Museum of the Moving Image [NY]

Description

The Museum advances the public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. It does so by collecting, preserving, and providing access to moving-image related artifacts; screening significant films and other moving-image works; presenting exhibitions of artifacts, artworks, and interactive experiences; and offering educational and interpretive programs to students, teachers, and the general public.

The museum offers exhibits, tours, film screenings, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Will Rogers State Historic Park [CA]

Description

In the early 1930s, Will Rogers was the most popular and highest paid actor in Hollywood. From his start in vaudeville theater with a trick roping act, he rose to worldwide fame as a columnist, philosopher, radio personality, and movie star. During the 1920s, he bought land in Santa Monica, where he developed a ranch. Eventually, the Rogers's owned 186 acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in what is now known as Pacific Palisades. The ranch became the place where Will Rogers could relax with his family and friends, pursuing his favorite pastimes of riding and roping. At his untimely death in a plane crash in 1935, Will Rogers's ranch consisted of a 31-room ranch house, a stable, corrals, riding ring, roping arena, polo field, golf course, and hiking trails. When his widow, Betty, died in 1944, the ranch became a state park.

The park offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and educational and recreational events.

Railtown 1897 State Historic Park [CA]

Description

Located in Jamestown, in the heart of California's Gold Country about 100 miles southeast of Sacramento, Railtown 1897 State Historic Park is home to the Historic Jamestown Shops and Roundhouse—an intact and still-functioning steam locomotive repair and maintenance facility, portions of which date back to 1897. This one-of-a-kind attraction combines industrial heritage and railroad history with the lore of Hollywood’s film industry. The Railtown 1897 Interpretive Center and the authentic roundhouse are among the Park's unique year-round offerings.

A second, individual website for the park can be found here.

The park offers train rides, exhibits, tours, and educational and recreational events.

Theatre Historical Society of America and American Movie Palace Museum

Description

THSA is the only organization in the U.S. which exclusively records and preserves the rich architectural, cultural and social history of America's theatres. Through its collections and publications, THSA makes available information on more than 15,000 theatres, primarily in the United States, and encourages further research in these areas. The Society also operates the American Theatre Architecture Archives and the American Movie Palace Museum. The Archives contain an extensive collection of photographs, slides, negatives, books, blueprints, clippings, videos, printed programs, and other material on historic theatres, primarily in the U.S. The Museum features exhibits of photographs, artworks, antiques, artifacts, and other memorabilia relating primarily to the "golden age of the movie palace."

The society offers annual tours; the archives offer research access; and the museum offers exhibits and tours.

The Conspirator in the Classroom

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Today, the 146th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s death, a new historical feature film, The Conspirator, opens.

It is interesting timing for another reason as well. The Conspirator is the first major motion picture to open during the Civil War sesquicentennial and yet it begins with one of the war’s closing chapters: the assassination of President Lincoln. It quickly, however, takes you beyond the events of the assassination and into a less well-known aspect of post-Civil War history.

Directed by Robert Redford, the film focuses on the relationship between the only woman accused in the assassination conspiracy, Mary Surratt, (played by Robin Wright) and her defense attorney, Frederick Aiken (played by James McAvoy). Aiken, a Union war hero, at first does not want to have anything to do with the defense of Surratt. In turn, Surratt does not want to do anything to possibly implicate her son who flees the country after the assassination and is considered a suspect.

Aiken eventually decides that Surratt deserves a fair trial and it is through Aiken that we as an audience wrestle with the central question of the film: Was Mary Surratt complicit in the Lincoln assassination? Like a good teacher, the movie leaves you to decide this for yourself.

Teaching Resources

In conjunction with the film, the producers of The Conspirator developed an Educators’ Page with links to a downloadable Educational Resource Guide (41 pages) and movie poster. Free registration is required.

The guide offers three lessons: Women and the Civil War, Impact of Presidential Assassinations, and Right to a Fair Trial, all geared toward students ages 13 and older.

