Dennis Henderson's 7th and 8th grade Social Studies classes wanted to find out what it was like growing up in their neighborhood "back in the day". Manchester has undergone major economic and social changes during the last fifty years. Manchester is located in the North Side section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and these students attend the Manchester Academic Charter School.
The project began with a study of the history of Manchester dating back to 1832 when it was first laid out as an industrial village. Students examined photographs from the Library of Congress and Historic Pittsburgh that depicted neighborhood life in the early 20th century. A class list of interview questions was then written for guidelines. Students recorded interviews on Olympus digital recorders and took pictures of the interviewees with HP Photosmart digital cameras provided by Waynesburg University Teaching with Primary Sources Program. The sound and image files were combined in Windows Movie Maker to create the individual movies listed below. Dr. Ann B. Canning, retired Professor of Education from Waynesburg University collaborated with Dennis Henderson and his students to complete this project.