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A stitch in time: Tyrone students receive hands-on history lesson in new elective course

By Matt Churella 4 min read

TYRONE -- A new elective at Tyrone Area High School aims to bring history to life through films and creative projects, such as making an Underground Railroad quilt with Connie's Collectibles, a quilt shop along Foot of Ten Road near Duncansville.

On Monday, students in history teacher Tracy Redinger's History Through Film class began cutting patch designs and practicing applique -- the process of sewing their patches onto background blocks that will be used to make the larger quilt.

The class has 12 students ranging from sophomores to seniors. They watch Hollywood films based on true events throughout American history, spanning from the American Revolution to events in 2012. After completing each film, they research that part of history and then develop creative projects, Redinger said.

The students watched "Harriet," a 2019 biographical film about abolitionist Harriet Tubman, prior to making their patches. As a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, Tubman made several trips between the North and South to rescue enslaved people, including her family and friends.

According to Redinger, each student was assigned to research a different quilt patch design.

By oral accounts, quilt patches reportedly contained secret messages to guide people escaping slavery to the North. However, that idea is considered controversial among historians, because there isn't any official documentation to back the claim up, Redinger said.

The National Park Service's website states that the use of quilts as a secret code along the Underground Railroad is not widely accepted as fact, noting there's "a great deal of historical documentation" depicting how the Underground Railroad operated that does not include any first-hand accounts of freedom seekers or allies interacting with the quilt code.

Many of the patterns cited in the quilt code did not exist until after the Civil War, according to the National Park Service's website of frequently asked questions about the Underground Railroad.

Regardless, students said they enjoy the class and the projects they've made in it. So far, they've made clay memorials related to the Revolutionary War and "cool front-page newspapers" about the slave trade, Redinger said.

The quilt idea came over the summer when Redinger visited Connie's Collectibles owner Connie Shaw at her shop.

"Tracy came to the quilt shop one day, and we got to talking about the Underground Railroad," Shaw said. "I showed her the quilt that we have put together and how we had the history of the Underground Railroad and how the slaves came from the South to the North and followed the quilt path."

Connie Letscher, a retired teacher who taught at Altoona Area's Penn-Lincoln Elementary School for 25 years, was at the shop when Redinger and Shaw exchanged ideas.

"I said, 'Oh, that sounds wonderful, and I'd love to be a part of it.' So, that's how I became part of this," Letscher said, adding she was happy to volunteer her time and teach the students about patching and sewing alongside Shaw.

"It makes history alive, and that's what's fun about teaching because you can do that," Letscher said.

Senior Logan Dasher was one of the first students to use the sewing machine, with guidance from Shaw.

Dasher was assigned to make a "flying geese" patch pattern, which features a row of triangles pointing in the same direction.

"It was meant to direct them north," Dasher said of the design.

"I really like this class; I wasn't supposed to be in this class, but I'm glad that I ended up doing it," Dasher added.

Junior Jordan Lewis said the clay memorial was his favorite project so far.

When asked what he learned about the Underground Railroad from watching "Harriet," Lewis said, "Harriet Tubman saved a lot of lives, and there's a bunch of people that were saving them."

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.

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