A display on the Civil War, featuring works by social studies students in the Edwardsburg Public Schools, will open April 18 at the Edwardsburg Area Historical Museum.

The exhibit, which will run through May 26, will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the “War Between the States” and will be highlighted by a lecture Thursday, April 23 by Erin Souchick, a history teacher at the Edwardsburg Middle School and the 2008 recipient of Michigan’s History Award for Teaching by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).

The title of Souchick’s presentation will be “Forgotten Soldiers — The Role of Native Americans in the War Between the States.”

The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. at the museum, 28616 Main St. There is no admission charge.

The works by students over the years in Souchick’s social studies classes include models of battles and battlefields. Souchick is a graduate of Central Michigan University and received her doctor of jurisprudence from the Thomas Cooley School of Law before turning to teaching as a profession.

Included in her students’ and former students’ exhibits will be models of well-known battles, of medical treatment, the infamous Libby Prison, the Epps Plantation, and two recently created quilts representing the life of Solomon Northup, whose 1853 memoir was the focus of the Academy Award-winning film, “12 Years a Slave.” Several student notebooks also will be on display.

Also featured will be a continuously running playlist of videos compiled by 60 students in Jeff Kozinski’s sophomore social studies classes at Edwardsburg High School. The videos will include a “crash course” on the Civil War as well as topical pieces on the 14th, 15th and 16th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

The museum will draw from its own archives and documents provided by residents to show participation by their ancestors in the Civil War. Diaries from local residents such as Dr. Cyrus Bacon Jr. will be featured, along with biographical information on other Civil War leaders such as Dr. John Sweetland, for whom the museum’s annual John Sweetland Leadership Award is named, and ancestral materials of Civil War veterans who participated in the capture of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Several other items and books from the museum’s collection will be displayed, including original editions of the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1865 that recently were donated.

On May 21, Author and Lecturer Barbara Wood Cook of Sumnerville will speak at the museum on the history of the Underground Railroad. That presentation will begin at 7 p.m.

The museum hours for the last two weeks in April and the first two days of May will be 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. The museum will begin its regular seasonal schedule May 5. Hours will be 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.