OHA Education Program Offerings

The following kits support the NYS Curriculum Standards and are available for school or group programming. Cost and add-ons vary depending on selection. If you are interested in participating in an OHA Educational Program, call the 428-1864, ext. 313. We look forwrd to helping you make history come alive for your students!

For Better or Worse: Women Keeping the Home Fires Burning

Explore the lives of three distinct women born into different times & circumstances—Native, African and White American women—and find out how their race, color or creed determined the choices they made in
their lives.   90 minutes.  $4 per student.*Add on: -- meet & talk with a “living” character from our frontier past,  farm wife & mother, Sarah Goodfield. Includes hands-on artifacts. $10/class.  

(Was) Made in Syracuse

Visit Syracuse’s impressive industrial past through an extensive display of artifacts from the museum’s collection. Learn about some unusual and some not so unusual items produced here. Take a visual
tour of the city’s nuts & bolts history as group skills will be tested when they are challenged to identify some items and what their use may have been. 90 minutes. $4 per student.

We’re Still Here: The Iroquois

Long before the arrival of the Europeans to the “new” world, the indigenous people inhabited the Americas. Native Iroquois lived in what we call New York State today in villages as large as cities, in houses as big as apartment buildings, with fields of corn, beans and
squash as well as areas to play a game called lacrosse. Join Seneca-Tonawanda Karen Crow-Figueroa as she introduces groups to the culture of the Iroquois. Artifacts from the museum’s extensive Native collection will be passed around and discussed. 90 minutes. $5 per student. Can be done in school for 1 hr @$50/class. *Add on: craft activity $10/class or storytelling $10/class.

Freedom Bound:
The Story of Syracuse & the Underground Railroad

During the mid-19th century, Syracusans had mixed feelings on slavery. Some were for it while others were against it. Relive this period of history through the visual experience of the Jerry Rescue.  See the “faces of freedom.” Learn about the abolitionism and the Loguen family through a sound and light show. 60-90 minutes, depending on group size.  $4 per student. *Add on 1: meet and talk with a “living” character from Syracuse’s abolitionist past, Reverend Samuel May (would actually do the entire program). $10/class.
*Add on 2: view & discuss documents from this era with Research Center staff. 60 minutes. $10/class.

“Art”-ifacts: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Can artists affect the course of history? Before photography, artists were hired to commemorate significant events and national figures. Portraits selected from the OHA collection carry clues to beused as a window into history. In many portraits, the items surrounding the subjects were significant. Students will be visually taken back into time by showing them a story of history that will enhance the telling of it. Explore & learn about the artist, his subject and the artwork. 90 minutes. $4 per student.

Playing in the Past: Reliving Those “Good Old Days”

Hands on history takes center stage as kids explore the past through role playing, dress-up, games, and chores.  90 minutes. $4 per student. *Add on: Settlers Ethan & Sarah Goodfield (would actually present the program) $20/class.

Those Darn DBQ’S: Using Historical Records in the Classroom

The OHA Research Center houses a wealth of materials relating to Syracuse & Onondaga County history. Through the use of multiple mediums, staff will introduce classes to life in the past. Students will benefit as they learn what documents are and how to interpret, clarify, analyze and evaluate them. 90 minutes. $4 per student.

Add on: choose a specific medium to explore ie. photographs, genealogy, manuscripts,  maps, atlases, directories OR a specific era ie. Civil War, WWI, Women $10/class.

Add on: Staff Historian, Dennis Connors, introduces “The Civil War: Its Causes from a   CNY Perspective,” using primary documents and research from the collection including the underground railroad, the Fugitive Slave law and anti-slavery activity. 60 minutes – can shorten Research Center program to 60 minutes. $25/class.