School history trips to Washington DC take students to the centre of contemporary US power: the seat of the US President in the White House. It is also a city marked by its nation’s recent events, and, as such, is an excellent destination for students seeking to understand the role of the United States of America in the age after European colonialism. The National Museum of American History, the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, the Arlington National Cemetery and many other sites provide a full and fascinating itinerary for students.
The National Museum of American History
Belonging to the Smithsonian Institute of nineteen museums, nine research centres and a zoo in Washington DC and New York City, this museum in Washington DC is one of the foremost institutions in which students can learn about recent events in the US. Its collections encompass numerous facets of the nation’s cultural heritage, including: nearly forty prints from three government survey missions to the American West in the 19th century; Chinese American clothes from the Virginia Lee Mead Collection that provide insights into the cultural lives of Chinese immigrants; a sampling of objects that illuminate the huge Mexican presence in the US; objects relating to women mathematicians in the late 19th century, and much more. Students on school history trips to Washington DC could spend days examining the museum’s collections. It also houses special exhibits on specific items or groups of items pertaining to US cultural heritage.
Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site
The Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site preserves Ford’s Theatre and the Petersen House in Washington DC, the two sites where the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 played out. On 14 April 1865, President Lincoln and his wife watched a performance of Our American Cousin at the theatre, during which John Wilkes Booth entered their box and shot him. The gravely injured President was carried across the road to the Petersen House, where he died the next morning. While visiting Washington DC on school history trips, students can experience these seminal events and see items associated with the assassination, including the Derringer pistol used by Booth and the coat President Lincoln was wearing on the night.
Arlington National Cemetery
The Arlington National Cemetery is a vast military cemetery where soldiers who took part in the nation’s many conflicts have been buried. It was established during the American Civil War, and saw burials from that war as well as casualties and veterans from all of the wars since, up to the current War on Terror. It is an arresting reminder for students on school history trips that the recent events in the US have been shaped by a high number of wars.
School history trips bring students into contact with the past, showing them what their texts refer to. In Athens, where ancient monuments still stand, the distant past can be better appreciated: students can know how it felt to stand on the Akropolis beside the imposing Parthenon, or leave the city to visit the nearby Oracle at Delphi. Any school student taking History or Classics classes will benefit from visits to the great city of Athens.
The Akropolis of Athens
The most famous site in Athens is undoubtedly its Akropolis, a citadel on a rocky outcrop rising approximately 150 metres above the centre of the city. It was in use by human habitants of the region for thousands of years before the city of Athens developed and thrived in the Archaic and Classical periods. What stands on the Akropolis today dates to those periods: the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, the Theatre of Dionysos Eleuthereus, and more.
Visiting the Akropolis of Athens on school history trips, students will first be awed by the marble steps and monumental gateway — the Propylaia — that take them onto the top of the hill. The massive structure of the Parthenon, the temple to the city’s patron goddess Athena, dominates the hilltop and draws all visitors to it. It is a staggering work of ancient architecture and the centre of Athenian celebrations in Athena’s name. Other surviving structures, such as the Erechtheion on the top of the Akropolis — with its porch held up by Caryatids — and the Theatre of Dionysos on the hill’s side, where many of the famous tragedies and comedies of ancient Athens were performed, complete this sensory introduction into the scale and shape of Athenian public life.
The nearby Akropolis Museum is an excellent next stop for students on school history trips, as it provides a wealth of material culture associated with and found on the Akropolis – from spindle whorls to statues. Elsewhere in Athens, sites such as the Temple of Olympian Zeus and Andrian’s Arch are beautiful, well-preserved monuments.
The Oracle at Delphi
Young visitors can trace the steps of many famed people in the ancient world by leaving Athens to visit the Oracle at Delphi. The Athenian tragedian Aeschylus wrote that the significance of Delphi began in prehistory with worship of Gaea, and certainly the site has long been in use, with a wealth of Mycenaean remains found there. Most of the ruins visible on the mountainside today date to the 6th century CE, including the reconstructed Temple of Athens (dedicated at Delphi in honour of the Athenians’ victory at the battle of Marathon) and the remains of the Temple of Apollo, a theatre and a stadium for the Pythian games held at the site. The rock on which the Oracle sat and prophesied is still in situ. Young learners on school history trips can stand beside it and contemplate the role of prophecy in the ancient world.