OPERATION FOOTLOCKER:

Traveling Artifact Trunks

The National WWII Museum has launched Operation Footlocker, providing schools across the country with unique hands-on opportunities to explore the history and lessons of WWII by exploring WWII artifacts. These traveling trunks are designed to supplement WWII education in the classroom.

Each footlocker comes loaded with about 15 actual artifacts from WWII (not reproductions!). Of course, no weapons or ammunition are included. But there are ration books, V-mail letters, dog tags, sand from the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, wartime magazines, a high school yearbook from the early 1940s, and many other artifacts, both commonplace and surprising. Footlockers come complete with white cotton gloves for handling the artifacts and a teacher’s manual that describes each object and contains directions for conducting artifact “reading” sessions.

Turn your students into history detectives as they ponder the origins and uses of these real pieces of WWII history!

Details

Cost: While normally $100, for the 2012-2013 school year, the cost is just $50 thanks to the generous support of the Richard W. and Sandra L. Hutson Charitable Fund.

If needed, have your finance officer assign a vendor number to the Museum before your request. We are happy to provide any required information.

Footlockers will be shipped via UPS and will include a prepaid return shipping label.

Footlockers can be kept at your school for one week.

Download the Operation Footlocker Teacher Manual in pdf format.

Fill out a Footlocker Evaluation Form.

To Reserve a Footlocker:

Contact Walt Burgoyne at walt.burgoyne@nationalww2museum.org or call (504) 528-1944 x333. Have the dates you want your footlocker in mind.

Testimonials

"My Honors American History students were excited about this 'hands-on' way to learn about history. I copied artifact-specific pages from the teacher's manual, then divided the students into teams of two. Each student was given one artifact and its page. I also copied one Inquiry Question page for each student to be used as a worksheet. One student asked the Inquiry Questions from the teacher manual, while the other answered while exploring the artifact and reading about it."
- Jamie S., Metairie, LA

"I used it with our History Mystery Center in our WWII unit. Students wrote guesses of what items they thought would be in the trunk. The most interesting and surprising items were the gas mask, sand from beaches, personal effects bag, the dog tag, steel penny, and the car tag."
- Wanda A., Gulfport, MS

"We had a WWII veteran come speak to us and then broke into groups and discussed each item using the questions provided in the teacher’s manual. It was an extremely valuable addition to our WWII unit of study. Thank you!!! What wonderful memories our students now have because of this footlocker."
- Autumn H., Colton, CA