Garfield Site Field Trips

Students find facts for the Ohio timeline within the Visitor Center exhibits.

NPS

Timelines and Tours – 4th grade

Students use museum exhibits to gather facts for a giant timeline covering over 200 years of Ohio history. Patterns emerge to show that history is multi-layered and relevant to our current lives. The Garfield home tour compares the lives of the Garfield children in the 1880s (no indoor plumbing or electricity!) with those of students today. An optional trip to Lake View Cemetery leads students on a tour of the Garfield monument, along with memorials to other historical figures in Northeast Ohio.

• Program time: 2 hours (Garfield site only)
  5 hours (Garfield site + Lake View Cemetery)
• Each 4th grader will be issued an Every Kid Outdoors pass, good for family admission to national parks and federal lands through summer, 2024
• Title 1 schools receive free transportation.

Garfield and His Union Friends – 8th grade

Students explore the contents of six trunks, carpet bags and other containers in search of the "owner's" identity - Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Mathew Brady, Walt Whitman, Clara Barton, and our own James A. Garfield! Through discovery and guided by worksheet questions, students will learn each person's contribution to the Civil War, and how they were connected to James Garfield. A tour of the Garfield home is included in this two hour program.

*Materials can also be brought to area schools for in-class programming.

High school teachers!

Students view Murder of a President - the PBS historical drama about James Garfield's ascent to the presidency and tragic death - in class, then visit the Garfield site for a Stalwart vs Half-Breed scavenger hunt in the Visitor Center, and a tour of the president's home. Copies of the PBS show can be borrowed from the site and returned during your field trip.

All programs are free.

Contact Park Ranger Allison Powell for details and scheduling.