Richmond History Center Educational Programs

Educational: Childrens Programs : Teacher Resources

Free Resources for Teachers

School Programs and Tours Overview

Are the teachers at your school unfamiliar with the Valentine Richmond History Center, our school programs and our Historic Richmond tours? A staff member will gladly attend your faculty or PTA meeting and present a slide show overview of the History Center, its background, collections, exhibitions, programs and tours.

Traveling History Kits

Women of Talent Women have been shaping Richmond's history for centuries, whether through their contributions as factory workers, nannies, spies, business owners, humanitarians or activists. This kit focuses principally on the 19th century and includes copies of historic photographs and newspaper articles, along with suggested lesson plans.

Richmond in Black & White: Photographs as History As early as 1839, photographic images were used to document people's lives. Why was the picture taken? Who took the picture? What information does it provide? Students practice their analytical expertise with such questions while exploring major themes in American history, including industry and labor, daily life, and social and political life. This kit includes: a slide show overview of the history of photography, lesson plans with activities, and copies of images from the History Center's collection.

Videos

In Bondage and Freedom: Black Life in Pre-Civil War Richmond (28 minutes)
Interviews, artifacts and historic images bring to life the struggles of free blacks and slaves in Richmond from 1790 to 1860.
Gilbert Hunt: The City Blacksmith (18 minutes)
Gilbert Hunt, a former slave, is well known for his heroics in 1811 when he rescued many people from the Richmond Theater fire. Several years later, Hunt gained his own freedom by purchasing it himself. Hear his story in this fictionalized interview with Hunt himself, as a slave in 1824 and then as a free man in 1856.
The Birth of Jim Crow: The Search for a New Southern Order (9 minutes)
A succinct introduction to the Reconstruction era and the rise of Jim Crow laws, this video includes period music, historical footage and artifacts.
The Working People of Richmond (22 minutes)
Four short videos on one cassette feature an introduction to how working-class people helped shape and were shaped by a new industrial order. This cassette includes footage of the rolling mill from the Tredegar Iron Works, an explanation of the repetitious piecework of the tobacco "bagging jack" and excerpts from historical footage about women in the work force.
Henry Carter Osterbind (15 minutes) and Georgiana Halsey (13 minutes)
Together on one cassette, these two monologues by actors Harry Kallatz Jr. and Charmaine Crowell offer an excellent contrast between the working worlds of men and women and blacks and whites in the late 1800s.
The Ways of Our Fathers (28 minutes)
Looking especially at traditional methods of hunting, fishing and turtle trapping, this video shows how the present-day Pamunkey Indians of Virginia struggle to preserve their Native American heritage in the face of change.

Scheduling Free Resources

Contact the Assistant Director of Education at (804) 649-0711, ext. 317.
All materials are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Traveling History Kits require a $25 deposit per kit, refundable upon its return with contents intact.
Traveling History Kits and videos must be returned within 12 working days.

1015 East Clay St. ı Richmond, VA 23219 ı 804 649.0711 ı info@richmondhistorycenter.com ı Site Map