Dr. Lisa Greenwald's AP U.S. History class is sharing their projects which are on display in the library. The creative and interesting assignment was:
"Your are in the process of cleaning out the attic of a recently deceased relative from Connecticut. The house has been in the family for generations but finally it must be sold. It is yeoman's work cleaning out the dust of ages. You are up in the far reaches of the attic, bringing out grimy oil lamps, old Christmas ornaments, moth-eaten rugs and the like when you uncover a large wooden box that looks like it has not been touched for decades. You open it up and dig through the musty rags that fill most of it but your hand hits what feels like a large book and you draw it up into your lap. What you discover is the treasure of a lifetime. It is a scrap book of a distant relative who, as the family lore goes, was something of an amateur historian in his day. In the middle of the nineteenth century, he taught history and geography at the local boys' college nearby and developed a local reputation as a scholarly man with political foresight.
Your scrap book contains everything from articles clipped from the local newspaper regarding the major events of the decade before the Civil War to maps, pictures, and recipes to "put by" the produce of his successful back yard garden and orchard. He treated everything from scholarly articles (which he includes) to local news with equal care and annotation as all of his entries have his (hand written) commentary and scribbles in the margins or on the back. "
Here is a glimpse into the projects on display covering the time period of roughly 1846-1850.
