Teaching through the Stereoscope: Bringing Public History into the Classroom

As I discussed last week, this year for me involves wearing two hats simultaneously, as a public history student as well as public elementary school teacher. While attending graduate classes and working as a Research Assistant with the London Heritage Council, when I can spare a moment, I am also an Occasional Teacher with the Thames Valley District School Board. Now that teachers have had an opportunity to settle into their classes (and catch a few colds from their students), the phone is starting to ring!

The life of a supply teacher can be a sink or swim experience.  Finding a way to capture the students’ attention in the first fifteen minutes of class can mean the difference between a fantastic day, and a not so fantastic day...

Not surprising, to gain their attention, I bring public history and my museum training into the classroom…with a stereoscope. For anyone who is unaware, a stereoscope was the View-Master of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  These were commonly found in the parlours and sitting rooms of Ontario homes, as a leisure activity and early form of 3D technology.  Looking through the lens of the stereoscope at the stereograph card (which has two photographs of the same image side by side), the technology merges the images into one, making it appear further in the distance and three dimensional. Not unlike the popularity of the 3D movies today, the viewer could feel like they were transported to that location, scene or event without leaving their home. 

Aside from a few Grade 8 students who remember their school trips to museums like Eldon House, most students I show this to have never seen this object before.  The excitement for this odd looking device is usually instant. I approach it as an inquiry-based learning experience, where students, as a group, generate questions about the object and use their observational skills to gradually come to solutions about what the mysterious item could be. They recognize it has a lens for viewing, and often early guesses include that it is a type of binocular or microscope. Throughout the day, I return to the object with the students, and let them examine it more closely during their own time.  By the end of the day, they formulate their last questions and observations, and then I show them how it works with the stereograph card. When I have the students asking to look through the lens again, or staying after class to ask more questions about the item, I know I’ve succeeded! With virtual reality becoming more popular as well, the stereoscope is an item students can relate and compare to their modern technology and gaming. 

Stereograph images were often of famous landmarks and tourist sites like the Taj Mahal.

While bringing unique and interesting artifacts into the classroom is an essential part of my supply teacher survival kit, it therefore also raises questions for me about the different methods teachers are using to make teaching history more engaging for 21^st century students.  My hope is that the days of students thinking “history is boring” are coming to an end, as teachers find new ways to educate beyond the textbook.  In recent years, digital methods and using video games to teach history is becoming more and more common.  For the technologically savvy history teacher, some are using simulations of famous battles to get students engaged in the material. One criticism of these methods is that simulations, as a form of augmented reality, may be teaching non-factual history to students. On the other hand, teachers are finding that these simulations result in students becoming more interested and invested in “what really happened” during that battle or war, and that the learning extends beyond the classroom with students still talking about it on their free time. 

Regardless of engaging with old technology or new, as a supply teacher, I am somewhat limited as to what I am able to teach on any given day and mostly at the mercy of the regular teacher’s lesson plans. Ultimately, as much as I try to bring the museum into the classroom, I recognize that there are some experiences that cannot be recreated. In the not-so-distant future, I will be blogging about the challenges and benefits of experiential learning, immersing students into the museum and public history setting.  During my placement with the London Heritage Council, I will have the opportunity to participate in the coordination of their Museum School London program, where students from both the London Catholic and Thames Valley School Boards adopt a local museum as their classroom for one week.  

In the meantime, check out this website for interactive history simulations, created by Iowa teacher, David Harms:

https://www.historysimulation.com/

"You Don't Know What You've Got Till it's Gone": Doors Open London Toasts the Buildings that Were

Catherine Brickenden and Grace 'Fan-Fan' Blackburn (performed by Romany Sheppard and Jenn Marino)
 toast the memory of the Patricia Theatre, demolished for a parking space in 1964

As a new student in Western University's MA Public History Program, I anticipate this year will involve adorning many 'hats' within the realm of public history I have never worn before.

Prior to beginning this program, I already existed between two career paths, as an Ontario certified teacher and as a museum professional. Not surprising, most of my public history experience has focused on museum educational programming. These roles have including working as a teacher, coordinator, programmer and costumed interpreter at museums throughout Waterloo Region and Wellington County. Two weeks into the MA Program, I am already diving into uncharted territories such as understanding archives, historical documentary editing, and digital forums of public history (including my first experience with blogging!).

Since making London, Ontario, my new residence, I have been eager to learn more about this city's history. This weekend, I decided to dive in by participating in Doors Open London.

Doors Open is an annual event in cities and towns all across Ontario from April to October, when museums, heritage buildings, or even newer developments offer a rare opportunity to view inside their walls, free of charge. From my past experiences with Doors Open, there was one aspect of the event I naturally assumed was a consistent feature- that visitors physically enter into an existing building. However, this past weekend, Doors Open London offered a unique and somber perspective to this traditional approach: a historical walking tour of the downtown buildings no longer in existence.

Titled "Paved Paradise", a nod to the Joni Mitchell song, the walking tour took us to the sites of five former buildings in London's downtown core, each demolished to make way for city parking lots.

Coordinated by the London Heritage Council, London Fuse, and the London branch of the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO), the tour had plenty of buzz and participation from the community.

Costumed actors played the roles of local historical figures, ready to share the stories of the forgotten buildings. We were first greeted by Grace 'Fan-Fan' Blackburn (played by Jenn Marino), a former poet, icon, and journalist with the London Free Press. 

Grace led the way, introducing the tour group to individuals such as John Rowe (played by Demis Odanga), former Chief of the Central Fire Hall, and Louis Silverstein (played by John Turner), owner of the Silverstein Fish Market. The costumed actors brought the forgotten history of each building to life with first person monologues about their experiences and memories (I will be blogging more about the role of the public historian as "actor" in October - stay tuned!).

Our last stop was the former site of the Patricia Theatre, which began as a dance hall in 1916 and transformed into a growing theatre scene, championed by Catherine Brickenden (played by Romany Sheppard), in 1934. The tour concluded with Grace and Catherine toasting champagne in memory of the once vibrant artistic and theatrical hub, which was demolished for a parking lot in 1964.

The Patricia Theatre, built in 1916, an example of Classical Revival architecture

A few humorous quips from the actors were welcome additions to increasingly disheartening reality presented from the tour, that built heritage, once gone, cannot be replaced.

As a former board member of the ACO branch Heritage Cambridge, I have noticed a common trend in many Ontario towns, that preserving built heritage can often be an uphill battle with increasingly fewer visible victories.  As development continues to trump heritage in many parts of Ontario, more and more buildings like the Patricia Theatre are disappearing both physically and within cultural memory.

A view of the parking space at 455 Clarence Street, the original location of the Patricia Theatre

For the next eight months, as key component of the MA Public History Program, I will continue to be part of London's downtown community by working as a Research Assistant with the London Heritage Council. Once again, I anticipate I will dive into many new roles, assisting with upcoming events like Heritage Fair and Trails Open. And as I continue to park my car in the downtown core, one thing is for sure: Joni Mitchell's lyrics will be playing in head.