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Civil War Life Museum Director Terry Thomann uses a camera that dates back to around 1865 to photograph Germanna Kids College students who visited the Massaponax museum as part of their studies yesterday.
Kids College students, from left, Justin Parker, 12; Elizabeth Carter, 11; Alex Hawley, 11; Rain McKemie, 12; Roman Moran, 11, and Ralph O'Dell, 12, captured on piece of aluminum used to recreate tintype photography used in Civil War era.
Kids College students appear in the viewfinder of Civil War Life Museum camera that dates back to around 1865. |
For rising seventh-grader Ralph O'Dell, standing still for six seconds to take a photo seemed like quite a long time.
"It was kind of hurting my legs," said Ralph, who will be attending Battlefield Middle School in Spotsylvania this fall. "It's hard for me to stand still."
Back in the day of Civil War photography, that's just how it was. O'Dell was one of six rising sixth- and seventh-graders who got a Civil War-style photo taken yesterday at the Civil War Life Museum in Massaponax.
The students also got to examine Civil War-era photographs.
"I think it's very neat how they used to do it," said Elizabeth Carter, a rising sixth-grader at Ni River Middle School.
The field trip was part of a summer academy held through Germanna Community College, and it was the first collaboration with the Spotsylvania Civil War museum.
Originally named "Civil War Medicine," class organizers decided to branch out to include inventions, photography and technology as learning subjects. The museum trip yesterday specifically focused on photographs and was the second day of the week-long class.
Yesterday's photo--taken with old-fashioned aluminum film--was snapped by museum director Terry Thomann with a camera that dated back to the 1860s.
But, Thomann assured that the technology was more modern than it looked.
"[The camera] functions the same today as it did then," Thomann said.
Harrison Road Elementary teacher Cheryl Hodges, a teacher for 28 years and a history specialist for Spotsylvania County, was the brains behind the class. She came up with the idea last winter after Germanna came to her about the academy.
She thinks enrichment programs like this one--where students get to interact hands-on with the area's history--are important.
"I'm doing things with them that we don't have time to do in regular class," said Hodges, who cited the strain of preparing for Virginia's Standards of Learning tests as one of the main reasons. "There's just no time."
Although this is Hodges' first program with Germanna, this is the third year of the summer academy. The classes, which are meant for rising sixth- and seventh-graders, include "Cool Science" and "Inventive Computing."
But those classes, combined with Civil War history have begun to catch on around the area. Spotsylvania County asked Hodges to do a similar program for them, which she just finished last week.
"This has been my third time," she said. "It's been fun."
Despite the academy's summer scheduling, Hodges thinks the program will help students retain what they are learning about the Civil War and its local importance.
The photos definitely accomplished that. Hodges said she knew her six participants would love having their pictures taken.
"Kids tend to remember things that are made more personal for them," she said.
Rachana Dixit: 540/374-5000
