Borrowing from a common family tradition of passing stories down through the generations, Honors US History students wrapped up their longterm Historical Character Projects (HCP) last week by sitting down for a conversation with their “grandson,” perhaps better known as Teacher of History Jason Harding. These sophomores spent two months creating a character from their own imaginations who lived in the United States in the mid to late 1800s. The project required extensive research of that period to back up all of the details and facts related to each specific character and it all culminated with fun character conversations in Yen’s Wesley Forum last week.
“The project combines the students' own creativity with an introduction to in-depth research, information literacy, and intensive source analysis of both primary and secondary sources,” explains Harding. “The interview with their grandchild (me), who asks them questions about what life was like in the past, is the culmination of the creative component of the project; the academic component is an annotated bibliography of their required sources.” Given the requisite research of the project, students spent a fair amount of time in Meckler Library navigating digital databases as well as print sources from the stacks.
Among the diverse array of “relatives” with whom Harding was able to speak were an abolitionist Quaker, a Prussian steel mill owner, a close friend of nurse Clara Barton, and a surgical instructor from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. The surgical instructor was the brainchild of Sydney Z. ’27, who elevated the living history experience by teaching Harding how to properly suture a wound using actual surgical instruments similar to the period.
According to Sydney, “the most challenging aspect was finding primary sources regarding the daily life my character may have had during the Civil War in her profession.” Sydney notes that while the research process was challenging and time consuming, “all the hard work I put in paid off in the end when I felt like I could truly embrace who my character was.” That final “becoming” of her character was incredibly rewarding for Sydney: “Finally talking as my character made me realize how well I knew her. I truly enjoyed doing this project.”