Online learning opportunities for our youngest crew members

Port of Toledo: Then & Now Educator’s Exhibit Guide

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This guide is for educators and parents to use with their students to get the most educational value out of our new online exhibit Port of Toledo: Then & Now: nmgl.org/portoftoledo. It includes information about the exhibit’s learning standards, an overview of the exhibit and student activities.

How is it educational?
This exhibit supports Ohio Learning Standards for Social Studies. The exhibit is ideal for students in grades 3 and 4, but would benefit students at other grade levels. The accompanying activity gives tools for analyzing and interpreting primary sources and incorporates Language Arts Standards for writing narratives.

Ohio Learning Standards Supported by the Exhibit:

  • Social Studies Strand: Spatial Thinking and Skills – accessing, reading and interpreting maps.
  • Social Studies Theme: Third Grade: Communities: Past and Present, Near and Far.
  • Social Studies Theme: Fourth Grade: Ohio in the United States.

Ohio Learning Standards Supported by the Activity:

  • Social Studies Strand: Historical Thinking and Skills – analyzing and interpreting primary sources.
  • Language Arts Writing CCR Anchor Standard 3: Writing narratives.

How does the exhibit work?
Port of Toledo: Then & Now is an online, interactive exhibit meant to capture the vibrancy and importance of the Maumee River and the Port of Toledo over time. The Port of Toledo: Then & Now online exhibit can be accessed for free by visiting nmgl.org/portoftoledo.

The exhibit’s landing page showcases a Port of Toledo map with icons indicating the location of various photos taken throughout history around the Maumee River. The exhibit is updated every two weeks with new images and stories. As new images are added to the map, the previous weeks images will remain available below the map. Visitors can click to learn more about each individual image and leave comments or share their own memories.

The initial exhibit focuses on the Port of Toledo “Then”. Still to come, the museum will explore the Port of Toledo as we know it now by showcasing collected and crowd-sourced images mirroring the historic story of the “Mighty Maumee”.

How can students get involved?
This is exhibit is a great tool for distance learning. Encourage your students (or children) to explore the exhibit and learn about their local history. They can even comment and share their memories or thoughts. All comments on the exhibit website are moderated by museum staff and email addresses remain private. Students can comment using their first name and last initial if they prefer. Later this summer we will be looking for current photos of the Port of Toledo. Students can share their images with us, helping us make history.

 

Port of Toledo: Then & Now Activity

What can historic images teach us about the past? In this activity, learn how to study and analyze historical images. This activity can be done using any of the images from the exhibit, for example the image below of Toledo from 1876. On a separate sheet of paper, answer the following questions:

What do you SEE?
Examine the image. What do you see? Write down as many details as you can find.

What do you THINK?
What do you think is happening in the image? Explain your ideas and be specific.

What do you WONDER?
What questions do you have about the image? How do you think you could learn more?

Write a Story
Write a story about what is happening in the image. Give it a beginning, a middle and an end. Use your answers from the activity to write your story. Be creative. Share your stories by email  to education@nmgl.org. You may see your story in the exhibit.

Choose a new image
Complete the activity again using another image from the exhibit.

Find more student activities at our Captain Scupper’s Kids Club page.

Kids Book Club: Friend on Freedom River

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Welcome to our Captain Scupper’s Kids Book Club. Over the next several weeks, we will be recommending some of our favorite Great Lakes children’s books. Each of these books highlights different and important parts of the Great Lakes experience.

FRIEND ON FREEDOM RIVER
by Gloria Whelan, illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen
Suggested Interest Level: Ages 6-9
Suggested Reading Level: Grade 3

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In 1850 on the Detroit River, 12-year old Louis is faced with a difficult choice. In the absence of his father, he must decide if he will make the dangerous crossing to ferry a runaway slave and her two children across the Detroit River.

While Friend on Freedom River is fictional, the book highlights an important part of Great Lakes and American history. The crossing of the Detroit River was the last leg on a long journey to freedom by many runaway slaves. The Great Lakes played an important role in the Underground Railroad, both as a significant obstacle on the path to freedom as well as an opportunity to escape by schooner, steamer or even rowboat, with the help of allies in the maritime community.

