Caledonia Community Work Camp
St. Johnsbury, VT

Students in an American History Class at the Community High School of Vermont (CHSVT), the statewide public school system that serves Vermont's correctional facilities, are undertaking a unique project that combines learning about mid 19th century life and community service. Class members at the Caledonia Community Work Camp, a minimum security facility in northeastern Vermont , formed a partnership with an area historical society, and through the students' efforts, priceless old handwritten documents that belong to the community are being preserved organized and transcribed for future generations.

A collection of about 100 letters, receipts, bills, and other handwritten materials that date back to the 1840's are being prepared by the history students who work two hours per class period, twice a week. To learn proper handling and conservation techniques, an archivist from a nearby college library was invited to share her expertise. Using white cotton gloves to prevent oils and acids from coming in contact with the paper, students place documents in special mylar sleeves to protect them from physical damage and to prevent degradation due to age. Once the papers are in their protective sleeves, they are identified, labeled and catalogued. Then the students set out deciphering the handwriting. Where handwriting is poor or ink has faded, progress is measured on a letter-by-letter basis. Transcripts of the papers are eventually typed out on computers to transform the passages into an easily readable format.

Besides the community service benefits of the project, there is a lot of good history learning going on as well. The papers provide firsthand evidence of barter and trade among the regions early inhabitants. Items that were bought and sold, prices, IOU's, family matters and business agreements (and disagreements) provide insight to daily life in rural New England at the time of westward expansion and the gold rush.

Participating students cite several interesting outcomes from this way of studying American history. They say the work of preserving organizing and transcribing the documents is extremely time consuming. It can be tedious and frustrating, but there is great satisfaction in making a discovery after working long and hard on a paper. This kind of work encourages students to work together cooperatively, and the students say it helps develop patience. They say they enjoy studying the patterns and writing styles that emerge in the papers. These present riddles and puzzles about the writers that are fun to solve. The firsthand experience with authentic materials sparks an interest in history that is not found when studying a textbook.

The students value the contribution they make to the community. They say the project is a way for them to give something back to the community, to show they're not the same people they were when they first arrived in prison, and that they want to make positive changes.

Notes from the Teacher, Tom Woods

There are a lot of benefits with a project like this one. Students get a chance to actually do the work of historians and learn about the past straight from the source. By offering our help to community organizations, we find ways to form connections to the larger world. Both students and the community see the work as important, and this is motivating despite the sometimes tedious laborious nature of the work. It gets offenders, who are often disenfranchised and isolated, thinking about their roles as productive members of the community. This makes for good learning, good history, and good restorative justice.

Tips on How to Start a Similar Project

1. Solicit a source of old papers. Historical Societies and museums are good candidates. Two concerns such groups will have are how will you keep the papers secure and how will you keep them safe from damage. Don't give up if you encounter reluctance among community organizations at first. Go to people who know you personally. Once you establish a track record, people will come begging you to do archival work for them.
2. Talk to archivists and your state historical society about proper handling and preservation techniques. Invite speakers to come to your class to show students the correct methods. Archivists and experts from libraries and museums can also point you toward sources of supplies (acid free paper, archival quality labels, pens, sleeves, etc.)
3. Working on papers can be laborious and tedious. Encourage students to take their time and take frequent breaks.
4. When transcribing documents, go through a paper quickly to get all the easy words first. Then go back for the hard to read words. Sometimes two students will work for an hour and decode just one or two words. When you're not sure of a word, ask other students for their opinions. Transcribing is really an excellent way to encourage teamwork and cooperation.
5. The person or organization that provides you with documents will want to know about your progress. Keep them informed. Invite representatives to your class to see the work being done. They may also be an interesting source of information about the documents.
6. Roll up your sleeves and participate with your students. Everyone will learn a LOT from the experience.
7. Document your progress. Write out names of individuals and relations. Note common grammar and spelling errors, compare letter formations and handwriting styles. Patterns develop quickly, and they provide important clues to help students make sense of the writing.
8. We have found these items to be helpful in the transcription process: magnifying lenses, hand-held spell checkers, dictionaries, "Ask Jeeves" on the World-Wide Web, local histories (for names of people and places), and consultations with members of the historical society who can help put the contents of the documents into a larger historical context.

The History Students' Field Trip

History students of the Community High School of Vermont (CHSVT),   located at the Caledonia Community Work Camp, a minimum security correctional facility in Vermont , are assisting the Fairbanks Museum of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in describing and organizing the museums archives of historic documents and artifacts. The students have started this cooperative community service project by exploring a collection of 30 volumes of diaries written during the lifetime of a 19th and early 20th century resident of St. Johnsbury, George Felch.

The museum graciously invited the students to visit the exhibits and archives. Since all inmates at this facility are community custody, it was possible to grant furloughs to the students for an afternoon field trip to the museum. Accompanying the students as "chaperones" were several corrections staffers including CO, Lexey Williams, the work camp recreation director, Rebecca Lesnik, and history teacher, Tom Woods. In addition, volunteer community members, Joe Stewart and Adele Woods, were present.

Current trends in history education place great emphasis on the value of utilizing first-hand authentic materials in teaching and learning about the past. By studying the actual materials written by a man who lived from 1870 to 1937, the students gain unique insight into everyday life of that period which saw the coming of electricity, radio, automobiles, the telephone, the airplane, talking pictures, and numerous other technological advances. The excitement of the students was evident when they found several exhibits at the Fairbanks Museum which had photographs and newspaper clippings that included George Felch, the author of the diaries being studied.

At the museum during an hour long conversation among the students, museum archivist, Selene Coburn, and other museum officials, it became evident that the history learning these students are engaging in is something very special. They have become very knowledgeable about a unique facet of St. Johnsbury's history, and they take great pride in helping the community piece together riddles of its past.