Getting Started on the Discover Indiana Project Worksheet
Brainstorming possible tours and stories
What are the 3-5 most significant historical events, places, people in your county? (We know it can be hard to narrow down, but you might just try writing down the first 3-5 that come to mind to start; you can always revise)
[Example: Significant German migration into this county in the 19th century.]
What resources do you have in your collection to tell these stories? (Begin to be thinking about how you could highlight these resources, and your collection, in your tour(s)? Looking at it from the other side: who currently uses your collections that might be interested in taking a Discover Indiana tour to learn more historic context?
[Example: Letters/family documents from German community, census and land records, etc.; do descendants of German immigrants currently use the collection for genealogical research?]
What larger themes in American History do each of these 3-5 people, places, events connect to?
[Example: The German immigrant story could connect to larger questions of immigration that have been a core part of the American story–what does it mean to be an immigrant in America? how have immigrants been treated over time in America? are immigrants outsiders or insiders in American history?]
Could this be a tour?
[Example: Could you build an entire tour (7-10 stories) about this particular immigrant group in your county? Or could you build a tour about immigration in your county that included this as one story, but that also included the stories of other immigrants into your county? Think here about other European groups but also the stories of Native Americans and African Americans?]
