Day 2 - Exploring the Library at Mount Vernon

A little work at the library

Today was my first formal day as a Life Guard Teacher Fellow at Mount Vernon. The focus for the day was getting familiar with the resources at the Fred W. Smith Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon.

My first meeting of the day was with Mary Thompson. Mary is a research historian at Mount Vernon and I had a meeting with her to discuss my project on creating archaeology lesson plan for middle school classrooms.  She provided me with a couple of ideas on some real world situations that I could use later as I develop my lesson.  One of interesting portions of my discussion with Mary was discovering that Washington had bison here at Mount Vernon at the time of his death and at one point thought that he could use bison as draft animals. 

After lunch I had a tour of the Fred W. Smith Library for the Study of George Washington with Sarah Myers.  I had an abbreviated tour last September when I attended the Missouri Teachers Weekend but this tour was much more extensive. The Rare Books and Manuscripts were amazing including the original Rembrandt Peale portrait of Washington and books which belonged to Washington.

Peale portrait of Washington in Rare Books and Manuscripts Room

In the vault with books from Washington's private collection from Mount Vernon

Sarah also explained to me the procedures for accessing different resources located both physically in the library as well as the databases which are accessible only while at the library.  The library also has a very nice copier which allows for easy coping of books.

Copier for easily making scans of books

My final meeting of the day was with Allison Wickens, Vice President for Education at Mount Vernon, to discuss how the meetings throughout the day went and discussion about my lesson plan and potential meetings with other staff and researchers here at Mount Vernon.

Overall it was a great day becoming familiar with the multitude of material and resources available to me while I am here as a fellow.  I have a good plan in place and am ready to start exploring archaeology from a hand on approach.  

In in the evening was fortunate enough to meet up with the Fryer family - Wes, Shelly and Rachel - for dinner in Alexandria.  I have known Wes for a long time and I consider him to be one of my ed tech yodas.  Wes lives in Oklahoma and was visiting DC after a stop at ISTE in Philadelphia last week.  Crazy that both of us midwesterners have to go to DC to meet up and have dinner! I had a great time and was so happy to be able to see the Fryer family.

Exploring old town Alexandria with the Fryer family

George Washington and Twitter

A funny comic from the Holy Kaw! blog

Podcast #133 - Celebrate George Washington's Birthday with a David McCullough Video Presentation on Washington

Happy Birthday Mr. Washington! Today is George Washington's birthday - he was born on February 22, 1732 and today he would be 276 years old. I have always thought George Washington was a great man but an event a couple of years ago spurred a natural interest in his life and I discuss that in today's podcast.

Direct link to Speaking of History #133 - Celebrate George Washington's Birthday with a David McCullough Presentation on Washington from ConSource - MP3 audio file - 9:20 minutes



After you listen to the podcast I would encourage you to watch a special presentation about George Washington from ConSource. The presentation is available through UStream and is a fascinating lecture on Washington by my all time favorite historian - David McCullough. (As long time listeners to the podcast know, Mr. McCullough is the one individual I would enjoy to sit down and visit with more than any other person on the planet.) This presentation to me is a shining example of what is good about the combination of teaching history and modern technology. The presentation took place on February 13, 2008 and students were able to ask questions via the chat feature on UStream. I was not aware of it at the time and found it later. I am so glad that it is archived and I can view it today. As of this blog entry the presentation had been downloaded 10,000 times - incredible. Check it out. It is an incredible presentation describing one of the greatest men in our nation's history and a great way to celebrate Washington's birthday.

Click here to view the David McCullough presentation on UStream.

Podcast #106 - Valley Forge, Washington's Crossing and an Interview with George Washington

Hello. Today was a free day in Philadelphia before the Constitution Center workshop begins on Monday. When I teach the American Revolution to my 8th graders I have always wondered what Valley Forge and the location of Washington's Crossing would look like in person. Today I was able to see both sites. Pat Hughes, the author of Guerrilla Season and a resident of Philadelphia, was nice enough to share the day with me and offered to drive - a huge relief to me who would have been lost about a dozen times on the way there had I driven!

We wanted to see both locations so we didn't see everything at both locations, rather we saw the things we really wanted to see at each in a very busy day. The rest I'll see on my next trip to the Philadelphia area. Valley Forge was great and I have interviews with a couple of soldiers in the encampment. Then at Washington's headquarters I was blown away by the amazing living history portrayal of George Washington. This guy was awesome in appearance, voice, mannerisms, etc. - check out the photo. I did an interview with him and I swear I was visiting with ol' George himself! I also interviewed a slave that prepared the meals for George Washington and his staff at the headquarters. We finished up the day with a trip to Washington's Crossing State Park, including a tour of McConkey's Ferry Inn where Washington made the final plans for the crossing and attack on Trenton.

