Playing House—Homemaking for Children

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This collection presents five digitized instruction manuals published between 1877 and the 1930s targeted at teaching girls the art of homemaking. These manuals include Elizabeth Stansbury Kirkland's Six Little Cooks, or, Aunt Jane's Cooking Class (1877) Mabel Louise Keech's Training the Little Home Maker, by Kitchengarden Methods (1912), Elizabeth Hale Gilman's Housekeeping (1916) and Things Girls Like to Do (1917), and Betty's Scrapbook of Little Recipes for Little Cooks: Saved from Wisconsin Agriculturist and Farmer (1930s).

These books focus on cooking, cleaning, laundry, household management, and instruct girls in the proper way to, for example, make a bed, decorate a table, serve a meal, make furniture, or prepare for the Christmas season.

All volumes can be browsed in their entirety, or keyword searched. Several are accompanied by photographs and other illustrations. This collection is useful for the history of domesticity, family life, cooking and food, as well as childhood and girlhood.

Feminist Art

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Question

What kind of visual art was there during the time of the feminist movement?

Answer

I will suppose that by "the time of the feminist movement," you mean essentially during the 1960s–1980s, even though feminism of one kind or another has made itself felt in the arts for at least a century–in the choreographic innovations of dancer Isadora Duncan, for example–and continues through today. Feminist art was the subject of WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, an exhibit that originated at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 2007 and traveled around the country, including to the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC. The exhibit featured 300 works of painting, sculpture, photography, film, video, and performance art from 1965–1980 created by 118 well-known artists, including Judy Chicago, Yoko Ono, Carolee Schneemann, and Cindy Sherman. Feminist art was a "philosophy of art informed by gender," according to Susan Fisher Sterling, the curator of the exhibit at the NMWA. The artists "were throwing off many of the sanitized conceptions of women and expressing overt independence and sexuality in a way that had never been acceptable before." As a gesture toward that, the exhibit curators placed warnings in some portions of the exhibition, advising museum visitors of "potentially disturbing subject matter."

Feminist art was a "philosophy of art informed by gender..."

Curators described the exhibit as, "An edgy account filled with history, passion and scandal, Wack! … addressed such issues as male biases, body image, sexuality and media interpretation of feminism from the perspective of many traditional and controversial artists over several decades." One prominent axiom of feminist art was the notion that the body—especially the female body—was a kind of blank stage or canvas upon which "narratives" or images of various selves were arbitrarily "mapped" or described, often through violence. Like most Modern (and then Postmodern) art of the period, feminist art was immersed in political revolution, in gender, race, and class. The political and cultural agenda of feminist artists was to take control of their destinies and redefine their social roles by a combined assault on—or inversion of—the "patriarchal structures" of culture and politics.

Like most Modern (and then Postmodern) art of the period, feminist art was immersed in political revolution...

Also like most art of the period, feminist art tended to be explicitly self-referential, making the artists the subjects of the works they created, "declarations of self," as performance artist Cheri Gaulke put it. Photographer Cindy Sherman's self-portraits in different personae are examples of this, as are the performance art film events created by Carolee Schneemann, such as her Autobiographical Trilogy, which featured sexually explicit films of herself, or, as evidence that themes of feminist art have continued, Eve Ensler's 1996 play, The Vagina Monologues, or Yale art student Aliza Shvarts' 2008 "creative fiction" about self-inseminations and abortions. Typical of feminist art was a related emphasis on a supposed "woman’s way" of working—meaning, in particular, the forming of collectives or cells of women artists who sought to produce art jointly, and as part of a process of "consciousness raising" among the members of the collectives.

Yet another way to "rescue" women was to honor typically feminine arts and crafts...

Another goal of feminist art was to "rescue" women of a previous day—notably, women artists who had not garnered the critical acclaim they had deserved because they were women, or because the subjects of their art were derived from the domestic realm, such as child-rearing or food preparation, or because the works evinced a particularly "feminine" sensibility. Yet another way to "rescue" women was to honor typically feminine arts and crafts, including, particularly, sewing, weaving, costuming, embroidery, and quilting, and place these in the forefront of the artistic endeavor, rather than in the "lesser" margins, as they had been traditionally. Judy Chicago's 1974 installation piece, The Dinner Party, was influential in stimulating many of these issues within feminist art.

