Museum Tour Information Packet

We appreciate your interest in our educational programs. This page, including the downloads available at right, has taken the place of the packet we formerly mailed out to schools and other interested groups.

Please contact our office if you have questions.

On Thursdays and Fridays, we offer two hour tours of the museum including our one-room school (the West Harmony School) and an 1847 log cabin. Times: 9 to 11am Or 9:30 to 11:30am) This program is designed for students from 3rd though 8th grade. We are able to accommodate up to 4 classrooms at one time. For groups over 90 students, we suggest taking two days.

After an introduction to the museum and exhibits, smaller groups will be able to experience a trip to the past using changing technology as a tool to understanding the exhibits and various objects.

We have prepared two student handouts, (available as PDFs for download, from the box at right) that can be duplicated for each student. A third downloadable PDF details ACTIVITIES, and is designed for Docents, Teachers or Parents. We also suggest post activities such as writing projects, focused group discussions and/or drawing.

Our Traveling History Trunk is currently out for reevaluation and is not available at the present time.

Museum tours and West Harmony programs are free to schools whose townships and/or municipalities join the Society as governmental members. Without a membership connection, the cost is $3.00 a person.

Our special exhibit for 2011-2012 is: “The 1800s - Featuring Harvard.”

Various program dates are available from September 21st to December 23rd, 2011 and again from February 6th to May 25th, 2012.

Please peruse our Web site for additional programs and/or projects during the year, or call us at 815-923-2267.

For outside local history assignments, students and their families may download a free admission family pass and visit the museum at their convenience. Our “Life Before Series,” available here under the Research Library menu, provides short accounts of everyday life experiences with a local slant.

Please call now to reserve a date for our educational programs. Contact your district office for possible bus transportation grant assistance.