History in a box brings life to battles

Miami Valley Veterans Museum makes portable displays.

Volunteers from the Miami Valley Veterans Museum are hitting the road, taking along a lot of history in a box.

The museum located in downtown Troy introduced the history in a box project earlier this year as another way to share the stories of the museum and the countless veterans it honors.

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A grant from the Paul G. Duke Foundation has allowed the volunteers to buy materials for construction of five wood boxes that bring to mind footlockers along with materials and some replica items to help tell the story of the time period covered by each of the boxes.

Three boxes — covering the Settlement Period of the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War I — are done or nearly done, while two others are in the works. Those boxes will help tell the story of World War II and the Vietnam period.

History in a box presentations have been made so far to groups such as senior citizens as well as service organizations. Preparations are being made for visits to schools when students return in the fall.

The length of a presentation depends on the group’s request, and the amount of time it can devote to a program, said Terry Purke and Mitch Fogle, museum volunteers working on the program and presentations.

“The whole thing is to tell the veterans’ story, whether it’s the Civil War, World War II or whatever it may be,” Purke said.

When the grant was awarded, volunteers got busy building the boxes, with help from an intern from Urbana University and his father, and developing the story each box would tell through its contents. The goal was to offer a hands-on display/program instead of a PowerPoint presentation, Purke said.

The boxes include items from the museum collection along with replicas of weapons that cannot be activated in any way and examples of equipment and other staples that would have accompanied soldiers of the time. For example, the World War I box includes a gas mask because of the role of the chemical weapon during that war.

The museum always can use more volunteers with a special need now for those with IT experience as it works to switch from a paper to electronic system. For more information, go online to www.miamivalleyveteransmuseum.com or call 937-332-8852.

The museum is open Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com.

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