View the available Talks and Trunks below, and use the contact form to set up an event!

Traveling Trunk

This reproduction Civil War-era hardtack box is filled with uniforms, equipment, and personal items used by the common soldier. The trunk can be borrowed for up to one week by teachers to use in their classrooms.

Traveling Trunk

This traveling trunk was developed with the early elementary student in mind. The trunk itself is a replica of a Colonial American blanket chest, something a boy or girl would have used to store clothing and personal belongings. Inside the trunk are reproductions boy’s and girl’s Colonial clothing and hats, coins, clay marbles, wooden toys, educational playing cards, historical documents and newspapers, a large American flag, and a book entitled “The School of Manners or Rules for Children’s Behaviour.” There are also coloring books that can be copied and used as handouts.

This trunk also includes reproduction “hornbooks,” simple wooden paddles that contain a small lesson that a student would use instead of a more expensive book. There will be enough hornbooks for each student in a small class, or enough to share for a large class for use in a simulated Colonial lesson.

Traveling Basket

This traveling pack basket is filled with common items that the Natives of Northwest Ohio would have used in the 18th century. The basket includes 26 items including moccasins and trade goods that would have been part of Native-American life. This basket can be borrowed for up to one week and used in conjunction with your classroom lessons.

Traveling Trunk

This traveling trunk contains uniforms, equipment such as a gas mask and helmet, and period photos to help students better visualize what life was like for the common soldier during the Great War.

Traveling Trunk

This traveling trunk contains uniforms and equipment such as a helmet, ration booklets, and period magazines to help students better visualize what life was like on the Homefront and for the common soldier during World War II.

School talks average 30-40 minutes and include a Power Point presentation appropriate for your K-12 classroom. Suggestions welcome for customized programs based on your educational needs. We also offer talks and guided tours at the Museum. No charge for schools within Wood County; outside of Wood County we do ask a fee to coverage milesage. Contact Education Programs Coordinator Michael McMaster to schedule an in-school talk or museum tour.

This program covers the history of Northwest Ohio’s Native people from prehistoric days until the removal period in the 1830s. Specific tribes, areas of settlement, modes of transportation, dress, trade, and conflict are all part of this comprehensive lesson.

Accompanying the presentation are stone tools and “arrow heads,” reproductions of Native clothing, and trade items. Some of these items will be passed out to the students after the presentation so they can get a “hands-on” historic experience. Questions will be taken after the lesson as time allows.

Edward Libbey, B.F. Goodrich. Alexander Winton, John D. Rockefeller, Samuel Gompers, Thomas Edison, Charles Brush, Granville Woods, Wright Brothers, Charles Kettering, Garrett Morgan

This program highlights eleven Ohio inventors and covers what is in the state curriculum. This program is NOT an in-depth lesson on each inventor, rather, an overview of them all. This program would be ideal to introduce students to all of these famous men or review what you have already taught.

Students will be shown over 20 images of Thomas Edison, both young and old, and some of his most important inventions. The program is full of inspirational quotes made by Edison himself. There are fun trivia facts about Edison as well.

Following the presentation, there will be a demonstration using a reproduction Edison light bulb. The bulb’s dim glowing filament fascinates students every time. There will also be a demonstration of an actual Edison Home Phonograph. This 100-year old artifact is still playing music and teaches students how music was played many years ago.

This presentation covers the history of Wood County and Northwest Ohio from the last Ice Age to the present – in under 40 minutes. The broad nature of this presentation lends itself to effectively cover many portions of the State of Ohio Elementary Social Studies Standards: Land formations, Native Americans, Settlements, Industry, Transportation, and Agriculture are all part of this unique lesson.

Accompanying the lesson are historic artifacts to illustrate the changes that have occurred in Wood County: Prehistoric stone tools, drainage tile, corn planter, sample of Ohio crude oil, reproduction Native clothing, and a beaver pelt all help tell Northwest Ohio’s unique history. Some of these items will be passed out to students after the presentation for a “hands-on” historic experience. Questions will be answered after the presentation as time allows.

The Underground Railroad is a relevant topic to local students with many connections to Northwest Ohio. This program is filled with historic primary source images and first-hand narratives of the local people and places that helped many slaves escape to freedom. This program will also help separate Underground Railroad fact from fiction, focusing on historically documented accounts of Underground Railroad activity.

Learn about the Northwest Ordinance and how the Siege of Fort Meigs and the Battle of Lake Erie helped shape the history of Ohio.

Adult talks average 30-40 minutes and include a Power Point presentation appropriate for your audience. Suggestions welcome for customized programs based on your interests. We also offer talks in conjunction with a museum tour. Contact Education Programs Coordinator Michael McMaster to schedule a talk or tour.

November 1957: Wood County, Ohio

Learn about the United States Air Force’s origins of Flying Saucer study dating back to 1948. Hear about several specific Wood County encounters with Flying Saucers in 1957. UFOs… real or hoax? You be the judge.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Life Along The Portage

The Wood County Museum sits within the confines of beautiful Adam Phillips Park, but who was Adam Phillips? Learn about one of Wood County’s earliest pioneers and his belief that the end of days was near.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

by the way of the life of Charles Evers (Part 1)

Learn about the history of Wood County as told through the experiences of newspaperman Charles Evers. This program covers the settling of the Evers family in Wood County to the period Charles Evers was Sheriff. The historical roots of many of Evers’ tales are revealed.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

by the way of the life of Charles Evers (Part 2)

The story of Wood County continues. This program covers Charles Evers life as the owner of the Sentinel newspaper, his many business endeavors, and the period of his life as chief storyteller of Wood County.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

The most famous Wood Countian you probably never heard of

Learn about Ralph Olmstead Keeler’s humble beginnings on Keeler Prairie, Wood County and his brief life as an author, entertainer, and adventurer.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

The Mis-Origin of Historical Tradition (Part 1)

Wood County raconteur Charles Evers tells the account of the Revolutionary War hero and French Count of Presque Isle Hill. Who was this French Count? Where is Presque Ilse Hill? Learn how tall-tales from long ago get put through the test of modern history.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

We are all your dear friends and relatives

Spiritualism, or communicating with the dead, rose from obscurity on the exact date of March 31st, 1848 in the tiny village of Hydesville, New York. It quickly grew to be one of America’s fastest growing religious movements. Learn about the Fox sisters – mediums to the afterlife… or charlatans?

