Civil War Calling: The Lehigh Valley Response

Reeves Library of Moravian University, in collaboration with the Moravian Historical Society and the Moravian Archives of Bethlehem, is pleased to share “Civil War Calling: The Lehigh Valley Response,” a project designed to support local Social Studies Teachers in the Lehigh Valley who are teaching students about the Civil War using locally held primary source materials and artifacts.

This project utilizes a multimodal approach by including PowerPoint slides, short videos, replica items, and age-level print books that can be checked out to teachers to supplement the curriculum. Multimodal teaching in the primary years can benefit students who may have lost confidence in their ability to understand concepts presented in printed text, and offers something for each child's learning style. With this in mind, "Civil War Calling: The Lehigh Valley Response” builds off of The American Battlefield Trust's curriculum materials for grades 3-12, adding short educational videos produced by students at Moravian University, as well as a replica Civil War Union uniform, backpack, satchel and other accoutrement that Teachers may check out from Reeves library and share with students in their classrooms.

Reeves Library is happy to extend to our Bethlehem area teachers access to the print collections (as well as our replica Civil War uniform and backpack) at Moravian University. To obtain a borrower's card, please stop by the library circulation desk Monday through Thursday, 8:00AM - 8:00PM, or Fridays 8:00AM - 4:00PM. For questions regarding obtaining a borrower’s card, please feel free to reach out to our circulation team: Kris Beutler 610-861-1305 or Vince Condello 610-861-1679.  

To access our Resources for Educators, please see here.

Planning and research for this project commenced in June 2021. Dr. Jamie Paxton, Associate Professor of History at Moravian University, serves as history expert, overseeing the project for accuracy. Our goal is to make all materials available to participating schools as they are completed, and continue to add to them based on feedback. For questions regarding the Civil War Calling Project, please contact Cory Dieterly at dieterlyc@moravian.edu.