photo archives, and innovative educational programs.  The Historical Society also owns and operates the historic Two Mile House at Walnut Bottom Road, the site of the annual McClain Celtic Festival.

For additional information on our programs please contact:
Education Curator, Janeal Jaroh: 249-7610
Email: edcurator@historicalsociety.com
Education Assistant, Matthew March: 249-7610
Email: educ@historicalsociety.com
 

Cumberland County is an area rich in historic moments preserved and relived through the Cumberland County Historical Society.  The State of Pennsylvania again approved CCHS innovative education programs to qualify for Education Improvement Tax Credit Program for the 2007-2008 school year.

Corporations, which made a two-year contribution to the Society through this program, can receive a 90% tax credit for six types of credits.  Those who make a one-year contribution will receive a 75% tax credit.  Unlike charitable giving, Educational Improvement Tax Credits are authorized for businesses that make contributions to educational improvement organizations for innovative educational programs.