For more information

Cornelia H. Butler and Lisa Gabrielle Mark, WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2007.

Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment

Teaser

Relive the dream of the women's vote through roleplay or interfacing with primary documents.

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Description

Access primary sources and activities for a unit on the suffrage movement, from the Seneca Falls Convention to the passage of the 19th Amendment.

Article Body

This lesson is anchored by nine primary source documents related to the women's suffrage movement, from 1868 to 1920. Students and teachers alike will appreciate that the site includes images of the original documents—not simply transcriptions.

It also has six teaching activities that range from document analysis, to role-play, to student research. Activity three, which asks students to use textbooks, library resources, and documents to make a timeline, can be an effective way of helping younger students understand historical chronology. For older students, activity six, which asks students to write and stage a one-act play, presents an opportunity to interpret and synthesize primary sources. The script for a one-act play commissioned by the National Archives, "Failure Is Impossible," is available as a model.

This lesson also includes links to related websites, including those from the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, the National Register of Historic Places, and the National Women’s History Project.

Topic
Women's suffrage
Time Estimate
Varies
flexibility_scale
2
Rubric_Content_Accurate_Scholarship

Yes

Rubric_Content_Historical_Background

Minimal
Includes a one-act play based on archival sources.

Rubric_Content_Read_Write

Yes
Students are asked to read multiple documents, and there are opportunities for original student writing based on document analysis.

Rubric_Analytical_Construct_Interpretations

Yes
Activities two and six ask students to assess suffragist strategies and write an evidence-based play, respectively.

Rubric_Analytical_Close_Reading_Sourcing

Yes
Activity one focuses on these skills, and can be paired with a downloadable Document Analysis Worksheet.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Appropriate

Unclear
Audience is unstated.

Rubric_Scaffolding_Supports_Historical_Thinking

No
Teachers may need to supplement the provided materials.

Rubric_Structure_Assessment

No

Rubric_Structure_Realistic

Yes
The lesson is designed for easy adaptation by teachers.

Rubric_Structure_Learning_Goals

Yes

Land of (Unequal) Opportunity

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While many are familiar with the 1957 Little Rock High School integration crisis, far fewer students of U.S. civil rights history may be aware of the longer history of that struggle in Arkansas. This website includes more than 460 documents and images, including cartoons, court decisions, photographs, newspaper articles, letters, and essays related to that history. For example, an essay on the meaning of relocation written by a high school student at Arkansas's Jerome Relocation Center in 1943 brings a more personal perspective to the story of internment, as the student describes the ways in which members of her community have struggled between the "fighting spirit" and the "giving up spirit." Users new to civil rights history in Arkansas may want to begin with the extensive timeline that describes events from the arrival of slaves in Arkansas in the 1720s to a 2006 State Supreme Court ruling that struck down a ban on gays serving as foster parents. The website also includes 10 lesson plans geared for middle school students that make use of the website's resources—such as a speech given by Governor Oral Fabus in 1958. An extensive bibliography of secondary sources related to many aspects of civil rights, including African American, gay and lesbian, and women's issues, Japanese relocation, religious intolerance, political rights, and anti-civil liberties groups and issues, is also available.

Peace Corps

Article Body

The Peace Corps has a three-fold mission. First and foremost, the organization sends volunteers to communities around the world which have requested assistance in creating sustainable solutions to real world problems. Second (and third, really), is an interest in increasing international understanding and friendship—of non-Americans for Americans and vice versa.

One of the most exciting options the Peace Corps offers educators is the World Wise Schools Correspondence Match program. The program permits educators to request a pen pal relationship with a Peace Corps volunteer in a region of the world and area of interest (agriculture, business, education, health, or environment) of their choosing. Maybe your students could discuss the lasting impact of the Vietnam War with a volunteer in Southeast Asia or how U.S. business history has altered life in China or Central America. This could also be an excellent way to introduce social studies students to the connection between history and geography and fields more often taught at the collegiate level, such as anthropology and international relations.

