American Philosophical Society and Atwater Kent Museum.
June 10, 2008
This morning we visited the American Philosophical Society. The first thing that we saw was a the original rough draft written by Thomas Jefferson. This could be very useful in the classroom when teaching students how to revise their writing. Even the best writer have to revise their work. You could also look at what was taken out and try to determine why this portion was selected to be removed. I can also talk to my students how some documents back then were printed on vellum, or calf skin. The copy of the Declaration that was shown there was printed on this.
We then went up to the second floor and looked at some primary documents such as the first air mail letter sent by balloon. This letter was sent by Ben Franklin to his son across the English Channel,or British Channel as he refered to it. It was sent in January of 1754. It seemed that Franklin simply sent this letter to his son just so he could send by this means of transportation. This seems like something that I would do.
We also saw some of the original journals of Lewis and Clark. It was interesting to see how every possible place on the page was filled with either picture or text. You could discuss how paper was precious to the group.
The next stop was across the street where our guide gave a talk on Franklin and the Philosophical society, Then we toured the small exhibition on exploration.
In the afternoon we went to the Atwater Kent museum which focuses on slavery and the Abolishionist movement. In the packet she gave us some exampoles of runaway slave postings. They do a good job at describing what the slaves looked like since there were no pictures of them usually.These items could be very useful in the classroom. They could be read in groups and disect the announcements to learn all that we can. What does there name mean? Did they take things with them? Does it appear that hey have been planning this for some time? There are also advertisements for the sale of slaves. I think that if students actually see the advertisement for the sale of a human being would be very powerful.
