This program is a generation-linking discussion of both local and world history from a modern perspective.
Who?
Kent Chronicles is open to the public and targeted especially toward adults and students in 4th grade up. The program’s content supports Washington state EALRs and CBAs for history, geography, civics and economics.
What?
Each meeting focuses on a specific year or year range in history, covering local, national and global events. The program includes mixed media to appeal to different learning styles and interests, such as:
- movie clips
- popular songs of the period
- photos
- newspaper clippings
- artifacts from the museum’s collection
Through the discussion of both local and global events, Kent Chronicles highlights the importance of Kent’s history as it fits into the greater scope of world history. The discussions meld the two, understanding that the issues that affect the world can also affect a nation, a town, and an individual.
As the saying goes, nothing happens in a bubble, so in a discussion about the 1940s, for example, we don’t just look at the major events of World War Two; we’re also discovering how those events would have affected real people who lived here in Kent.
We focus on questions like, what did they eat? What did they see at the movies? What was family life like, or school? What makes the lives of everyday people extraordinary?
When?
The group meets the first Thursday of every month at 11 a.m.
Where?
We meet at the museum, 855 E Smith Street, around the dining room table.
This Month:
Our discussion on Thursday, October 6 was our first in a series about the “Roaring Twenties,” and focused more on the early 20s. We continued Thursday, November 3 with a discussion of the mid 20s, the height of the Jazz Age.
We concluded our “Roaring Twenties” series on Thursday, December 1 with a discussion of the years 1928-1933, a period that included such world-changing events as the Stock Market Crash, the beginning of the Great Depression and the end of Prohibition.
You can download a Program Pack and the Puzzle Challenge (complete it and bring it with you next month to be entered into a drawing!) to see what you missed. Also, don’t miss the Period Literature Booklist.
The year 1928 saw the introduction of one of the most beloved animated characters of all time:
Perhaps the most influential American event of the 20th Century, the 1929 Stock Market Crash reflected a national economy that was not as stable as it had previously appeared, a condition echoed today in the Occupy protests of recent months. Here is a good clip on the background of the 1929 crash:
In 1931, in the midst of the Depression, the under-construction Rockefeller Center began a tradition that is maintained even today:
