Programs
Programs:
In addition to offering unique programs that complement classroom content and goals, the Rolland Center for Lincoln Research at the Allen County Public Library offers tours and the following programming for school groups. As the Lincoln Collection encompasses a wide variety of topics and materials, we are able to accommodate diverse programs to suit educators’ needs. We invite teachers to explore field trip options with us, but if you cannot make it into the Center physically for a visit, Lincoln Librarians can bring programs to your classroom virtually. Contact us at [email protected] for inquiries.
Causing a Civil War: Understanding the Beginnings and Ends of the Civil
War
Topic: Civil War Overview
Description: Understanding all the players, issues, and concerns involved in the Civil War can be complicated. By using the lens of the Lincoln Collection’s primary sources, this introductory dive into the Civil War covers the main people involved, Lincoln’s influence on the war, major battles, and the Generals who led their armies. Read Civil War letters and journals, see photographs from the battlefields and camps, and understand the war from the people who were there.
Target Audience: K-12…..[Read more]
“I vote you!” Lincoln and His Elections
Topic: Lincoln and Elections
Description: Elections today in the U.S. look a bit different than they did during Lincoln’s time. Explore the way candidates campaigned (if at all!), the way conventions were involved with their parties, and even who could vote and where to cast the ballots. Add in a Civil War and the Confederate States of America, and that creates an even more complicated election. Learn about all this through original ballots, campaign songs, and speeches.
Target Audience: Middle-High School students…[Read more]
Lincoln’s Life: From Midwest to Best
Topic: Abraham Lincoln’s Life Overview
Description: Abraham Lincoln is known as a strong leader and as a model president. But what made him this way? Learn more about Abraham Lincoln as a boy, his upbringing, his time as a lawyer, and how he eventually became one of the most recognizable presidents in history.
Target Audience: Elementary and Middle School…[Read more]
Strength in Differences: Lincoln’s Cabinet and Generals
Topic: Lincoln’s leadership skills; working with diverse groups of individuals
Description: Lincoln is known for his ability to work successfully with a wide range of individuals to execute winning strategies during the Civil War. His cabinet consisted of politicians from both parties who typically would not be working together. Learn more about the importance of engaging different individuals and various points of view to arrive at a successful strategy and accomplish meaningful goals through the collection’s primary and secondary source documents.
Target Audience: Upper Middle School students, High School students…[Read more]
Indiana’s Boys in the Recent Unpleasantness: Veterans’ Firsthand Experiences in the Civil War
Topic: Explore through primary source documents what life was like for Indiana’s and other states’ soldiers during the Civil
War.
Description: Students will learn through first-hand accounts of what life was like on Civil War battlefields and in camps through soldiers’ letters and diaries. They will be able to appreciate what camp life, skirmishes, and major battles were like from the words of those who lived through it. Students will be able to compare textbook information with firsthand accounts as well as identify common themes in various veterans’ writings.
Target Audience: All Ages…[Read more]
All That’s Fit to Print: Newspapers in the mid-Eighteenth Century
Topic: Explore the newspapers of the mid-1800s, particularly those during Lincoln’s life, an activity that provides one with a unique look at life lived at the time.
Description: Investigating the newspapers of a particular time period provides one with a unique look at life lived at that time. Newspapers historically chronicle the lives and times of individuals both locally and nationally. It is enlightening for students to learn how newspapers were valued even when resources overall were scarce. The various editions regarding Lincoln’s assassination, the mourning borders, the Confederacy’s use of wallpaper for paper for their newspaper when they were running low on almost everything, and General Grant’s use of the Vicksburg paper to make his mark on a conquered area.
Target Audience: All-ages…[Read more]
Singing Through the War: Songsters and Music during the Civil War
Topic: Civil War Songsters and Music
Description: Some of the most insightful (and catchy) information about the Civil War comes from the creation of songsters and song sheets- lyrics on paper with decorative illustrations. These clever rewrites of popular songs allowed anyone familiar with the tune to catch on right away. This allowed large groups of people to join together- either for or against issues, political candidates, or even the war itself. Learn more about these important lyrics and the connectivity they bring to the Civil War period by looking at original documents.
Target Audience: All-ages…[Read more]