A historic tavern might not seem to be the ideal classroom for undergraduate students.  But if you're studying "hands-on history," Wareham's Fearing Tavern is near perfect.

On Tuesday, March 2, students in Professor Gail Mohanty's Public History of America class at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth visited the site, which dates to 1690, and investigated and catalogued historic objects such as quilts, side chairs, ceramics, 'mourning pictures,' clocks, mirrors and other items to learn about and practice how to archive museum-quality artifacts.

"The purpose of the class is to get the students and Wareham Historical Society as much information as possible," said Mohanty, who has taught the class for three years. She tries to limit enrollment to 15 students so that they can get lots of individual attention and hands-on experience with public or "general-audience history." "It's history that makes people proud of where they live."

Last summer, interns working with the society and Mohanty inventoried all of the items in the Fearing Tavern Museum. This semester, students are going into more depth. Each  student was assigned three objects to locate, photograph, measure and catalog in the labyrinthine house that, like many antique New England homes, has accrued rooms over the years.

"It's like hide-and-seek!" said Malini Frederick, of Hyannis, who was becoming desperate in her search for a square mirror.

"It's completely not typical," said junior history major Amanda Mayall. "This class deals with museums, other [history classes] deal with research and writing, this is much more hands-on," she said, after measuring a quilt in the toy room and recording its materials.

But it's important. "If it weren't for places like this," Mayall said, "people wouldn't have access to history."

The Historical Society feels similarly. The Fearing Tavern Museum is one of the town's only historic sites that is regularly open to the public, but it has very limited hours: Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in July and August, and by appointment according to volunteers' availability. And the building, which was restored by the Historical Society in 1958, has frequent maintenance issues.

"We had a ceiling go, and a fireplace leaking," said Historical Society Vice President Marie Strawn. "We run at a deficit of between $3,000 and $5,000 a year."

The students are a tremendous help.

"We hope that events like this can build interest in the historical resources in town," said Historical Society member Alan Slavin who has fostered the partnership with Mohanty and her students. "We're hoping that we get the high school to develop a History of Wareham course. This is just the beginning."