Young Historians at the Museum

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

As a child on a field trip to a history museum, I remember being awestruck as I walked around a dugout canoe. It looked so different from any pictures I’d seen in books. It seemed larger than canoes floating in a nearby lake, and the texture of axe marks almost looked like a pattern with a secret message. I wondered who made it, why they made it, and where they might have traveled with it. It was a mystery and I wanted to learn more. The Historical Society seeks to ignite that same kind of awe and curiosity in Elmira’s children today.

As this year’s public-school calendar nears the finishing line, the Historical Society has recently hosted close to 400 Elmira City School District (ECSD) second graders and their teachers. Each 90-minute visit to the museum means that our small staff of five, including the Executive Director, Archivist, Curator, and Office Manager drop everything and join me to help out.  We want students to feel welcome, that they belong here at the museum, and we want them to see themselves connecting to local history. Knowing that for many students it will be their first time visiting a museum, we give them the tools to understand what museums are and what a history museum holds.

We’ve designed these end-of-year visits to reinforce their school lessons and connect to the six topics we cover when we visit their classrooms. Visiting each class multiple times helps to build trust in the students and teachers who work so hard. The six visits culminate at the end of their second grade with a field trip to the museum. This program connecting students to a deeper understanding of history and a sense of place was piloted in 2015, starting with just one school in the district. Today the program includes 120 in-class visits with 60 classrooms in four schools. When the second graders finally visit the Chemung Valley History Museum, they see for themselves the actual size of artifacts they’ve only seen pictures of in the classroom. They also see the enormous number of items on display in the galleries, part of a collection that is constantly growing in size and variety. The range of items almost guarantees that each student will see something that interests them. Overall, it can make a powerful impression on them, and their excitement often inspires us to look at history and the items that we hold in new ways.  

Often hosting 60 students at a time, we rotate them through three stations. To make sure they move around the museum, students go on a scavenger hunt in the Bank gallery looking for artifacts and documents that span the Devonian age to the Space age.

Scavenger hunt

Next, after seeing the building’s original bank vaults, they play bingo by solving simple math problems.  

Bank Bingo

And lastly, students capture something they’ve seen in the galleries by creating drawings which they take home.

Riverside 2nd graders with their artwork

Ninety minutes pass quickly, and we encourage them to come back and teach others about what they’ve learned. For the museum staff, comments like ‘this is the best day ever,’ ‘I’m definitely coming back,’ and ‘I didn’t know the mammoth tusk was so big’ can be the best reward ever.

Young Historians with drawings of Bike, Tusk, and Radio

Throughout the year, we host other school groups visiting for programs on natural disasters, the Underground Railroad, notable Elmirans, and writing like Mark Twain. But this ECSD program is unique for its multiple visits and topics. Statistics show that if children visit museums while young, they are more likely to feel welcomed and more likely to visit museums, any museum, as adults. The Chemung County Historical Society is marking its 100^th year of operations*, and while the museum collections we hold are from the past, sharing artifacts and documents from history, they are really here for future generations.  We invite you all to visit the museum this summer and bring a young historian along.

And maybe discover a little awe for yourself.

*On August 26, 2023, from 1 pm to 5 pm we are hosting a birthday party featuring the Excelsior Cornet Brass Band, history talks, open galleries, and cake. Free admission for all.