While our programs at Historic London Town and Gardens are hands-on and try to bring history alive for all participants, we can’t include everything in one visit. On this page you will find additional resources that may be of interest to you. We have also included links to other sites that offer additional educational information and lesson ideas. Teacher workshops are held on a regular basis; they will be announced on our Calendar of Events page, as well as through the Anne Arundel County Public School system.

London Town has an extensive library of materials dealing with archaeology, material culture, costumes, foodways, and colonial history. This library is a collaborative effort between the Anne Arundel County Public Library, Historic London Town and Gardens, and the Anne Arundel County Lost Towns Project. The online catalogue can be found here.

All of the books are reference books and therefore may not be check out, but you can come and enjoy the beautiful setting of London Town and do your research!

Teacher Resource Packet
  African American Foodways Primary Sources (PDF)
 When Museums, Schools, and Communities Meet (PDF) 

Children's Lives at Colonial London Town


Special School Projects

During the Spring of 2010, Historic London Town and Gardens partnerd with Mayo Elementary School for an exciting research project made possible by a generous mini-grant from the Four Rivers Heritage Area . The entire fourth grade used primary sources to learn about  four different themes: Ships that came into London Town, Where Foods Originated From, Imports and Exports of Maryland, and Trade Routes. The kids were broken into small teams to create poster exhibits. A full-day field trip allowed the students to experience what life was like in the Seaport of London Town first hand. Finally, at the end of the year, a true exhibit opening was held with parents, school officials, teachers, students, volunteers and London Town staff members in attendance. The attached power point desribes the program.

London Town The Seaport Exhibits Created by Mayo Elementary (Power Point)
 

Websites

Colonial Williamsburg has an excellent interactive lesson accompanied by music http://www.history.org/history/teaching/enewsletter/february03/worksongs.cfm

National Park Service Ethnography Program
http://www.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/ChesapeakeA.htm

Michael Twitty, food historian on Afro Marylanders
www.afrofoodways.com

Documenting the American South, Indentured Servant James Revel’s poem home
http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/revel/menu.html

International Slavery Museum
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/

13 Original Colonies Web Quest
http://teacherportfolio.indstate.edu/jnorris/new_page_4.htm

Maryland State Archives Teaching American History Classroom Resources
http://www.teachingamericanhistorymd.net/

Smithsonian African American History and Culture
http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/History_and_Culture/AfricanAmerican_History.htm

The American Folklife Center
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/

Suggested Readings

Abrahams, Roger D., editor
1985 Afro-American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New
World. New York: Pantheon Press.

Bascom, William
1992 African Folktales in the New World. Bloomington: Indiana UP.

Bordessa, Kris
2006 Great Colonial Projects You Can Build Yourself! White River Junction: Nomad Press.

Bower, Anne
2007 African American Foodways: Exploration of History and Culture. 
Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

Breen, T.H.
1980 Myne Owne Ground. New York: Oxford UP.
2001 Tobacco Culture. Princeton: Princeton UP.

Carlson, Laurie
1997 Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World. Chicago:
Chicago Review Press.

Carr, Lois Green, Russell R. Menard, and Lorena S. Walsh
1991 Robert Cole’s World: Agriculture and Society in Early Maryland. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Duffy, John
1979 Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State UP.

Duke, Kate
1997 Archaeologists Dig for Clues. New York: Harper Trophy.

Ferris, Jerri
2001 What Are You Figuring Now: A Story of Benjamin Banneker. Friday
Harbor: Turtleback Books.

Fox, Paula
2001 The Slave Dancer. Springfield: Athenum Press.

Hamilton, Virginia
1991 Many Thousand Gone: African Americans from Slavery to Freedom. 
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Kalman, Bobbie
1992 Colonial Life. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company.

Kulikoff, Allan
1986 Tobacco and Slaves. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

McGovern, Ann
1964 If You Lived in Colonial Times. New York: Scholastic, Inc.

Samford, Patricia and David L. Ribblett
1995 Archaeology for Young Explorers. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Schroeder, Alan and Jerry Pinkney
2000 Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman. New York: Puffin.

Wilbur, C. Keith
1984 Pirates and Patriots. Guilford: Globe Pequot Press.

1992 Homebuilding and Woodworking in Colonial America. 1^st edition.
Guilford: Globe Pequot Press.

1997 Revolutionary Medicine. 2^nd edition. Guilford: Globe Pequot Press