Historic Cold Spring Brings Unique History Lesson to Area Schools

CAPE MAY – Teachers in several area schools will be able to teach their students Early American history in a unique way this year through the Historic Cold Spring Village ‘Traveling Trunk’ program. These educational resources are filled with learning tools, objects and information to bring a living history lesson to the classroom each time the trunk is opened. These educational resources are filled with learning tools, objects and information to bring a living history lesson to the classroom each time the trunk is opened.
The Village is currently partnering with the Schultz-Hill Foundation in Atlantic City, who provided funding for the Village to donate trunks to each of the four Pleasantville elementary schools. Each trunk, valued at $500, contains a variety of educational information and artifacts including: slates, quills and readers like those that would have been used in the 19th century; early American toys including a cup-and-ball and Jacob’s Ladder; and items that illustrate early crafts and trades, including a hand-woven basket and drop-spinning kit. Jim Stephens, HCSV Deputy Director for Education & Interpretation, visited two of the selected schools recently to deliver trunks and offer an in-costume presentation on their contents and life in Early America. Past recipients of ‘Traveling Trunks’ include Wildwood’s Glenwood Avenue School, Cape Christian Academy, Cape Trinity, Margaret Mace School, Sea Isle City Public School, and Stone Harbor Elementary School.
Historic Cold Spring Village is a non-profit, open air living history museum that portrays the daily life of a rural South Jersey community of the Early American era. Its mission includes the preservation of 26 historic Cape May County buildings, history education and promoting heritage tourism. The Village is a museum for all seasons. During the summer months, interpreters and artisans in period clothing preserve the trades, crafts and heritage of “the age of homespun.” From October to May, the emphasis is on teaching history through school trips to the Village, classroom visits by the education department and interactive teleconferences with schools throughout the United States. The Village is located on Route 9, three miles north of Victorian Cape May and a mile and a half west of the southern end of the Garden State Parkway.
For more information, call (609) 898-2300, ext. 10 or visit the Village website at www.hcsv.org.