{"id":6961,"date":"2013-04-29T09:24:28","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T13:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/?p=6961"},"modified":"2013-04-29T09:24:28","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T13:24:28","slug":"bringing-history-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing History to Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fifth president of the United States owned an apron, kept two dueling pistols and wrote thousands of letters during his life. University of Mary Washington students are experiencing a rare in-depth look at James Monroe\u2019s life firsthand through the objects that were most important to him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Carrie Schlupp ’13 examines James Monroe’s apron as part of the “World of James Monroe” history course.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe World of James Monroe\u201d history course, offered for the first time this semester, provides insight into the late 1700s and early 1800s in an innovative way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am endlessly fascinated by historical artifacts, and this course has shown me how much we can learn from them and what kind of new questions they can raise for historians,\u201d said senior Leah Tams, one of 22 students in the class.<\/p>\n

The course contextualizes objects and documents owned and written by James Monroe and examines the social norms of the early Republic through polite culture, daily life, and expansion.<\/p>\n

Jarod Kearney, the curator for the James Monroe Museum<\/a>, regularly brings artifacts from the museum to the class and Cassandra Good, assistant editor of the Papers of James Monroe<\/a>, explains their significance.<\/p>\n

Over the semester students in Good\u2019s class are required to research one artifact in-depth. Senior Carrie Schlupp chose Monroe\u2019s Masonic apron, given to Monroe in 1786.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m focusing my research more on the importance of Monroe\u2019s membership in the Freemasons and using the apron to explain why having a Mason\u2019s values was politically astute in the Early Republic period,\u201d said Schlupp.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Jarod Kearney, curator of the James Monroe Museum, shows Monroe’s dueling pistols to Leah Tams ’13 (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Monroe\u2019s apron, made of white leather with a red silk trim is about a foot square, and has intricate hand painted symbols in yellow, brown, and black.<\/p>\n

The symbols, including the famous \u201cG\u201d surrounded by the compass and square, in addition to the rough and flawless ashlars, were reminders for Monroe to live every day to his highest potential, to remind him of his Supreme Being.<\/p>\n

Last spring, Schlupp redesigned the \u201cGeorge Washington and Masonic Tradition\u201d exhibit for the Fredericksburg Area Museum and became an expert on Freemasonry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a lot of research into the 18th<\/sup> century Freemasonry, so I figured that it made sense for me to work on Monroe\u2019s apron,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Tams selected Monroe\u2019s dueling pistols for her assignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chose the dueling pistols because they are beautifully crafted, and they would give me a chance to learn more about the dueling culture in Early Republic America and also more about gift giving,\u201d said Tams.<\/p>\n

The pistols were originally given to President Madison as a gift from Argentina in 1816. At 11.5 inches long and 2 inches wide, the silver pistols are inlaid with elaborate scrolling designs on their silver capped handles.<\/p>\n

For Good, the class brings an important historical figure out of the textbooks and into the hands of students.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorians are really interested in getting students to understand what it would have felt like, what it would have smelled like, what it would have sounded like to live in the past,\u201d said Good. \u201cI want, through using images, objects, and documents, to make students excited about the past.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students learn firsthand about the life of James Monroe through an innovative history class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":7001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[60,8,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-6961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-show","8":"tag-cgood","9":"tag-history","10":"tag-james-monroe","11":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBringing History to Life - Great Minds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stagg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"stagg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/#\/schema\/person\/84da4c01449097a1fb06ca4e2039aa6e\"},\"headline\":\"Bringing History to Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-29T13:24:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/\"},\"wordCount\":557,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2013\/04\/Monroe-apron-crop.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Cassandra Good\",\"History and American Studies\",\"James Monroe Museum\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Show on Great Minds\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2013\/04\/29\/bringing-history-to-life\/\",\"name\":\"Bringing History to Life - 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