When the Rock Island Public Library needed historical background for a master plan and future capital campaign for its downtown library, Augustana’s History 300 students answered the call. Their research uncovered important stories about the 1903 library, while revealing the challenges and rewards of piecing together a library’s history.
Historian and librarian Chris Sweet ’01 knows how to make an entrance. In April, he returned to campus with a penny-farthing, a high-wheeled bicycle from the 1870-1880s.
For generations, young Americans grew up with a story — often simplistic, certainly mythic — that gave coherence to the nation’s past and purpose to its future. Today, many don’t. The answer is not to hand them a single, “better” version of the past. What they really need are better ways of learning history.
