History on Stage
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History is not the dead and dusty bits of a distant past. Florence H. Miller knew this and to make history lively to her students, she began using pageants in 1909 as a method of teaching history.
The first pageant was a progressive anti-slavery pageant performed in Normal Hall on Feb. 12, 1909 in honor of the upcoming Lincoln Centenary. When the fiftieth anniversary of Lincoln's inauguration came around the pageant was revised, enlarged, and performed anew in the freshly constructed Practical Arts Building in March, 1911.
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When Columbus Day became a legal holiday a Columbus Pageant celebrating the holiday and educating students about the event was created. Later, a Christmas Pageant provided cultural and historical insight on the Old English origins of Christmas traditions.
Location: At the entrance of the auditorium
Miller’s work inspired a 1910 history student to develop a Peace Pageant on progress made towards world peace. The student incorporated this Peace Pageant into an essay which won first prize at the Massachusetts Peace Society, a group founded in 1846 and designed to promote peace through every part of life.
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Pageants emphasize the importance of making any subject real to children. Moreover, teaching expression in a physical way helps students communicate better and to learn by doing. Miller claimed that:
“Young people may not only easily grasp an idea which is pictured or acted for them, but will, with very little help from a teacher, act out the whole thing for themselves, and in this way present the ideas or facts to others.”
When students participate in pageants they gain lessons in the power of expression, power of imagination, and self-control.
More than owning and communicating one’s knowledge, students learned to collaborate. Teachers of the Practical Arts at Fitchburg Normal worked with students from the Jr. High and pupils from the Normal School to make many of the articles needed for these performances from costumes to sets. People of all ages, grades, and concentrations worked together, driving home the overall message of unified teamwork--a practical skill for all to know.
