by Glenn R. Swift
On Wednesday, September 18, the fifth through twelfth grades of North Palm Beach’s Baldwin Prep visited the renowned Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum in downtown West Palm Beach. The museum is located in the historic 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse and is operated by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.
The field trip was part of Baldwin’s Florida Studies program, and students were given a guided tour through the museum’s two permanent exhibitions: The People Gallery, which pays tribute to over a hundred individuals and families who have greatly contributed to the growth of Palm Beach County, and The Place Gallery, which features models and photographs depicting the county’s natural environment along with the animals and ecology that make it unique.
Parents, teachers and students alike wish to thank the kind folks of the Johnson Museum, especially Miss Diana, for their first-class hospitality in what was most definitely an informative and eye-opening experience.
For more information about Baldwin Prep, please visit www.baldwinprepschool.org, and to learn more about the Richard and Pat Johnson History Museum, go to www.historicalsocietypbc.org.
My favorite thing about visiting the museum has got to be all the hands on learning. I love being able to have access to use the tools they had out for the exhibit with the tribes. Another cool part of the exhibit was with the giant big screen that you could touch and see any part of Florida at any time period you wanted. It could also show you all the types of animals were and are around Florida. The coolest story on the trip was the barefooted mailman. That sounds like such a cool job to have. My favorite room I the museum was the court room. When our tour guide let us go up and sit in the judges chair and let us go up there and see everything and touch everything, it was super cool. I like field trips because it gives kids a chance to learn outside of the class room just reading books and taking notes. I look forward to more field trips.
On this trip I learned a lot about Florida’s history that I didn’t know. This trip was very fun. I liked walking through the courtroom and learning what kinds of things happen and where people are placed before the trial starts. I found the facts about the barefoot mailman to be very interesting. I thought it was interesting because he walked between Palm Beach and the settlements around Lake Worth. Another exhibit I enjoyed seeing was a re-creation of a ‘palmetto shack”, the frond-topped dwellings the first pioneers built for themselves. The last thing I enjoyed learning about that day was how much Florida has changed over a long and short period of time. It was nice to see a map on the screen on how the roads and water have changed over the many years. I want to thank everyone who helped me learn more about my home town. I greatly appreciate it! 🙂