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

November 13, 1833

This talk documents the most magnificent and terrifying celestial event ever recorded in North America on November 13, 1833. Witnessed by men such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas, to the simplest Wood County pioneer girl, learn how the people reacted to this starry spectacle and what it meant to them.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Hear about the Woodbury House, possibly the oldest recorded ghost story in Wood County, and what dark secrets it holds. This talk reveals what the historical record says about this Black Swamp pioneer town.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

During “The Golden Age of Frateralism” (1870-1930), as many as 40% of American adults held membership in at least one fraternal order. At one time, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was the largest fraternal order in the world. Fraternal organizations such as the Knights of Pythias, Knights of the Maccabees, and Grange drew in businessmen, workers, and farmers, and often offered insurance-like protection to Wood Countians.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

The Rise of Wood County’s Airfield

Built as the second largest airfield east of the Rocky Mountains, learn how the Transcontinental Airport of Toledo was founded in Lake Township in Northern Wood County 90 years ago. Famous aviation pioneers such as Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart (pictured) were both visitors to Wood County. Once an important Air Mail route, the fate of the airfield rose and fell with the times.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

The American Passenger Pigeon & How Modern History Got the Bowling Green Massacre Wrong

At exactly 1:00 PM, on September 1st, 2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Learn about the life and extinction of the American Passenger Pigeon, whose numbers once were so great their flocks blotted out the sun.

What role did the Bowling Green Massacre play in the demise of this elegant bird?

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Charles W. Evers and the Pioneer Scrap-book of Wood County, Ohio

Hear from noted local historian Charles Evers about Wood County’s last bear hunt, the origin of the “Devil’s Hole,” and Mahlon Meeker’s thrilling escape from a pack of hungry wolves. Although published one year after his death in 1910, Charles Evers’ Pioneer Scrap-book was instrumental in preserving much of Wood County’s local legends and lore.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Charles W. Evers and the Pioneer Scrap-book of Wood County, Ohio

Sheriff and newspaperman Charles Evers spins a tale of ruin and despair on the account of one Jim Slater. Did Slater curse Bairdstown (Bloom Township) in Wood County? Find out what brought about this curse and what the historical record tells us about Jim Slater and Bairdstown.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Learn about the interurban in Wood County and Northwest Ohio and how these electric street cars changed local transportation for decades. The rise of the interurban also paralleled the rise of professional base ball (two words back then) in America. Learn how early female base ball pioneer Alta Weiss toured Northwest Ohio in the interurban.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Loyalty Trials, German-Americans, and The League of American Patriots

In 1918, The League of American Patriots of Henry County (Napoleon, Ohio), was formed with the reported purpose of stamping out pro-German propaganda in the county. Despite their stated goal, they set their aim on the German Lutheran churches, especially their parochial schools, under the lead of Napoleon’s Methodist and Presbyterian ministers. Several high profile Loyalty Trials were held by the League, with nearly all of their targets on German Democrats running for office. In 1918 in Henry County, Ohio, like many other places in the United States at the time, petty religious, political, and personal grudges were exacerbated by the German spy hysteria that gripped America. Patriotism was used as a cloak to settle these scores.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Watch this presentation on WGTE KnowledgeStream (Nov. 9, 2018, University of Toledo)

The First Global War on Terror

Learn how German and German-American spy rings planned sabotage here at home bringing World War I to American soil from 1914-1918. Learn how German agents, generously funded through the German embassy, set off the largest terrorist explosion in New York City history in 1916 and used Anthrax as a weapon of war here in America.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

After the American Civil War, a well-funded and well-organized army of Irish-American “Fenians” invaded Canada in 1866 culminating in the Battle of Ridgeway, Ontario, Canada. Did you know that this army of Irish-Americans passed through Northwest Ohio on their way to invade Canada?

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

What Happened in Wood County March 14, 1858?

This talk introduces the history of one of the most interesting churches in Wood County and how Ellen White received a vision from God in 1858 at Lovett’s Grove that would forever alter the American Adventist’s faith.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Wood County’s Other War of 1812 Fort

Although described at the time as,” a place of not much importance,” Fort Portage played a role in forging a trail through Wood County’s Great Black Swamp. Learn about this largely forgotten historic site in Wood County during the War of 1812 and how it has survived in modern memory.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

A Wood County Legend

Shutnok was described in 1909, by newspaper editor Charles Evers, as the tallest sand dune in Wood County. Learn about its history, including its legends, of this forgotten place in Plain Township, Wood County. Does the ghost of Ottawa Chief Tondaganie’s daughter still haunt the place called Shutnok?

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

Learn how the 1918 sinking of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga, the largest American naval disaster of World War I, left its mark on Wood County and how this event still survives in modern memory.

Donations welcome to cover mileage.

To schedule a talk, tour, or trunk use the form below or contact:
Michael McMaster, Education Program Coordinator
Wood County Museum
13660 County Home Rd.
Bowling Green, OH 43402
PH: 419-352-0967
education@woodcountyhistory.org