H.H. Bennett: Photographer Extraordinaire

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This website makes available 650 photographs and stereographs taken by Henry Hamilton Bennett, a commercial photographer who worked in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Chicago from 1865 to 1908. Bennett was most renowned for his photos of the Wisconsin landscape, most especially his views of the Wisconsin Dells, and steamboats and lumber rafters on the Wisconsin River. Also collected on this website are his images of Milwaukee, Minneapolis (including its Winter Carnival with ice structures and sculptures), and Chicago during the Columbian Exposition of 1893.

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943

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This exhibition offers 70 color pictures taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) between 1939 and 1943. This collection "reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images. These vivid scenes and portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery and industrial growth, and the country's great mobilization for World War II." The collection features the work of famed photographers John Vachon, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, and Marion Post Wolcott.

All pictures in the exhibition can be viewed in large format by clicking on the image or the title in the exhibition gallery. The collection is searchable by keyword. The complete collection of FSA/OWI photographs—171,000 black-and-white images and 1,602 color images—is available on the Library of Congress website at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html. This collection is of interest to both those studying the history of American photography and those seeking images of New Deal-era America.

U.S. Census Bureau

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The United States Census Bureau's mission is to collect and provide data on the economy and people of the United States.

The bureau's website is definitely worth an educator's time. Several sections are designed specifically for students of different ages, and the overall navigation is relatively simple and effective.

To start, perhaps you need current statistics to compare to historical data? In that case, the best recommendation would be QuickFacts, which offers data on the population of the states, individual counties, and all towns and cities with more than 25,000 inhabitants. State Facts offers similar data for states, presented in a more colorful, engaging, child-friendly manner. More detailed data can be found by choosing your area of interest from the navigation bar on the left of the American FactFinder page.

The bureau also offers a teacher and children's page. Highlights include lesson plans; warm-up activities; facts pre-selected for holidays and observances; and maps depicting city growth and distribution between 1790 and 2000.

A page for younger children provides counting, coloring, word, trivia, and memory games. Be aware that the site has a rather peppy little song clip, which may delight students or annoy them, depending on their ages and personalities.

Finally, if you're having a difficult time convincing individual teenage students that formal education is worthwhile, money is always a fantastic incentive. Consider showing them the financial payoffs of advanced education. The data also covers the earning differences among ethnicities in the U.S.

New Jersey Public Records and Archives

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For historians researching New Jersey, this site's main interest will be its "state archives." "Catalog" provides access to nearly 200 pre-established searches on the archive's manuscript series, genealogical holdings, business and corporate records, cultural resources, and maps. Topics include military conflicts, society and economics, transportation, public works agencies, and photographic collections, as well as state, county, municipal, and federal government records. The other major feature consists of eight image collections with themes that include New Jersey Civil War soldiers, Spanish-American War Infantry Officers, Spanish-American War Naval Officers, Gettysburg Monuments, and views of the Morris Canal. The archives site also includes a searchable index of New Jersey Supreme Court cases, a transcription of New Jersey's 1776 constitution, and a table summarizing the holdings of the state archives. This site is a useful aid for researching the history and culture of New Jersey.

Teaching Future Historians: U.S. History Lesson Plans Using Primary Documents

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This website offers links to lesson plans, audio recordings, and video lectures related to the Antebellum, Civil War, and Gilded Age eras. There are 15 lesson plans on the Antebellum era focused on the Lincoln-Douglas debates, antislavery, Cherokee removal, slavery and the legal status of free blacks, gender roles, religion in political life, and the free-market labor vs. slave labor, "mudsill" theory debate. The nine lesson plans on the Gilded Age include such diverse topics as the WCTU and the lynching controversy, civil service reform, bimetallism, free trade, and political campaign songs. There are 145 downloadable songs organized by topic.

The site also offers access to downloadable video lectures on 12 different topics that include African Americans and race, economic development and labor, frontier settlement, law and society, religion and culture, women and gender, and political development. Most topics have 10 or more lectures available. A small site, but very useful for teaching the history of these three eras.

Illinois During the Gilded Age

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Focused on the Gilded Age in Illinois, this website offers 287 primary source documents. These include political speeches, pamphlets, songs, audio recordings, and maps that deal with such issues as politics, farming, law, labor, religion, and economic development. Visitors can browse all 287 items or search by author, title, date, theme, or genre. Visitors can search text documents, images, or audio files separately. The site also offers 26 video lectures from college professors interpreting the major issues of the period. Lecture topics include John Dewey, Dwight Moody, Chicago Gilded Age culture, women's suffrage, government and reform, the People's Party, William Jennings Bryan, William Mckinley, and the election of 1896.

The site can also be explored through eight historical themes, each with an interpretive essay, a bibliography, a search feature for related primary documents, and a list of related video lectures. The themes are: economic development and labor, labor, law and society, political development, race and ethnicity, religion and culture, settlement and immigration, and women's experience and gender roles. In addition, eight essays cover important periods: 1866-1868 (war's aftermath), 1869-1872 (the Chicago Fire), 1873-1876 (the Panic of 1873), 1877 (The Great Strike), 1878-1884 (Immigration, Labor, and Politics), 1884-1891 (Haymarket and Hull House), 1892-1895 (1893 Chicago's World Fair), and 1896 (The Cross of Gold). The "Teacher's Parlor" has nine lesson plans, including the WCTU and the lynching controversy, civil service reform, bimetallism, and free trade.

Stating Your Case: Writing Thesis Statements Effectively

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What is it?

