It seems appropriate that a day in which we fool people with (hopefully) funny stories and tricks has no substantiated history. There are many ideas that include it starting in Roman times, but then those wacky Renaissance try to take credit. Chaucer, a little earlier, may have included a day of foolery in his Nun's Tale, but Ben Franklin is often cited as bringing the event to the U.S.
Share this history with your students from the LIbrary of Congress: http:// https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/03/april-fools/ and then dive into some information literacy lessons using some of the hoaxes below. They make great QFT Q-focus prompts to get students out of their seats to find out if they were true...and how they were perceived during their time. Then bring it forward with some clips from today's news. How can we check to make sure we're not being fooled ourselves? Here's one strategy: the SIFT Method for evaluating information in a digital world. I like this infographic, but for more info from the creator of the method himself, Mike Caulfield check out his blog: https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/
-want some nerdy silliness? Check out the GPOs top 10 list of funny Federal titles. Seriously…they will capture attention: Do Mandrakes Really Scream? Controlling Vampire Bats…and our favorite: Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic. Visit https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2014/04/01/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-a-top-ten-list-of-funny-federal-titles/ to find out more and share info about government publications of all kinds. A teacherm might think that GPO publications have little relevance in the classroom - but they offer some great insights into the concerns and suggested solutions for a variety of daily situations.
Historic U.K. highlights some of the UKs hoax history that may be attributed to April Fools day. This ticket could be purchased to attend the infamous "washing of the lions" at the Tower of London. Unfortunately, no lions were present for this event (that didn't happen).
So... in this age of all the dis- and mis- information, let's look at a couple of hoax sites that show how some hoaxes capture the imaginations of far too many people, far too easily. Historical hoaxes can be a great entre into the discussion on sourcing information and other information literacy topicsl. Here is something to jumpstart your thinking:
1. Victorian culture was obsessed with death. Photographer William H. Mummler was well known for his photos of deceased loved ones hovering lovingly next to his client's image. 
Collected by the Getty Museum, you can see them here: https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/person/104VG5. Learn more about this story- and others at National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/most-infamous-scams-hoaxes
2.Mencken's Bathtub Hoax - designed to show the newspaper reading public's gullibility - in 1917 - purported to describe the history of the bathtub. This is one hoax truly designed to put one over on the readership. There are definitely lessons there for us today. Check out the Museum of Hoaxes for more.
3. Here are some of the top 100 April Fools Day Hoaxes I especially like the Spaghetti Tree Harvest. Your students will love this investigation... give it a shot!
After watching a series of “This Old House”, I got to wondering how those folks learned about their trade’s history enough to know about lead pipes, old chimney flues, and other construction that occurred in times past. Cleaning up and repairing, or modernizing an old house requires a specific skill set (craft) and knowledge of how things were accomplished in times past (history). Navigating the laws, as well as the physical laws that physics, geology, geography and other constraints involves complex thinking and a 'big picture' skill.
One way to encourage and engage our students in CTE classes, or those in history or other classes assigned to complete “passion projects” or reports is with primary sources. Here is a Starter Pack list of primary source sites for four of the many trade services. There are links to other services throughout this Guide. Check for: culture, fashion, CTE, and other guides.
Be sure to email if you’d like a roundup of your trade service added to this Guide.
PLUMBING
https://www.indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/17ffa08ed5fd6ea57b500a036807b08a.pdf
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_13.html
https://www.sewerhistory.org/grfx/wh_era/roman1.htm
https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Throne-of-Sir-John-Harrington/
add in toilet paper: https://www.history.com/news/toilet-paper-hygiene-ancient-rome-china
https://www.homeadvisor.com/r/history-of-plumbing/
https://inspectapedia.com/electric/Old_Electrical_Wiring.php
ELECTRICITY
https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/life_08.html
https://inspectapedia.com/electric/Old_Electrical_Wiring.php
CARPENTRY
Documents of the amateur woodworking movement: http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/documents.htm
Library of Congress book: Children’s Library of Work and Play: https://www.loc.gov/item/11018184/
From Project Gutenberg, here is a book called: “Woodworking Tools 1600 – 1900 by Peter C. Welsh. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/27238/27238-h/27238-h.htm
A History of Woodworking by Raymond McInnis: http://www.woodworkinghistory.com/Ch2-origins-of-tools-medieval.htm a website dedicated to the history of woodworking in Britain.
