This exhibit was curated by the 8th and 9th grade Local History class taught by Sally Duncan at the Renaissance School. This class has spent the year studying the history of Albemarle County and Charlottesville, beginning with the concept of settler-colonialism and how that impacted the Monacan Indian Nation. The class has intentionally studied a more honest and thorough history of our community. One of the other lessons this class has tried to teach is the importance of understanding small communities. From Scottsville to Boonesville, the students have studied how small events and regular people have helped shape the environment we all live in today.
For this exhibit, the students selected items from the ACHS archives that are related to the experience of growing up in Charlottesville and Albemarle in past generations. Many students gravitated towards education-themed items such as textbooks. They researched their chosen item as well as information related to it, in order to provide context. One of the goals of this class has been to understand that the stories we tell about our history matter, and the perspective we have can be consequential. Through their research, they have learned how people lived in the past, and why it still matters today.
Original source can be found here.
