BROOKINGS – “All history is biography.” So said Ralph Waldo Emerson, noted 19th Century American essayist, lecturer and poet.
In that vein, history came alive at Mickelson Middle School on Tuesday evening as more than 275 sixth-grade students took part in the annual P.O.P. (People of the Past) Wax Museum.
Above, Napoleon (Santiago Martinez Salais) talks pridefully about his great battles and military conquests.
Below, Lucille Ball (Alonna LeFebvre) narrates her life’s story, while Olympias (Kelsey Kuebler) looks on.
This year, under the tutelage of sixth-grade reading teacher Katie Burggraff, the students chose a person, researched their early life, career, end of life and legacy.
Each student then wrote a biography of their subject and memorized and readied their presentation for the performance. They also attired themselves in clothing appropriate to the figures they had selected and designed their coin containers.
A donation of a quarter would bring to life the “wax figure,” who would then give a first-person monologue of the person being portrayed.
Personages from long-ago history included Napoleon Bonaparte, Christopher Columbus, Joan of Arc, mean queen Olympias and Cleopatra; more contemporary personages included Louis Armstrong, Pope John Paul II, Lucille Ball, P.T. Barnum, Pablo Picasso and Marilyn Monroe.
The money collected this year is being donated to support Make-A-Wish South Dakota.