History of Unions: From the University of Washington: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/history-labor/primary
For several years I helped our local ballet group put on the Winter performance of the Nutcracker. One year an adult acquaintance of mine danced in the opening party scene where the parents and children, dressed to the nines, meet and greet each other as the curtains open. Dressed in full Victorian costume, this friend remarked to me how much her beautiful dress looked just like the southern belle pictures she’d seen growing up in the South. As we talked I reminded her that these were the same years – where the height of Victorian England and our own South’s plantation world converged. It hadn’t occurred to her that these two time periods were parallel. Thinking about this later, as a teacher, I got to wondering how many things we miss when we are taught events as though they are isolated by geography. For example, consider how our world view changes when we learn that in the 1770s while James Cook was hanging about in the Pacific, the first water-powered mill was built in England, and the colonies in North America were rebelling and creating a new nation. In most of our instruction, we learn about “explorers”, then “builders of the Industrial Revolution”, and then “how our nation was created”. This segregation of ideas leads us to think that each event happened in its own time and space rather than connected simultaneously.
Here’s a thought: what if we created a history class that leveraged primary sources in a way that started a discussion, opened perspectives, and helped students realize that world events stair-stepped through history alongside each other? Time-lining the events we study in U.S. history alongside other world events allows students to realize that all these things are intertwined. When the butterfly flaps its wings in Asia, might things happen in Europe? How many patterns can we see when we look at the big picture? It need not take us away from the course syllabus of U.S. History. In fact, it can add the depth needed to truly understand events and how today’s world is a result of those events. It can be as easy as keeping a low-key world events timeline around the room where students take a few moments every week to add in events they discover from quick encyclopedia research alongside the news of the day. Or, it can be a part of more extensive work where groups of students keep track of an assigned area to bring everyone else up to speed. Each of those groups could, at any given time, give a brief instructional moment about what was happening at that time. When the U.S. was gearing up for a civil war in the 1860s what was happening in Europe or Asia or Africa? It needn’t be the whole world, just one or a few counties representing a larger area.
While many students are assigned ‘country reports’ or other single subject assignments that tend to regurgitate facts, there are many, many inquiry and creative activities that can teach country information through a world-centric perspective and help students place point of view alongside those facts and then critically figure out (analyze) why things happened the way they happened. If nothing else, it’s a window into someone else’s perspective; something to give us pause before we jump right in with our own judgment and solutions.
<quick aside here: Have you played Chrono Quest? This online game asks participants to put historical events in chronological order - have your students compete for prizes - or just the satisfaction of winning. It could make a great first-five-minute activity as they get settled into class This could be a fun way to experience events in a timeline and reinforces all those connections made each day.>
Following is a Starter Pack list that highlights a couple of sites that may have images or documents about topics often taught in U.S. classrooms. Included at the end of this post are some National Archives links that may interest your explorations. Some have English language access, others don’t. Regardless, they all have photos and other media-related objects that can be used to jumpstart conversations or start a unit.
Start here and then explore further. Check out the World History page in this guide for more – hint: definitely look at the Internet sourcebooks>
World Digital Library: https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-digital-library/about-this-collection/
(suggestion: try this portal after reviewing the home page: https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0018836/ ).
This collection gathered from partnering organizations, translated descriptive information (metadata) to each item collected into English and 6 other languages. Thousands of items were digitized and made available through this portal for researchers to use.
EXAMPLE:
Italian World war I poster (https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670897/ )
U.S. world war 1 poster. (https://www.loc.gov/item/96507165/ )
Irish world war 1 poster (https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.55686)
Germany: fear of Russian Revolution (https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcwdl.wdl_17981/
The British Library
This site offers many topics filled with primary sources. World War I includes over 50 articles written by experts, plus images on topics such as the daily life of soldiers, strategies of the war, and civilian life. Women’s rights and literature are other topics one can discover. Check out their online learning portals for many resources for classrooms.
Definitely check out the Sound Collections. The “home sounds or “If Homes had Ears” offers a unique set of stories about all those sounds that fill our homes.. from yesteryear to recent times. It is SO fun!
This online source for European History offers many, many resources from Prehistoric times to modern history. Sourced from a variety of museums, universities, and other archives, these can be used in a variety of classroom settings.
