Andersonville National Historic Site utilized America’s National Parks™ funds to support its Travelling Trunk Program. Andersonville was the site of a Confederate prison that held Union Soldiers and is known as one of the deadliest sites of the Civil War, claiming nearly 13,000 deaths. While it is encouraged to visit the site and it is a destination for many school trips throughout Georgia, the reality is that not all students can make it out to the site during the school year.
The Park Rangers at Andersonville developed the Travelling Trunk program as a way to bring a piece of the park to schools throughout Georgia and surrounding areas. Made possible by America’s National Parks™ Funds at Work, the Rangers have a trunk full of reproductions of artifacts from Andersonville NHS that they are able to bring to schools. This, combined with the incredible storytelling and educational programming of the rangers, creates a unique history lesson for those schools that can’t bring their students to the park. The reproduction artifacts include historically accurate army uniforms from the Civil War, cookware, and other personal items that soldiers would carry.