Classroom Connections

If you are looking for additional ways to use interest in The Conspirator in your classroom, Teachinghistory.org can point you in some good directions.

Let’s start with the big question: What do students learn when watching historical feature films? In this study from the University of British Columbia, researchers found that students often empathize more strongly with the past after seeing a historical film, but they also have difficulty analyzing the film’s historical accuracy. So it is important to provide students with the background knowledge they need in order to analyze a film’s historical accuracy.

Here are a few resources found on Teachinghistory.org related to the Lincoln assassination:

  • For a gripping retelling of the Lincoln assassination, listen to this NPR podcast at Fords’ Theatre with James Swanson, NY Times best-selling author of Manhunt.
  • Find answers to the question of why John Wilkes Booth wanted to assassinate the president in this Ask a Historian Q&A.
  • In another Ask a Historian, explore the question of whether President Lincoln had premonitions of his own death.
  • For information about Mary Surratt, visit the Surratt House Museum.
  • For younger students, this review of the Gilder Lehrman Institute lesson, What Events Led to the Lincoln Assassination?, is suitable for grades 4 and 5.
  • The Chicago Historical Society produced an interesting online exhibit, Wet with Blood, that invites you to join historians and scientists to look at the artifacts related to the Lincoln assassination.
  • Looking for primary source materials related directly to the conspirators’ trial and execution? The Daniel Weinberg Collection at the Indiana Historical Society has over 90 items related to the assassination conspiracy, including the handwritten execution order.

For other resources beyond Teachinghistory.org, the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law offers the Trial of the Lincoln Assassination Conspirators that includes images, newspaper articles, and excerpts from the trial transcripts. Your students can compare the primary source material related to the trial to the movie’s version of events.

The Library of Congress’ Teaching with Lincoln has a section of materials related to the assassination, which includes resources for teachers, resources for students, and primary sources.

Films offer a great way to introduce young people to the stories of history and with the right teaching tools they can help engage students in historical inquiry. Try incorporating a few ideas in your next lesson and let us know what works!

Classroom Glory

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Historical accuracy or fiction? Decide if these film moments are factual.

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Film’s dynamic narratives and living characters draw students in—but are they useful teaching tools? The film, "Glory," frequently shown in classrooms, tells the story of the 54th Massachusetts, a famous African American regiment in the Civil War. Decide whether the following “truths” suggested by the film are true or false.

Quiz Answer

1. The 54th, led by Robert Gould Shaw, son of prominent (white) abolitionists, consisted largely of former slaves. False.

Glory leads viewers to believe that most (though not all) of the men who served under Shaw (pictured here) were former slaves. Although this conceit adds to the impact of the film—making the 54th's struggle for recognition and an equal place in the war a mirror of the general African American struggle for freedom and equality—it veers far from historical fact. Most of the men who volunteered for the 54th were born freemen from middle-class backgrounds. In fact, two soldiers in the 54th were sons of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

2. The unsuccessful but heroic attack on Fort Wagner, SC, in which the Confederates killed or captured approximately 50% of the regiment, was the last battle in which the 54th served. False.

Glory ends with the 54th's attack on Fort Wagner, and the losses its men suffered. This gives the impression that the regiment dissolved after the Fort Wagner assault. In reality, the 54th went on to fight in several more battles and skirmishes, including the Battle of Olustee (in Florida) the Battle of Honey Hill (in South Carolina), and the Battle of Boykin's Mill (also in South Carolina).

3. The bravery of the 54th at Fort Wagner inspired Congress to authorize raising other African American troops for the Union army. False.

The ending caption in Glory—"As word of their bravery spread, Congress at last authorized the raising of black troops throughout the Union"—is inaccurate. According to historian James M. McPherson, Congress had authorized the mustering of further African American troops "months earlier."

