Woodrow Wilson Library to host research workshop

  
Staff Report
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The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum today announced that it will host a class of 22 students from Southern Virginia University for a half-day workshop about public history on Thursday, Jan. 28.

The students are in Dr. Lora Knight’s historical methods course at SVU, which is in Buena Vista. The students are interested is seeing and using primary resources in research, hearing about the Presidential Library’s internship program, and exploring careers in public history.

The program will run from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. At 9:45 a.m., Director of Education Joel Hodson and Museum Educator Ellen Abernethy will discuss public history and how history is taught at the Presidential Library and other museums and historic sites. At 10:40 a.m., Director of Library and Archives Peggy Dillard will discuss the Presidential Library’s digital archive and the use of primary documents.

At 11:30 a.m., Curator Jarod Kearney will give the teachers a behind the scenes tour of the soon-to-be-completed World War I exhibit being constructed in the Museum. Lead Interpreter Linda MacNeil will give the teachers a guided tour of the Manse and the teachers will tour the Museum.

The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum is open 360 days a year for guests from around the world to tour the President’s Birthplace, the historic gardens, and the Woodrow Wilson Museum, including the President’s 1919 Pierce-Arrow limousine. The WWPL is constructing a World War I exhibit to be completed in the next month. The WWPL also sponsors educational programming for thousands of schoolchildren each year and hosts teachers’ institutes and a variety of other education symposia. In addition, the WWPL attracts top-flight speakers, including Scott Berg, Larry Sabato, Cokie Roberts, Bill Schneider, Robert Samuelson, and Walter Russell Mead.

The WWPL has a large collection of Wilson and Wilson-era documents and has established the Wilson e-Library, an on-line digital archive through which students, teachers, scholars, and the public can access these documents for free. Recently, the WWPL purchased an historic building next to the Museum and began the process of turning it into the Library and Research Center.

Those interested in more information about this visit or the WWPL’s educational programming should contact Joel Hodson, Director of Education, at [email protected], or at 540.885.0897, ext. 103.