A very full but exciting day. I look forward to returning some day with my family and taking time to soak in the entire site. The podcast is a little longer this time - a little over 50 minutes - but I think there is some great on site audio.

If you have any comments please leave a comment on the blog or email me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com Also, don't forget you have until July 31, 2007 to e-mail me your name and city to be eligible to win a copy of Manhunt or Guerrilla Season - check out episode #100 for more details.

Direct link to Podcast #106 - Valley Forge, Washington's Crossing and an Interview with George Washington - MP3 Format - 51:53 minutes

Podcast #106 Show Notes:

- Valley Forge Official Site

- Washington's Crossing Park Official Site

Podcast #74 - Dinner For Four - Which Famous American History Figures Would You Invite to Dinner?

Hello. Today's podcast is a question that I began thinking about a couple of weeks ago as I ate at Gadsby's Tavern in Alexandria, Virginia - a historic tavern that once served the likes of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. What would it be like to dine with famous Americans from US History? Who would I invite and where would we eat?

In today's podcast I explain who I would invite, where we would eat and what we would discuss.

I also want to hear from you. Who would you invite and where would you eat this amazing meal? After listening to the podcast please post your response as a comment to this blog.

I would invite 1) George Washington, 2) Abraham Lincoln and 3) David McCullough. In the podcast I discuss why I selected these individuals and what topics we would cover during the meal.

Here are the guidelines:

- You can invite 3 individuals from American history - can be living or deceased. (I am not including family relatives or major religious figures.)

- Where you would eat this meal?

- What questions would you ask and what topics do you think would be included?

Please post your comments to this blog entry. I will quickly approve all responses and post them so that we can all share in this experiment. I can't wait to see your selections and why.

If you want to contact me directly or have a question or comment about the Speaking of History podcast please e-mail me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com

You can subscribe to the Speaking of History Podcast at i-Tunes here.

Direct link to Podcast #74 - Dinner for Four - Which Famous American History Figures Would You Invite to Dinner? - MP3 Format - 12:10 minutes

Show Notes for Podcast #74:

- George Washington Biography

- Abraham Lincoln Biography

- David Mc Cullough Biography

Podcast #69 - The War by PBS and Washington's Birthday at Gadsby's

Hello. Just spent a great day in Washington DC attending a symposium at PBS headquarters on an upcoming project and then celebrating Washington's birthday. A tremendous documentary on World War II by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sara Botstein will be shown on PBS in September of 2007 named "The War". The documentary will be 14 hours in length and has taken over 6 years of work to complete. PBS is currently in the process of developing teacher resources and curriculum connections to accompany the video series. Today PBS had roughly 50 people - teachers, students, professors, and people from the Library of Congress, History Day, NCSS, Teaching American History Grants, Archives - meet to discuss how this documentary can be used in the classroom. It was an amazing day. Producers Lynn Novick and Sara Botstein were also present and gave us some great background on how the video was produced. There will be resources sent to schools in the fall of 2007 and PBS is creating a very complete web site with teaching resources, clips, handouts, curriculum guides, etc. Any teacher who includes World War II as a portion of their curriculum should check it out next fall when it airs on PBS.

After the symposium I traveled to Old Town Alexandria and celebrated George Washington's birthday at Gadsby's Tavern. This tavern is the original building from colonial times and was a favorite place for George Washington to eat after his presidency. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison also ate there from time to time. I had a George Washington favorite - cider glazed duckling. Also included was a very tasty smoked bacon spoonbread. The food was excellent and you can't beat eating by candlelight in a room once shared by several presidents. Check it out the next time you are in the DC area.

If you have any questions or comments please e-mail me at speakingofhistory@gmail.com or leave a comment to this blog post.

Subscribe to the Speaking of History podcast through i-Tunes.

Direct Link to Speaking of History Podcast #69 - The War by PBS and Washington's Birthday at Gadsby's Tavern - MP3 Format - 10:15 minutes

Show Notes for Podcast #69:

- article on upcoming PBS series "The War" by Ken Burns
- official PBS site
- PBS Teacher Source site
- Gadsby's Tavern in Old Town Alexandria