Traveling Trunks

To book traveling trunks for your group contact educator@lakewoodhistory.org or call (216) 221-7343 ext. 1

Early Schools Trunk

Experience what education was like in the early days of Lakewood. One-room schools, potbelly stoves, and children writing on slates and reading from McGuffey Readers are some of the topics. Discipline has changed a great deal since those times, so the trunk includes a dunce cap and other methods teachers would use to maintain order. Photos of the early schools and the students and teachers give modern audiences a glimpse into the classrooms of a time gone by.

Writing Trunk

Writing is becoming a lost art, so this trunk celebrates writing, journals, cursive, and the evolution of the postal service in Lakewood. It includes diary pages from Miss Emma Beach, a member of a founding family in Lakewood.

Now and Then Trunk

See what household life was like in Lakewood from the 1830s to the 1950s. Clothing, cooking, and home entertainment were very different; some items might be familiar to students or they might have heard about them through stories from their grandparents’ childhood.

General Store Trunk

The general store was an essential part of pioneer life. Items that could not be homemade might be purchased or ordered through a local general store. Items could even be traded there; the early post offices also often operated out of general stores. This trunk gives samples of replica items one might find there or bring there to trade.

Toy Trunk

Children have always wanted to be entertained. This trunk shows how children spent their free time during the pioneer days, through dolls, puzzles, blocks, and other amusements that could occupy the imaginations of the young and the old.

Immigration Carpetbag

We all trace our heritage back to foreign lands. The Immigration Carpetbag gives insight into the journey of many of the immigrants who came to Lakewood in the early 1900s. Where they came from, where they settled, and how they made their livings are part of this program, as well as what their journey was like.

Civil War Trunk

Learn about the Civil War through remnants of uniforms, supplies, and letters from Lakewood soldiers and their families.

World War II Trunk

Soldiers’ stories about World War II, as well as what life was like in Lakewood with the soldiers away, are explored in this trunk. There is also a PowerPoint presentation on this topic that is available as a program for groups.