By: Carlin H.
This year, Mr. Mael’s US History II classes have created a 1940s museum at the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society’s location at the Duxbury Student Union building.
This is the second year that Mr. Mael has tasked his classes with the challenge of creating a museum for part of their curriculum. “It started last year, where a lot of the social studies teachers were challenged to create a project that engaged the local community and got kids more involved with primary sources,” said Mr. Mael.
This project certainly has engaged the students. Senior Izzy G., who worked with a fashion magazine from the 1940s, said, “the best part of working on the project was working with the artifacts.”
The theme last year was World War II, and this year, it has expanded to include the 1940s. “We have a Girl Scout uniform, we have a beautiful dress from a debutante ball, we have a photo album from the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944. These are things that are not necessarily World War II but to just have these in the basement and not show them, there’s no point. So it’s the 1940s in general, with a focus on local history in Duxbury and World War II,” said Mr. Mael.
“A favorite item of mine is a DHS Yearbook from 1943… there were three sports teams in town: Boys basketball, girls basketball, and baseball. There was a tap dancing team called the ‘Tapping 10s’, there was a newsletter that said that Senior Class Plays had to be done during the day because there was a war blackout at night so they did the plays during the day.”
The museum will close within the week.
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