My Visitto the Past

A LIVING HISTORY ACTIVITY BOOK

F. L. Watkins

FOLUMP ENTERPRISES

Urbana, Illinois

My Visitto the Past

A LIVING HISTORY ACTIVITY BOOK

This Book Belongs To

______________________________________

Who Lives At

______________________________________

I Visited the Reenactment Held On

_________________________________, 20___

at_____________________________________

The Era Re-Created Was

______________________________________

Dedication,—

To Those Reenactors

Who Weren’t Even Born

When I Began My Visit

MY VISIT TO THE PAST:

A Living History Activity Book

Copyright © 1991. 1993, 2007 Folump Enterprises

All Rights reserved

Printed in the USA

ISBN 1-55680-149-1

First Printing, First Edition—January 1991

First Printing, Second edition—October 1993

First Printing, Third Edition—January 2007

Published by

Folump Enterprises

805 East green

Urbana, IL 61702

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 19 - 11 10 09 08 07

HOW TO USE YOUR ACTIVITY BOOK / 3

“Living History” is a phrase used to describe an event where people dress up

the way people dressed long ago and try to do what people did long ago.

Coming to a living history event can be fun, like watching a

movie—only more real—but it can also teach you a lot of things.

This activity book is designed to help you have more fun and to learn

more from the living history event you attend. It will give you a lot of

questions you can ask the reenactors, and it will also give you an idea of what

to look for, so that you might notice something that you might have

otherwise missed.

When filling in the pages in this book, describe what you remember the

best, and illustrate these thoughts with pictures or photographs of the event.

Make the pictures as elaborate and as colorful as you want. You will

probably want to answer the questions in pencil first, using a separate sheet

of paper. Then fill in the book, using ink.

When you are gluing photographs or brochures or other things into the

booklet, use double-sided tape, white glue or rubber cement. Do not color in

your pictures with magic markers, since the color may bleed through the

page.

You don’t have to do all the activities, especially if an activity does not

apply to your visit. But try to complete as many as possible, and then show

the finished book to your family and friends. There are many eras of time

that are being re-created by living history. If you enjoyed one particular era,

try to find out about other reenactments of other eras and get your parents

to bring you to them. Most reenactment organizations welcome families. If

you and your family really enjoy the event, you might consider becoming

reenactors yourselves. But even if you do not, you can still have a lot of fun

coming and watching and asking questions.

We hope you enjoy your visit to the Past!

PS—We’ve included a glossary at the end of this book with some of the

words you might be unfamiliar with.

4 / THE ERA

An “Era” is a period of time in the past. It is also referred to as an “Age.”

What era is being re-created?

What famous people lived then?

What famous discoveries or inventions were made then?

What were the most important events of the time?

What were some of the books written about this time? Have you read any

of them?

THE SITE / 5

Many times, a reenactment is held where there is enough room to hold it.

There might be no other reason why it held there and not somewhere else.

But sometimes a reenactment is held at a certain place because it is re-creating

a specific event that happened there in the past. For example, a famous battle

might have occurred around here, or some other historical event took place

there or a famous person might have lived, worked or died there.

What is the historical significance of this site?

Did this event celebrate or re-create a specific historical event?

What was the historical event, and what happened?

Was this the exact place where it happened?

6 / THE SITE

Draw a map of the site. Include any buildings and special areas that might

have impressed you. If you prefer, you can paste in a map from a brochure or

from a photograph you have taken.

THE SITE / 7

What sort of buildings were on the site? Were these buildings here when the

historical event took place? Were these buildings rebuilt according to

pictures and descriptions of the historical buildings?

Were there any special displays or exhibitions?

Did most of the reenactors live in tents? What kinds of tents?

What kinds of furniture did they use?

What kind of lanterns or other lights did they use?

8 / THE SITE

Below, sketch a typical camp scene or paste in a photograph.

ACTIVITIES / 9

Did the reenactment have a list of activities? What did this list contain?

Which activities did you watch?

Which activity did you enjoy the most?

Which activity did you enjoy the least?

Were there any activities you would have liked to participate in? Did you

participate in any of them?

10 / ACTIVITIES

Below, sketch some of the activities you enjoyed the most, or paste in a

photograph.

COSTUMES / 11

What sort of costumes did the reenactors wear? Did people wear different

kinds of costumes, or did everyone dress exactly the same?

Did the soldiers wear uniforms? How were the uniforms different from

regular costumes and from each other?