Some International National Archive Sites to visit:
The National Archives of Australia.
The National Archives' collection contains records about key events and decisions that have shaped Australian history and includes more than 40 million items focusing on Government records from Federation in 1901 to today. Their Research guides https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/research-guides might be a great place to start research on all things Australian.
Germany: Das Bundesarchiv: or Search Portal
This site is in English, but the photo and manuscript descriptions are in German. I started at Das Bundesarchiv first to see what might pique my interest and found some images that were interesting enough to dig deeper. The images were from a wide range of dates 1940s – 1980s. A simple search on the autobahn brought up a wide range of possible topics.
Here are some International National Archive sites to investigate.
Bolivia: http://www.sucrelife.com/national-archives-and:library-of-bolivia/
France: http://www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/
Haiti: http://archivesnationales.gouv.ht/fr/index.php
India: http://nationalarchives.nic.in/
Iran:http://old.nlal.ir/Default.aspx?tabid=471
Ireland: http://old.nlal.ir/Default.aspx?tabid=471http://www.nationalarchives.ie/
Japan: http://www.archives.go.jp/english/
Mexico: http://www.gob.mx/agn
Russian Archives: http://www.russianarchives.com/
South Africa: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/
and our good friends at Wikipedia offer a complete list also.
In a fact-checking post by Alex Kasprak on October 18, 2016, Snopes answered the question: “Did a 1912 Newspaper Article Predict Global Warming?” with a resounding "yes".
The article, found in the National Library of New Zealand was first published in August 1914 and it points to earlier articles starting with a Popular Mechanics issue in 1912 titled: “Remarkable weather of 1911”. In this article, a year of violent weather is examined and it is explained just how the change in weather can be directly traced to fossil fuel use.
If this sounds familiar, it should. As we look ahead to Fall, maybe we can take a look at using primary sources such as these to help think through some solutions to our current weather crisis. Depending on the subject of the class or unit, as well as the age of students, there are many resources to use and strategies with which to help students become informed and then activated to participate.
The Snopes article moves forward in time to mention Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius who, in 1896 published a paper describing a calculation of how the different gases are trapped in the atmosphere. It is from him that we find the term ‘greenhouse gases’. While the more scientific among us can use these sources from Snopes as background to scientific studies, others can pull important ideas out from them to use as research prompts to topics such as:
-weather patterns and climate change
-plastics and how they’re made (and how they don’t degrade).
-the social effect of violent weather
-solutions that kids can use to create cultural shifts in how we handle waste
-how local history and local culture intersect
-how “think global, act local” works.
Check out these resources for teaching – most can be adapted to your classroom age, subject, skill, and content goals with just a few tweaks.
1. Not specifically a primary source, this timeline from PBS - a wonderful animated overview of the history of climate change - can set the stage for further discussions. It not only covers science…but also the history and economics. Use this as excellent content with which to teach graphing!
2. Use photographs to tell a story: American Environmental Photographs from 1891-1936, housed at the University of Chicago Library. Have students pick a location and then find the photographs over time. These are interesting photographs as they are mostly from excursions or field trips, but looked at as a group, they might bring up some curious ideas about nature - and how people relaxed in it - over time.
3. The Library of Congress blog post by Tom Bober, and the weather forecasting primary source set at the Library of Congress offers many images to be downloaded and used as Q-focus items, write-arounds, (here's one version) and other primary source strategies. Bober also offers ideas on using data.
4. Let’s take a look at the National Weather Service history with this timeline. Then head to Past Weather. Locate your item of study and click on the map. There you’ll have choices for dates to study, temperature graphs, climatology, and more. Have students check out their local climate and compare it to other places to discover differences, challenges, etc.
5. Here are some resources that might be of interest to all grades from NASA: 
b. Was this the first debate about climate change? Thomas Jefferson and Noah Webster. The Smithsonian describes the debate. Here are some resources to go with it from the Jeffersons Observation Records: 
and here’s an image from those records for younger students from Monticello Classroom:
c. How the AD Council helped change behavior: Here are some of the classic ads that helped change the way Americans behave from avoiding wildfires to recycling and picking up litter. What is the effect of advertising on our behavior and can we use it today to make a change? What would that look like? What kinds of ad would work today? Where, in our social media world might these be placed to be effective? What does effective look like? 
