Cantigny museum enlists Glen Ellyn students for exhibit refresh

Inside Col. Robert McCormick's mansion-turned-museum, a tour guide tells a group of students why McCormick's first wife couldn't volunteer as a Red Cross nurse in World War I.

The Red Cross, the guide explains, accepted only single women between the ages of 21 and 45. So Amy McCormick, married to the man who later became the famed Chicago Tribune publisher, had to join another relief group because of her relationship status.

That story may be the most archaic tale visitors learn in the 35-room mansion at Cantigny Park in Wheaton. Most of McCormick's estate pays homage to his own military service, philanthropy and commitment to veteran causes.

But museum officials are trying to make the lower-profile exhibit devoted to WWI nurses more interactive and engaging, especially for students.

Rather than try to guess what interests teens, the museum has asked Hadley Junior High School students to help unlock the exhibit's potential. Teams of students recently presented their ideas before panels of the museum's director and curators.

Other groups produced videos as the museum considers replacing a PowerPoint orientation visitors watch before exploring the mansion built in 1896.

For Stephanie Moyer, the museum's educator, the presentations offered a chance to pick the brains of 86 students from the Glen Ellyn school.

"They will come up with ideas I never even dreamed of, and that creativity will be really wonderful for us to go back and institute one of their solutions," Moyer said. "Because if we do the same old thing, that's not inspiring.

"But if you're like, 'Oh my gosh, we have this new thing that nobody's ever done in a museum or at school,' that's really going to be a fun experience for us, but also for them."

In the short-term, the museum plans to add one of the student videos to a website with resources for teachers. Moyer and her co-workers also plan to collaborate with another Hadley team to redesign the orientation that lays out a few museum rules and provides a brief history of McCormick, who fought in the Battle of Cantigny, returned home and renamed his estate after the French village.

"It's really tough to make an interactive orientation, but we want to get across that we're looking for a more hands-on experience for our field trips," Moyer said.

For their teachers, students are expected to guide their own research and work toward a solution as part of a problem-based learning program in the district.

"PBL, in general, is a way to increase engagement, work with groups, make connections to the real world, have experts listen to your ideas as a student," said Annie Kane, a problem-based learning coach. "That's super powerful."

Through the ongoing partnership at Cantigny, students get feedback - and constructive criticism - from experts at a museum that draws about 50,000 visitors each year.

Over the course of the project, Katie Kooy came across a family picture of her great, great uncle in a hospital bed during WWI. Her family still has remnants of the shrapnel that injured him.

During their presentation, Kooy and her team - Maya Umlauf, Katie Keller and Aiden Muller - wanted to give other students such a connection to the First World War and suggested the museum install a tablet or another device that lets visitors do a genealogy search in the nurses exhibit. The group also designed a website with a quiz about the legacy of military nurses.

Acting Director Will Buhlig was so impressed that the museum has asked for a copy of Kooy's picture. To see an image of a hospital - and not a staged military portrait - "that's impactful," he said.

"It makes us feel a bit more important because kids tend to feel kind of overlooked," Kooy said. "We have ideas."