Field Trip: San Mateo County History Museum (People of Many Places)

Photo credit: San Mateo County History Museum

Where: San Mateo County History Museum (2200 Broadway, Redwood City, CA 94063) 

When: During the school year 

Who: All ages, but recommended for 3rd-6th grades. 

Cost: $110 for a group, max 30 students per group

This year, our group decided to try a Cultural Feast - a book club paired with a series of field trips to a restaurant, store or museum linked to a culture. The San Mateo County History Museum's "Land of Opportunity" exhibit formed the basis for deciding which cultures to explore. 

Photo credit: San Mateo County History Museum

In the entrance to the exhibit, the docent showed us various flags and asked us to guess their countries. Historically, San Mateo County's largest immigrant groups have been Irish, Chinese, Portuguese, Italians, Japanese, Filipinos, Mexicans and African Americans. We were also asked to think of reasons that people might leave their countries (push-pull factors of migration). 

She then brought out a "traveling trunk", divided our group into pairs and gave each team an item from the trunk. Each team was to find that item somewhere in the exhibit and figure out - Where did you find the item? Which country was it from? What was it used for? 

Well, that was enough to send the children scampering around in excitement. The cases were beautifully arranged, and some had interactive elements, e.g. you could hear recordings of Irish songs, or smell dried Italian herbs.

Photo credit: San Mateo County History Museum

When the students had spent enough time matching their items and exploring, we sat down in the "Finding Work" section. The students were asked to imagine what some challenges new immigrants faced: language, skills needed in the new country may not match their own, lack of support from family or community. This naturally led to immigrants grouping together with others from the same country.  Some of the exhibits were a testament to the immigrants' tenacity - the docent pointed to one case holding the tools (including an egg-shaped iron for puffed sleeves) used by a Chinese laundry that had been the oldest, continuously operating laundry in California. There was also a beautiful carved marble which had come from Fontana marble, opened by an Italian immigrant.

Amazing draping marble shawl from Fontana

We then discussed the items the students had found - they showed motifs treasured by each culture. For example, Japan has Boys' Day and Girls' Day holiday, China has Lunar New Year, Portugal has the Holy Ghost Festival to honor queen Isabela, and Mexico has Fiesta Patrias and Dia de los Muertos. Naturally, Italy has food and Ireland has music. 

 

 Close up of Japanese culture case

Photo credit: San Mateo County History Museum

Photo credit: San Mateo County History Museum

We ended up by discussing difficulties that immigrants faced, namely discrimination. Perhaps because of the age of our students, we did not go into much detail but the walls had informative panels, plus the associations and groups formed in response. 

 

Finally, we went downstairs and the children did three crafts - an Italian paper horse marionette, an Irish drum and a Mexican papel picado.  Despite the large age range of our group, every student enjoyed the crafts. Thus we can recommend this field trip for homeschoolers of all ages. 

Notes:

• The field trip starts at 9:30am, before the museum officially opens at 10am. This allows the group to have the museum to themselves before crowds enter. 
• Street parking was available for $1/hour, but the Jefferson Ave garage is also not far. Plan for at least two hours.