Traditionally at St. Edmond and other schools, a “living wax museum” involves fifth-graders portraying international historic figures in a classroom setting. It is an interactive educational project in which students conduct research on, dress up as, and represent, historic figures. They are expected to deliver prepared speeches about their character’s life and impact on society.

For the first time, however, high school students at St. Edmond participated in a living-wax museum project, which focused on men and women from Webster County’s past. Sixty of Tiernan’s fellow juniors, enrolled in American Literature classes, each represented a different figure from the historic annals of Fort Dodge and other towns in Webster County.

Each student selected and conducted research on a local historical figure, dressed the part, and delivered speeches about their character, while scattered in various 19th-century-style houses in the Fort Museum and Frontier Village.

Over 200 elementary school children from St. Edmond, along with other visitors, watched the students perform their roles throughout the day.

-Messenger photo by David Drissel
Lizzy Tiernan, a junior at St. Edmond, right, brought to fruition her dream of participating in a “Living Wax Museum” Monday at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village with some encouragement from her mother, Chris Tiernan, left.

The origin of this project began in 2020 when Tiernan was a fifth-grade student looking forward to portraying Helen Keller in her school’s living wax museum.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown soon hit, forcing the cancellation of the project, much to Tiernan’s chagrin.

“My older sister had been in one, so I was extremely disappointed; our class tried to do a virtual event online; it did not work out,” Tiernan said. “I was really upset about it, but we kind of moved on with our life for the next several years.”

Even though Tiernan had been denied the opportunity to participate in such a project as a fifth-grader, she eventually devised a much more ambitious project six years later.

As a volunteer assistant to the Fort Museum curator, Maureen Kauleinamoku, for the past year, Tiernan became increasingly interested in the history of Fort Dodge and Webster County.

-Messenger photo by David Drissel
The St. Edmond Catholic High School junior class presented its first "Living Wax Museum" Monday at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village. The event was the brainchild of Lizzy Tiernan, a St. Edmond junior, in the center front row in the magenta dress.

She began to talk with various teachers, guidance counselors, school administrators, museum staff and volunteers about the presentation she never had the chance to deliver six years ago. Her mother, Chris Tiernan, encouraged her to pursue her dream, and contacted both the Fort Museum and the school about the possibility of having an 11th grade version of a living wax museum in an authentic historical setting.

Consequently, Lizzy Tiernan’s English teacher, Joan Shannon, agreed in October to incorporate a mandatory living wax museum project in her two sections of American Literature. Another English instructor at St. Edmond, Nancy Gabriel, also agreed to include the project in her section of the same course.

After gaining approval from the two instructors, the next step was gaining approval from the administration.

“We went to the principal and asked if we could make this into a field trip to the Fort,” Tiernan said. “We proposed that the elementary school’s first through eighth grade would be allowed to get on buses to see the 11th-graders performing their roles on April 20.”

Once the project was approved, Tiernan went online to find 60 names of 30 historical men and 30 historical women in Webster County. She supplemented her online research with old tomes at the Fort Museum.

-Messenger photo by David Drissel Lizzy tiernan, center, is pictured with St. Edmond High School English teachers, Joan Shannon, left, and Nancy Gabriel.

“The women were much harder to find,” she said.

Each student would pick a character. She then created two sign-up sheets online for all the American Literature students — one for the girls and one for the guys. Every slot would have a name and a career. They had Karl King listed, for example, and underneath, it said band conductor.

Shannon explained that the project built upon normal assignments in the course.

“They would ordinarily do a research paper on any topic,” she said. “But these students also had to get out of their desks and form relationships with public librarians and history society members. They learned more than I ever could have hoped.”

The Webster County Historical Society was particularly helpful as a primary research resource for students as they sought to find information on their historical figures. Fort Dodge’s most noted local historian, Roger Natte, and his assistant, Meg Beshey, set aside time to help students with their projects.

Tiernan next went to the Fort Museum to collect costumes for many of the students.

“We have at least two full barrels, full of costumes. There is also a sewing guild at the fort that made some of the costumes. We were really lucky that everyone was able to find costumes,” she said. “I made my own costume — I decided to portray Jeannette Williams, the wife of Fort Dodge founder, Major William Williams.

Numerous presentations were on display at the Fort, including William Williams, Karl King, Lewis Armistead, Henry Dodge, Conrad Laufersweilier, Dennis M Kelleher, Ann Smeltzer, Catherine Deardorf, Mary Augustine Duncombe, and Jett Douglas Wray.

Tiernan says she is planning to major in history and museum studies with the end goal of becoming an executive director or curator at a museum. And Shannon says that she plans on implementing the project in next year’s class, given the success of the project this past semester.