Further, though it might be easy to believe otherwise while watching the film, the 54th was not the first African American regiment—the U.S. government began enlisting African Americans as early as 1862, almost a year before the 54th's formation in March 1863.

4. A member of the regiment was flogged for desertion, in keeping with standard military punishments at the time. False.

One of the most often described moments in the film, when former slave Trip reveals his scarred back before receiving a flogging for desertion, is unlikely to have ever happened in life. Leaving aside the character's fictional nature (like many of Glory's characters, except Shaw, Trip was created for the film), a soldier would not have been flogged as punishment in 1863—according to historian Joseph T. Glatthar, flogging was outlawed in the U.S. military in 1861.

For more information

Do its historical inaccuracies make Glory (and other historical films) inappropriate for the U.S. history classroom? No, say many historians and educational experts—the trick lies in making students aware that films manipulate historical facts and create new "facts" in order to tell dramatic stories, convey themes, and trigger emotions. Educators who use films in the classroom must use them as more than just compelling emotional "hooks" into a time period; they must teach students to ask questions about the accuracy of what they see, and about why filmmakers have chosen to either stick to or stray from the facts in their stories.

According to a Washington University study, educators must warn students of a film's specific historical inaccuracies prior to showing the film. A number of articles examine Glory and point out its accuracies and inaccuracies in detail. In "The Burden of Historical Representation: Race, Freedom, and 'Educational' Hollywood Film" (Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 36.1 [2006] 26-35), professors and former social studies teachers Jeremy D. Stoddard and Alan S. Marcus look at the messages conveyed by filmmakers' choices in both Glory and the film Amistad (requires JSTOR or MUSE access). Daniel A. Nathan discusses his experiences using Glory in the classroom in "The Massachusetts 54th on Film: Teaching Glory" (OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 16, No. 4, Film and History [Summer, 2002] pp. 38-42); and Joseph T. Glatthar goes point by point through the film's historical inaccuracies in "Glory, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, and Black Soldiers in the Civil War" (The History Teacher, Vol. 24, No. 4 [Aug., 1991], pp. 475-485) (require JSTOR or MUSE access).

For further thoughts and guidelines on productively introducing historical films into the classroom, try Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (Mark C. Carnes, ed., New York: Henry Holt, 1996). Past Imperfect looks at the historical accuracy (or inaccuracy) of over 60 films, including Glory, Apollo 13, Malcolm X, JFK, All the President's Men, and other films on U.S. figures and events. Another historian and former social studies teacher, Scott Alan Metzger, reviews steps of analysis that he believes students should be guided through in approaching films in "Pedagogy and the Historical Feature Film: Toward Historical Literacy" (Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies 37.2 [2007] 67-75) (requires JSTOR or MUSE access).

You might also read the Clearinghouse's Research Brief What Do Students Learn from Historical Feature Films?, in which historian and professor Peter Seixas considers ways to get students questioning their initial, emotional reactions to films.

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Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in the Movies

Description

"Historians Susan Fernandez and Robert Ingalls highlight the central plots, environmental settings, and characters in movies with Florida themes using film clips, stills, and publicity posters. They show how depictions of Florida have changed in more than 300 films over the last century."

Contact name
Coppola, Ann
Sponsoring Organization
Friends of the Hudson Library
Phone number
1 727-861-3040
Target Audience
General Public
Start Date
Duration
One hour
Website
http://www.flahum.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Events.Details&ID=f13f4f89-23dc-4e62…

Topics in American History and Government: Westerns

Description

No specifics available.

Contact email
info@TeachingAmericanHistory.org
Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Teachingamericanhistory.org
Phone number
419-289-5411
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
Free; $500 stipend
Course Credit
Teachers may choose to receive two hours of Master's degree credit from Ashland University. This credit can be used toward the new Master of American History and Government offered by Ashland University or may be transfered to another institution. The two credits will cost $468.
Duration
Six days
End Date
Website
http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/institutes/2009/660B.html
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