What if we had our students create their own primary source by documenting the weather over the entire school year? By March, they could compare their log with those from the weather service or other local resources.
Whether we focus on the weather, natural disruptions, fossil fuels, plastic and other recycling issues, it is important that we help students recognize that humans make up only a part of this earth and it is time for us to take note of how we are taking care of it; and maybe do better.
What exciting times we live in now. Even as our own planet takes a deep dive into climate change, pandemics, impending cicada invasions, we still dream of the future of space travel. It may be that some of us are hoping for a way to cure our earthly ills by removing ourselves to other planets, while others hope to gain knowledge that we might use to inform our lives right here. No matter the view, using primary sources to unravel the history – and the science – behind our success in reaching the stars and planets can be an exciting investigation that reaches deep for all kinds of student interest. Start with these two images. Use one as a Q-focus, then slide in the other- what kinds of questions come up for your students? Prioritize the most compelling and interesting questions for further study and then spend some time with the resources below. By the time you're done with these... your students will have found many more to drive their personal interest towards investigations. Seriously, no matter what your student is interested in- space travel probably impacted it.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html
Here are some primary source sites to consider using for thinking about space and space travel then and now. Using the Space Race, Moon landing, Space Exploration or other key concepts, help students investigate some of the many primary sources that can lead to absolutely interesting connections to today, as well as providing some context to their research of the times. These topics can be used in so many classes, in so many ways including using the social studies venues of Political, Economic, Cultural, Social perspectives to think about space travel. Here are just a few - barely scratching the surface of what might be available to explore. Topics that these images can cover can be found in science (how do they do that? What technology is needed to make this happen? What is it like in space?); social science (what is the geography of different planets, why do we continue to go into space?). Journalism classes can check out the newspaper accounts (chroniclingamerica.loc.gov).
Think about images and sound recordings as Q-focus items for creating research questions – or just to jumpstart some of that excitement that “going to the moon” can create.
Imagine the questions your students could think of as they watch this video of President Nixon talking to the astronauts on the moon.
https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/events/centennials/nixon/exhibit/nixon-online-exhibit-calls.html
Then head over to the Eisenhower library for more resources on early space adventures.
https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/research/online-documents/sputnik/10-5-58.pdf
Youth Science Month
This document demonstrates the realization amongst adults that in order to compete with other nations (especially Russia), our youth need to be educated- especially in science. How does this realization also play out today? Do students today feel the adult push for science that students in the 1950’s and ‘60’s did? How did this push for science play out into activities that we still use today? I love how this article could provide any number of inquiries.
A particularly poignant document is the Safire Memo.
According to the National Archives, one of their most requested documents concern what was called the "Safire Memo": Chief of Staff William Safire was tasked to write the memo that could have been President Nixon’s speech should the Apollo mission fail, and the astronauts not return. Luckily, it was never needed, but it shows how important it is to think about the ramifications of all actions.
Congratulations to Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin were sent to the USSR from President Kennedy. While the telegram expresses the optimism of the successful flight, send students deeper into the papers within this folder housed at the Kennedy Library to see how the space race affected national and international policies; securing the stage for the “Cold War” that existed between nations.
Here is an question-answering activity created by the library based on these materials.
The Digital Public Library of America shares images and other primary source content about the space race: consider using an image like this without the explanatory caption included here, as a Q-focus . After the students have completed their question list – slide in the caption. What other questions might we now ask? Then take a look at the President’s telegram (above) as well as Eisenhower’s push for science education after Sputnik.
And don’t forget the women behind the scenes whose work was essential to the success of the space race. National Geographic offers an historical look-back with images:
Here’s a list of NASA women in space and some statistics. Hand out some of these names for students to explore and then return to class and share: https://history.nasa.gov/women.html. Have students use the scientist's name and then .gov to search in government resources like this: <Susan Helms site:.gov>.
This image of a patent for an artificial limb was granted in 1865. Why might this be an important invention for its time? What kind of need does this meet and how many people might have need of an artificial leg? Might a war have something to do with it?
The drawings that make up the core of the material needed in order to obtain a patent can be used in a variety of classes. From science: how are inventions made; what kinds of thinking goes into creating an object that will be used in a new and different way to art: how do drawings help explain things, how are graphics used to understand the workings of objects and history: how did this patent, and its subsequent use change the world?
