HIS Wadsworth Colt Collection Research Paper

Created by Marcus Lawson, Associate Professor of History and Political Science

US History 

The Auerbach Library at the Wadsworth serves as a conduit location that allows instructors to embed students within the internal structure of the museum.  Students are at once exposed to the head librarian and the museum's art book collections, that all facilitate the opportunity an instructor can use as point of reference in the lead up to opening the discussion on Samuel Colt.   

 It is through use of placed-based teaching methods illustrating the important role of assigned, Colt texts, classroom handouts of paper assignment rubrics, which all aid in furthering the discussion of Colt's relevant history and the importance of the assigned topic's thesis development.  

What I do with the U.S. History course has always been tied in with placed-based teaching methods.  The use of the Wadsworth has been instrumental in allowing me to present history material that links with the Wadsworth Colt collection.   

Students learn the general history of the U.S., but they are required to write a paper on Colt using a research question that they are required to answer.  It is with a combination of museum visits involving docent tours, as well as in class discussion about Colt; where I underscore the importance of, source material, either in museum or online, that allows me to reinforce the use of a thesis on Colt and other writing methods, which encourages a deeper, generic learning of U.S. History and a personal, focused history on Colt.