Another feature offered is a collection of more than 120 lesson plans. These are not focused on history per se, but you may be able to find a lesson which will strengthen themes you are pursuing in the classroom. One such lesson involves planning a service learning project. Oral histories are a classic way to combine service learning and history.

Encyclopedia Britannica: The 1911 Edition

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Presents the full text of the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1911, with approximately 30,000 articles by more than 1,500 authors. According to PageWise, an Internet information resource responsible for digitizing the Encyclopedia, the 11th edition marked a shift to a more journalistic writing style than existed previously. The site will provide a wealth of material for those studying the state of commonly available knowledge at the time of this edition's circulation.

The Commercial Closet

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Advertised as "the world's largest collection of gay advertising," this site provides video clips, still photo storyboards, descriptive critiques, and indexing to more than 600 television and print media ad representations of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered. Users can access ads by year; brand; company; business category; themes; region; agency; target group (gays or mainstream); and portrayals ("what the imagery/narrative conveys about gayness") categorized as vague, neutral, positive, or negative. Although the earliest ad is from 1958, the majority are drawn from the past 10 years. The creator, a business journalist, notes that "the project is also creating a historic document that charts the burlesquing of the gay community, and the move toward more positive and inclusive portrayals." Visitors with an interest in gay history, popular culture, consumer culture, and advertising can do their own charting with the materials provided.

Regional Oral History Office

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ROHO preserves the history of the San Francisco Bay Area, CA, and the Western United States. It covers a wide range of topics, including politics and government, law and jurisprudence, arts and letters, business and labor, social and community history, University of California history, natural resources and the environment, and science and technology. ROHO has full-text transcripts of more than 270 interviews online (some with audio recordings). Offerings include the "Free Speech Movement Digital Archive," that documents the role of participants in the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley, in the fall of 1964 as well as its origins and legacy; "Exploring Diversity and Access at the University of California," examining the experiences of African American faculty and senior staff at UC Berkeley with six interviews available and an additional 10 interviews planned; "Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front" project, exploring the wartime experiences of Bay Area residents, with 23 oral history interviews; and "Suffragists," featuring eight interviews with major figures in 20th-century suffragist history.

There are two searchable databases, divided chronologically from 1954-1979 and 1980-1997, of abstracts from the more than 1,250 interviews in the offline collection. The site also contains an essay on "Oral History Tips" and two "One-Minute Guides" to "Conducting an Oral History" and "Oral History Interviewing." A useful resource for researching the cultural or social history of California and the West in the 20th century.

Women Artists of the American West

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This online archive features images of photographs taken by women that represent the holdings of the Women in Photography Archives located in Arcata, CA. Most of the photographs in the collection are the work of women photographers who were active between 1850 and 1997 and had some connection with the American West, particularly California.

The archive contains 17 separate collections, arranged according to four main themes: Community, Identity, Spirituality, and Locality. Each of these categories features relevant essays composed by art historians, curators, and artists. As a whole, the site offers the works and biographies of approximately 180 artists and photographers.

For educators, the site also offers a comprehensive eight-week syllabus that covers the website's four main themes.

Although navigating the website can take some getting used to, it is worth the effort. The site is a valuable resource for often lesser-know perspectives on the American West.

Picturing Modern America Project

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It is difficult at times for young people (and people in general) to understand the past, even the more recent past of the past century or so. It seems almost banal to observe that many aspects of life have changed dramatically, and perhaps not so banal to note that many things have in fact not changed as much as we think. This fine site contains a number of interactive exercises (drawing on the vast collections of the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress) that will help deepen students' understanding of common topics in the study of modern America from 1880 to 1920 and to build their skills in analyzing primary sources.

Teachers and student alike will appreciate the "Investigations" area, which contains exercises such as "Picturing Social Change", "Modern Women", and "Picturing Prairie Life". Through the exercises, visitors will be asked a variety of questions that draw on the visual materials contained within each thematic section, such as "What brought people to the prairie?" or "Why might people have left the prairie?". Visitors also have the opportunity to build their own exhibits by choosing their own theme or question about modern America, and through choosing their own images and documents for their exhibit.