I live in a town where it was a patent that changed the course of the town’s economy for years. The invention of a chicken incubator by Lyman Byce and his partners in 1913 allowed family chicken ranchers to create a regulated environment in which to commercially raise chickens – and their subsequent eggs – for sale in San Francisco and other cities across the State (and ultimately the nation). A new industry was created and businesses grew up to support the growing number of farmers including feed suppliers, crate builders and more. Many towns can point to local inventions that helped to create jobs and livelihoods for generations to come.
Inventions are important topics for history, science, and sociology and studying them can bring up interesting discussions that can include not only their historical importance, but how it is that we learn from each other.
But they are complicated and sometimes obscure. The folks at Docs Teach have created a variety of lessons for all grades to teach different skills through patent exploration.
The one that caught my eye right away was this patent:
(click on image to link to viewable copy)
It is, as it turns out, the precursor to the board game Monopoly. It was created by Lizzie Magie patented on January 5, 1904. Docs Teach lesson plans include using this document to teach grades 3-6 students document analysis skills. Close looking, question building, and critically thinking through ideas of what this could be, are all a part of the lesson.
Not knowing anything about Lizzie Magie, a little look/see brought me to a Smithsonian magazine article on the story of Monopoly, the game. As far too often happens, a man not only took credit for inventing the game in the 1930’s, he got rich selling the idea, whilst in reality the idea originated with this patented idea by Lizzie Magie as noted above, in 1904. She was a feminist, artist, writer and an inveterate inventor and created her game to teach about the disparities in income using her game.
Here is an example of the many uses that patents can provide to jumpstart research: this woman was ahead of her time, and not afraid to create and invent; and yet, she ended without credit nor riches. Her story is compelling and can easily engage todays students.
Other patent images here can be used with the lessons as attached or would make excellent an Q-focus for the QFT . You can use them to jumpstart research projects for science, art, graphic design, invention, biography and more. Use the Circle of Viewpoints to ask: whom does this invention help?
One not in this collection, but definitely fun is Michael Jackson’s patent:
(Image fromLemelson Center a Smithsonian Institution)
As to the process for obtaining a patent, the need to do so, and repercussions for violating patent law, take students to the U.S. Patent Office. Here you will find activities that explain the process and includes activities that can help students understand the process. One fun activity they share is challenging students to recreate the inventions of expired patents. Learn about the ‘cycle of invention’ and understand the differences between a patent, trademark and copyright – all important to know!
Leave it to Smithsonian to open up the doors yet again to place history into a bigger picture and then bring home the humanity to be found there. The article from the November 2015 Smithsonian magazine titled: Slavery’s Trail of Tears by Edward Ball <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/slavery-trail-of-tears-180956968/> did just that: placed a history I thought I knew well and gave it a fuller, richer context forcing me to re-examine that which I thought I knew. I have been on a much-needed journey into the past to understand what slavery does to people, how our history and geography intertwine, and how the culture and historical perspective that we’ve carried with us for the past 200 years can be brought to light through primary sources.
It was the word - coffle - that caught my eye. I had never heard it before, but it was a well known word in its time as slave traders captured or purchased groups - coffles - of enslaved people with the express purpose of transporting the entire group from one place to another.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a06246/
A slave-coffle passing the Capitol
While ‘coffle’ was once a common word, especially if one lived anywhere between Virginia and Mississippi where thousands of enslaved people were gathered up for forced movement, it has disappeared like so much of the vocabulary of slavery; all of which helped to sanitize the history and make it seem far less horrific than it actually was. The story is now being re-told using the language of its time and allowing us and our students the opportunity to understand the implications of history and how it is carried forward today.
And while we may have heard about the slave ships, what we may not have paid attention to is that the importation of human chattel was outlawed by 1820’s. According to the National Archives: in “1807, Congress outlawed the African slave trade effective on January 1, 1808 (2 Stat. 426), and in 1820 declared it to be piracy punishable by death (3 Stat. 600-601)”.
This then, forced slave dealers and traders to turn to, and create a domestic “market” in forced labor. Why is this important? Because this is where we see that this movement of enslaved peoples created the south as we know it today.
