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Past Times History

Resources & Activities to Make History Come Alive

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  • Silhouette puppets showing a man holding the reigns of a horse, which pulls a covered wagon with a woman on the front seat holding a little child.

    American history

    Local history tableaus

    October 5, 2022February 3, 2023

    There are 22 places in the United States that are called Lawrence. But only one of them got that name because the original one, Maidenhead, was thought to be too embarrassing for ladies. On the

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  • Silhouet of a man writing with a quill

    Black history

    William Still and the Underground RailRoad

    February 11, 2022February 15, 2022

    Free-born Black abolitionist William Still has been called the “father of the Underground Railroad” (URR)–the network of free Blacks, Quakers, and abolitionists who helped enslaved people in the South escape to the North in the

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  • Puppet of Harriet Tubman sitting on a galloping hors

    Black history

    Riding a galloping horse

    May 8, 2021May 16, 2021

    Shadow puppetry offers opportunities to act out stories from the Underground Railroad, the network of free Blacks, Quakers, and abolitionists who helped men, women, and children escape slavery in the decades prior to the Civil

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  • Back of a shadow puppetry screen with scrolling transparent film depicting the opening scenes of the story of Henry "Box" Brown

    American history

    A teacher’s “hard history” project continued from home

    April 11, 2020February 21, 2021

    In the past two years I have been fortunate to work with 5th grade teacher Davie-Lyn Jones. We explored shadow puppetry as an interactive way to teach about the “hard history” topic of slavery, using

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  • The Henry Brown's box is being thrown down a small hill during transportation

    Black history

    The story of Henry “Box” Brown

    February 28, 2020February 27, 2024

    An earlier version was published on March 23, 2019 On March 23, 1849, months after his wife and children were sold to a new owner, Henry Brown escaped slavery in Richmond, Virginia in a wooden

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  • shadow puppets of man riding a horse and wagon

    Tricks and Techniques

    Riding a horse and wagon

    February 9, 2020September 11, 2022

    If you want to act out stories from the Underground Railroad or other stories in which puppets need transportation, you may want to use a horse and wagon. In our printable library you will find

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  • Children seen on the back acting out a shadow puppetry scene with transparent scrolling background

    How to

    Adding a scrolling background to a shadow puppetry screen

    June 3, 2019February 5, 2020

    In the days when I worked with an overhead projector for shadow puppetry, I used transparent film on a rolling rack to have a moving background for travel. I truly missed this possibility when I starting to

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  • Shadow puppet of Harriet Tubman knocks the door of a safe house

    Black history

    Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad with shadow puppets

    May 31, 2019February 9, 2022

    Shadow puppetry is a great tool to engage children with stories from the Underground Railroad–the network of free Blacks, Quakers, and abolitionists who helped people enslaved in the South escape to the North in the

    Read More

  • Instructions how to mount and ove shadow puppets and props

    How to

    A step-by-step guide to making a shadow puppet from templates

    April 30, 2019December 6, 2023

    In this tutorial you will learn how to make a shadow puppet using the “mix-and-match” templates in our Printable Library. These templates are designed to make puppets in 19th clothes, but can easily be adjusted

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