A three-activity lesson teaching students what thesis statements are and how to use them effectively in writing Document Based Questions (DBQs) and other history essays.

Rationale

Students asked to write brief essays on historical topics often lack a clear sense that such essays have a distinct structure. That structure varies with the topic the student is asked to address, but it usually consists of three tasks:

  • Using an introductory paragraph to pique interest and state clearly the    essay's answer to the question it is addressing.
  • Using the essay's internal paragraphs to make the case for that answer,    hypothesis, or claim.
  • Using a conclusion to sum up how well the body of the essay has    addressed the question, along with any qualifications.

A clear thesis statement is crucial to managing these tasks. An effective thesis statement responds to all key components of the question posed. It provides an answer, or hypothesis, which the entire essay will support or explain. In a DBQ (Document-Based Question) essay, the thesis must also be one the primary sources can support. Finally, if the thesis is clear enough, it should suggest a structure for the entire essay, one that will deal with all key facets of the question or problem posed.

Description

This lesson is based on the belief that students cannot master an essay component such as the thesis statement in the abstract, but will best learn its nature by studying it in the context of a concrete historical problem. Therefore, the lesson's activities are based on an introductory essay and a set of primary source documents on one historical topic—the Haymarket Square bombing in Chicago in 1886. The Haymarket episode is a dramatic one that should also hold student interest well. A single DBQ on this topic and several alternate thesis statements are then used in three student activities. These illustrate what makes thesis statements effective, as well some common problems or mistakes in writing clear thesis statements. The lesson consists of the following handouts:

  1. A background essay on the Haymarket anarchists
  2. A set of seven primary sources
  3. Three student activity sheets—What a Thesis Statement Is, What a Thesis Statement Does, Putting the Thesis Statement to Use
  4. Teacher's Answer Key
Teacher Preparation
  1. Ask students to read the one-page background essay provided for this    lesson.
  2. If they are not already familiar with what a thesis statement and a DBQ    essay are, discuss the brief explanation at the end of the background    essay.
  3. Have students study the seven primary sources for this lesson, paying    attention both to the content and the sourcing information for each    source.
In the Classroom
  1. Briefly discuss with students the single DBQ used in all three activities    for the lesson.
  2. Have students complete Activity 1 and Activity 2. In these activities they    will make several choices among alternative thesis statements, all of which    respond to the lesson's DBQ. If they have read the introductory essay and    studied the sources, these activities will not take much time to complete.
  3. Discuss the choices students make for these two activities. The Teacher's Answer Key sheet for the lesson lists the correct choices and offers    additional ideas to discuss.
  4. Ask students to complete Activity 3 by choosing several sources to use to    back up or qualify one of the thesis statements. Either discuss student    choices in class or ask students to use their notes and their thesis    statement in a brief DBQ essay of their own.
Common Pitfalls
  • In writing history essays, students may think their task is simply to    provide as much detail and information as they can, perhaps to prove how    much they know. If they lack a sense of the overall purpose and structure    of such essays, they will not see the central importance of the thesis    statement within that structure.
  • Students in a hurry often fail to tailor the thesis statement to the exact    details and form of the DBQ or other essay prompt. They need to pay    attention to the question's details, and also to its form (e.g. compare and    contrast, explain and describe, assess the validity, etc.), which can guide    the way they structure their thesis statement and the essay as a whole.
  • Students may view the thesis statement as an absolute claim and may    make sweeping assertions they can't possibly prove without qualification.    They need to see a thesis as a tentative hypothesis, one they should    qualify by referring to primary sources that seem to contradict it.
  • Students need to see that a vague or overly broad thesis statement will    make their task harder, not easier. A specific and divided, or segmented,    thesis will delimit the task more effectively and make it easier for the    student to organize the rest of the essay.
For more information

On DBQ essays and thesis statements:
Further tips on writing thesis statements from the Indiana University. This list is typical of checklists on this topic, with much good advice, but without the practice activity that will help students apply the advice.

See more on this topic elsewhere on our website.

Bibliography

Averich, Paul. The Haymarket Tragedy. Princeton University Press, 1984.

Burack, Jonathan. "History Unfolding." Four MindSparks DBQ and Essay Writing Programs. Social Studies School Service. This is a series of learning programs/exercises.

Chicago Historical Society and Northwestern University. The Dramas of Haymarket.

Prosperity and Thrift: Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy

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This exhibit assembles a wide assortment of materials from the 1920s, items loosely related to the prosperity of the Coolidge years and the rise of a mass consumer economy. The collection includes more than 400 documents, images, and audio and video clips on subjects ranging from automobiles, consumer goods, department stores, families, Motion Picture News, and the National Negro Business League, to politics.

An introductory essay provides valuable background information on the Coolidge administration with additional insight on the social and cultural context of the era. An alphabetized guide to people, organizations, and topics includes definitions and brief descriptions. This sort of material has not been widely available, and this collection is extremely valuable as a resource on the development of mass consumption.

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection

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This is one of the richest collections of anti-slavery and Civil War materials in the world. Reverend Samuel J. May, an American abolitionist, donated his collection of anti-slavery materials to the Cornell Library in 1870. Following May's lead, other abolitionists in the U.S. and Great Britain contributed materials. The collection now consists of more than 10,000 pamphlets, leaflets, broadsides, local anti-slavery society newsletters, sermons, essays, and arguments for and against slavery. Materials date from 1704 to 1942 and cover slavery in the United States and the West Indies, the slave trade, and emancipation. More than 300,000 pages are available for full-text searching. Accompanying the documents are eight links to other collections.