Graduate And Undergraduate Students Team Up At Amstel House

This spring, two graduate students and six undergraduates worked together to develop new interpretive activities for the Amstel House of the New Castle Historical Society. Tess Frydman and Sara McNamara completed internships by leading teams of undergraduates working toward the Museum Studies minor.

Graduate student Tess Frydman ’18, showing undergraduate student Carolanne Deal ’19 the proper way of creating exhibit labels at New Castle Historical Society.

One team created a new visible storage area that allows NCHS to highlight its hidden collections.  They chose and researched the objects, selected and constructed the shelving and wrote labels.  The second team created a hands-on activity for the second-floor bedroom.  They researched sleeping practices in the 1700s and hand-sewed bedding to be used on a copy of a trundle bed from the collection.  (Volunteer and skilled woodworker Stephen Hess made the frame.)  This team also wrote a lesson plan for the historical society’s guides. Students visiting the house can try out the trundle bed and imagine what it was like to sleep in the Amstel House 250 years ago.

Graduate student Sara McNamara ’18, and undergraduate student Emily McKeon ’18 putting together the hand made trundle bed at the Amstel House.