Engaging Children in Our History

About the Program

Category: Arts, Culture and Historic Preservation (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

To understand who we are is to understand who we were. To understand where we want to be is to understand where we once were. It is a challenge for all of us to understand these things. But to share these understandings in meaningful ways that engage children is daunting. Over the past year, the Union County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs tackled that challenge with everything from history selfie frames and post cards to Revolutionary War foosball, ways to draw youngsters into discussions where they learn the fascinated history that has enriched our County and our country for centuries.When youngsters pose as Alexander Hamilton’s long lost cousin, or photographer Margaret Bourke White’s darkroom assistant, or write a “Caesar” postcard about a freed slave who ran supplies to embattled troops in the Ash Swamp, it creates the perfect opportunity to discuss these significant figures in history. Union County was not just the Elizabethtown home for a promising young student by the name of Alexander Hamilton, but also to Margaret Bourke-White who graduated Plainfield High School and later going off to World War II and becoming one of the nation’s great war photographers.