Ball State University students have created a museum exhibit that examines the overlapping relationships of migrating Quakers, escaping slaves and national commercial routes and their intersection in one Indiana county.

Rather than examining the impact a single historic route had on the county, "Traces and Trails: Intersections of Wayne County" reveals how many historic routes, such as the Quaker Trail, the Underground Railroad, the National Road and the Whitewater Canal, affected the county.

"In Wayne County prior to the Civil War, there were Quakers emigrating westward, slaves escaping southern states, abolitionists, National Road builders and Whitewater Canal builders — and they were all interacting to not only shape the county, but the state as well," said Ron Morris, associate professor of history and project coordinator.

The project is sponsored by Ball State's Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry. The center, founded in 1999, explores connections among the arts, humanities, sciences and technology; creates products to illustrate each project's collaborative research and interdisciplinary study; and has each team present their product to the community.

In the case of "Intersections," the exhibit will be presented to many communities across Indiana. Five trunks filled with original letters, maps, posters, models of wagons and canal boats, and much more will travel to Indiana schools beginning this month. The students also created a magazine, DVD and a portable museum exhibit, which was recently displayed at the Wayne County Historical Society.

Portions of the DVD will soon be incorporated in many programs at Conner Prairie, the internationally renowned living history museum in Fishers, just north of Indianapolis. The DVD will be used as part of Conner Prairie's staff training, said Ken Bubp, Conner Prairie's special project manager.

"Conner Prairie hopes to utilize the Underground Railroad component in our Great Hall entryway for pre-orientation to support 'Follow the North Star,' the museum's award-winning immersion living history program where participants put themselves into the roles of runaway slaves in antebellum America," he said.

Marianne Sheline of Kokomo was one of the students who spent an entire semester working on the project. It was the most difficult project the students had ever worked on, and one they are quite proud of, she said. But what surprised the students was the outside interest the project generated.

"We created an exhibit that will be able to be used for years," Sheline said. "We were all happy and jumping around when we heard so many people were interested in using our exhibit."

For information on hosting the traveling exhibit, contact Morris at (765) 285-8720.

(Note to editors: For more information, contact Morris at (765) 285-8720 or rvmorris@bsu.edu.)