FREE RESOURCE: Sleeping Bear Press provides a downloadable Teaching Guide with additional activities and lessons.

BUY THE BOOK: Purchase your own copy of the book at our online store here and proceeds go to support the National Museum of the Great Lakes.

Additional Reading:

The story told in Friend on Freedom River is fictional, but is representative of real history. There are primary accounts of runaway slaves escaping across the Great Lakes. One of these accounts was written by Josiah Henson after his escape to Canada. In 1830 Josiah ran away from Cincinnati with his wife and children. This excerpt describes the final steps of their journey after crossing through the entire state of Ohio to reach the shores of Lake Erie:

In passing over the part of Ohio near the lake, where such an extensive plain is found, we came to a spot overflowed by a stream, across which the road passed. I forded it first, with the help of a sounding-pole, and then taking the children on my back, first, the two little ones, and then the others, one at a time, and, lastly, my wife, I succeeded in getting them all safely across, where the ford was one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards wide, and the deepest part perhaps four feet deep. At this time the skin was worn from my back to an extent almost equal to the size of my knapsack.

One night more was passed in the woods, and in the course of the next forenoon we came out upon the wide plain, without trees, which lies south and west of Sandusky city. We saw the houses of the village, and kept away from them for the present, till I should have an opportunity to reconnoitre a little. When about a mile from the lake, I hid my companions in the bushes, and pushed forward. Before I had gone far, I observed on the left, on the opposite side from the town, something which looked like a house, between which and a vessel, a number of men were passing and repassing with activity. I promptly decided to approach them; and, as I drew near, I was hailed by one of the number, who asked me if I wanted to work. I told him yes; and it was scarcely a minute before I had hold of a bag of corn, which, like the rest, I emptied into the hold of the vessel lying at anchor a few rods off. I got into the line of laborers hurrying along the plank next to the only colored man I saw engaged, and soon entered into conversation with him; in the course of which I inquired of him where they were going, the best route to Canada, who was the captain, and other particulars interesting to me, and communicated to him where I came from, and whither I wished to go. He told the captain, who called me one side, and by his frank look and manner soon induced me to acknowledge my condition and purpose. I found I had not mistaken him. He sympathized with me, at once, most heartily; and offered to take me and my family to Buffalo, whither they were bound, and where they might arrive the next evening, if the favorable wind continued, of which they were hurrying to take advantage. Never did men work with a better will, and soon two or three hundred bushels were thrown on board, the hatches were fastened down, the anchor raised, and the sails hoisted. The captain had agreed to send a boat for me, after sundown, rather than take me on board at the landing; as there were Kentucky spies, he said, on the watch for slaves, at Sandusky, who might get a glimpse of me, if I brought my party out of the bush by daylight. I watched the vessel, as she left her moorings, with intense interest, and began to fear that she would go without me, after all; she stretched off to so great a distance, as it seemed to me, before she rounded to. At length, however, I saw her come up to the wind, and lower a boat for the shore; and, in a few minutes, my black friend and two sailors jumped out upon the beach. They went with me, immediately, to bring my wife and children. . . . Before long, we were all on the way to the boat, and it did not require much time or labor to embark our luggage. A short row brought us to the vessel, and, to my astonishment, we were welcomed on board, with three hearty cheers; for the crew were as much pleased as the captain, with the help they were giving us to escape. A fine run brought us to Buffalo the next evening, but it was too late to cross the river that night. The next morning we dropped down to Black Rock, and the friendly captain, whose name I have gratefully remembered as Captain Burnham, put us on board the ferry-boat to Waterloo, paid the passage money, and gave me a dollar at parting. He was a Scotchman, and had done enough to win my enduring gratitude, to prove himself a kind and generous man, and to give me a pleasant association with his dialect and his country.

When I got on the Canada side, on the morning of the 28th of October, 1830, my first impulse was to throw myself on the ground, and giving way to the riotous exultation of my feelings, to execute sundry antics which excited the astonishment of those who were looking on.

This excerpt comes from The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself, 1849. The full text of this work can be found on Documenting the American South.