Quincy students create guide to local artifacts, learn to be museum tour guides

QUINCY – Skyla Whelan said she's always had an interest in history.

She likes to visit the Adams National Historical Park just down the street from her high school, and said she's particularly interested in learning about the past in ways that are unique or immersive.

"Instead of just looking at a painting, I like to get a real feel for the time period," said Skyla, a junior at Quincy High.

To dive deeper into the history of the City of Presidents, Skyla joined a group of two dozen students from both Quincy high schools who brought a mini museum experience to their classmates. The students got together in groups of three or four and each took on one of six notable Quincy artifacts: the Centennial Medal, the First Parish John Quincy Adams Medallion, the First Parish John Quincy Adams Letter, blacksmiths' tools, place settings from Howard Johnson's restaurants and portraits of the Adams women.

They wrote descriptions of each artifact as if it were on display in a museum, and became experts on the subject, able to answer questions as a professional tour guide would. History classes from each high school then toured their makeshift exhibit in the schools' libraries.

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"It turned out to be really fun," Quincy High sophomore Danazia Crawley said. "I learned how to talk to people and get out of my comfort zone. It makes me a little nervous to talk to people in large groups, but I do love giving out information and showing people new things."

North Quincy High School students Candice Chan and John Thomas Jr. did their project on the letter sent by John Quincy Adams about the establishment of the United First Parish Church downtown. Construction on the church had already begun when the elder John Adams died, and his son's letter marked "the turning point of the building of the church, when it really became a memorial to the Adams," Candice said.

Both presidents and their first ladies are entombed in the church.

"It was clearly a personal project to him," John Thomas said.

The project was born out of a 30-year program in which Quincy students head to the Museum of Fine Arts for an intensive lesson on being a docent, or tour guide. The program was put on hold at the start of the pandemic and remains in limbo, prompting teachers Erin Twomey and Daniel Regan to "do something in the meantime," Twomey said.

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The teachers secured the artifacts by working with Bob Damon, the city’s director of historic and heritage resources, and brought in Erin Wederbrook Yuskaitis, a professional museum consultant who held several training sessions with the students. Those who participated did so in their free time, and it was a voluntary project.

"The content that we delivered was really high level. I'm so proud of them," Yuskaitis said. "Seeing them present, I'm blown away by what they absorbed. They have just been spectacular."

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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Tour guides in training: Quincy students teach local history