What were the costumes made of?

How were the costumes different from the clothes you wear today? Did the

costumes look comfortable?

How did reenactors learn to make their costumes?

12 / THE COSTUME

On this page, show a couple of the costumes you saw. You can draw the

costumes, or you can use photographs.

INTERVIEWING A REENACTOR / 13

Most of the reenactors will be happy to talk with you about their hobby.

Just ask one of them if you may ask them a few questions. Do not be afraid

to ask more questions than those here, but do not talk to only person. It is

better to ask several persons a few questions than to ask one person a lot of

questions.

What is your name?

Are you portraying a historical person or someone made up?

Tell me about the character you are portraying.

Why did you choose to portray this particular character?

14 / INTERVIEWING A REENACTOR

Tell me about your costume and the equipment you own.

When did you start reenacting? Why did you start reenacting?

How hard was it to get involved in reenacting. What do you have to do to

get ready for a reenactment?

What do you like best about reenacting?

INTERVIEWING A REENACTOR / 15

Have someone take a photograph of you and a reenactor you interviewed.

Paste it below.

16 / MERCHANTS

Many times, reenactments might have persons making or selling items to the

reenactors and the public. These items are generally copies of historical

items and are used by the reenactors to help re-create the past. If there were

any of these people at this reenactment, you might want to stop by their

booths and look at what they have for sale.

What were the names of some of these merchants?

What were they selling? Do you think you could buy any of it elsewhere?

Were there any people making the things they were selling? What were they

making?

Did you buy anything? What?

MERCHANTS / 17

Did you pick up any catalogs or business cards? Paste them below, or sketch

something that you bought (or wanted to buy).

18 / FOOD

Sometimes you can buy food at reenactments that is just like the food

people ate back then. Other times, you can talk to the reenactors about what

they ate and how they cooked back then. Sometimes, the reenactors cook

things over open fires themselves.

What did they drink?

What kind of food did the people eat?

How did they cook it?

Did they use cookbooks? What were the names of these cookbooks?

How was the food different from what you normally eat? How was it

similar?

FOOD / 19

How did they eat their food? What kinds of eating utensils, like spoons,

knives and forks, did they use?

Ask for a recipe from one of the reenactors who is cooking. Write the recipe

below:

This recipe was given to me by:

______________________________________

20 / EVERYDAY LIFE

In history classes at school, a lot of time is spent on important people,

important dates and important events. In living history, more time is spent

on how the ordinary person lived. Here are a few questions you can ask a

reenactor about everyday life. I am sure that you can think of other questions

as well!

How did people travel?

What did people do for entertainment?

What sorts of jobs did people do?

What did people’s homes look like?

What kind of money was used?

EVERYDAY LIFE / 21

What kinds of games did people play? Do you play any of them today?

You probably saw a lot of strange tools and devices being used at the

reenactment. Can you think of anything you use now that could be replaced

by something from the reenactment?

You can fill the rest of the page with questions of your own or with pictures

of everyday things you saw around the camp.

22 / KIDS

Since there are a lot of families who are involved in living history, you

might see a lot of kids around. Here are some questions you can ask them.

Were there many kids around? Were they there mostly with their families?

What were they ages?

How did the kids dress?

Did the kids have specific jobs?

What kinds of games did they play?

What kinds of toys did they have?

FINAL THOUGHTS / 23

What impressed you the most about the reenactment?

Did you get a good idea about what it was like to live in another time?

Would you have liked to have lived then?

How were things different from today?

How were things the same?

What modern conveniences would you have had to do without if you lived

then?

24 / GLOSSARY

A lot of the terms used in living history can be a little confusing. Here are

a few terms you might not be familiar with.

Living History—an attempt to re-create historical events and daily life in an

earlier time.

Period—referring to a particular era in history, especially to the equipment

and the costumes of the era.

Persona—the character being portrayed by a reenactor, similar to the

character being portrayed by an actor in a movie.

Reenactment—an attempt to recreate an event out of history, especially a

specific event, such as a battle, a fair or a seasonal event, such as

Christmas or an election.

Reenactor—a person who is attempting to dress and act like a person from

an earlier time.

Here is a space where you can write down other terms you have learned.

A Guide for Your Exploits in the Past!

This Book Contains Activities, exercises and Questions

That Will Help Young Time-Travelers Get the Most

of What Living History Can Offer!

Make Your Living History Experience

Both Fun and Educational