The Smithsonian story highlights the men who organized and led this forced resettlement of enslaved peoples into a new southern geography. Their arrival in New Orleans and surrounding states set the stage for the plantation economy of the “cotton south” as it was changing from the “tobacco south”. This is where we can begin to see the development of the ‘deep south’ southern state culture and geography; as well as the creation of the cultural story that has come down to us in our textbooks, stories, music, and drama.
Franklin and Arnfield was a well-known slave trade Company that knew how to sell and then organize their purchases into grouping to await their relocation. They outfitted each enslaved person with two suits (by Brooks Brothers BTW) ( p.77) and then tethered them to each other by chains or rope with women carrying children along the way. One man, James Franklin, a slave dealer with the company in Virginia organized a “good lot for walking” – a coffle - to deliver from Virginia to Mississippi. He wandered the east coast looking for slave owners who were willing to sell their enslaved people. Many would do so because of varying reasons, mostly centering on the large amount of money they could get for the sale. Once the coffle arrived in New Orleans, buyers would come from everywhere to make their purchases. They broke up families, sold about 25,000 people and “made the most money”.
While we often teach in our classrooms, about the native American Trail of Tears, this forced march identified by the Smithsonian as Slavery’s Trail of Tears was a “1,000 mile long river of people, all of them black reaching from Virginia to Louisiana.” Gathered into slave pens, these people were driven across the country and separated from their families by sale, disease and murder. To picture the staggering numbers, this march was “about 20 times bigger of a group than the “Indian removal” campaigns “.
How can we tell this story using primary sources with our students? The Smithsonian article points to many possible avenues: museum collections, exhibitions and more as explained in the article itself, but there are many additional resources to locate and share (see below for some with which to start).
Each item here sends one off down rabbit holes of investigations and together, they bring the stories to life. Consider using the QFT at the beginning of the discussion about the history of enslavement in the U.S. with an image from any of these examples. The Library of Congress image (above) could certainly set the stage for identifying the meaning of the word ‘coffle’ and then jumping off to discover how this forced movement of enslaved peoples changed the landscape of the south. It also opens the door to discussions about how history is written, and the potential of words to create a powerful image.
1. Lumpkins Slave Jail
http://www.lumpkinsjail.org
Learn more about Mary Lumpkin here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/02/lumpkin-slave-rape-richmond-jail/
And a little more background here:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/digging-up-the-past-at-a-richmond-jail-50642859/
2. SLAVE TRAIL MAP, RICHMOND, VA
Using google maps, take a virtual walking tour of the sites highlighted in this brochure. Then ask students to dig deeper and research each area. http://www.richmondgov.com/CommissionSlaveTrail/documents/brochureRichmondCityCouncilSlaveTrailCommission.pdf
3. EXHIBITS
A. The library of Virginia in Richmond presents an exhibit called: To Be Sold: Virginia and the American Slave Trade: http://www.virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/exhibits/show/to-be-sold/what-was-the-slave-trade-/the-power-of-a-picture
This exhibit includes images, explanations and documents you could use to point students deeper into the slave trade.
B. The Historic New Orleans Collection hosts: Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade, 1808-1865. Included in this exhibition are links to the Lost Friends Database and “Freedom on the move: mapping fugitive slave ads”. I’ve written to them about the third link entitled: Mapping the Coastal Slave Trade which is currently down.
https://www.hnoc.org/exhibitions/purchased-lives-new-orleans-and-domestic-slave-trade-1808–1865
4. IMAGES
The Library of Congress offers many images for students and teachers to use: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/082_slave.html
Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-90345
7. MUSIC: "The Song of the Coffle Gang"
Here Mike Seeger performs a song generally attributed to abolitionist musicians.
https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197111/
written:
A. This is the musical transcription of the song: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22089/22089-h/music/cofflegang.pdf
B. From the Poetree collection: https://poetree.club/poems/song-of-the-coffle-gang
8. Other references that include relevant primary sources. Think about 'layering' these materials and introducing them throughout your discussions or lectures.
Blog: William Spivey (Medium,com) Nov 21, 2019: "Cof-fle: a line of animals or slaves fastened or driven along together."
NARA: Records of Enslaved Peoples and Slave Owners
Library of Congress: Slave Narratives - From the Federal Writer's Project.
Cornell University: Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
Here’s just my opinion: nobody does a better exhibit than the National Archives. And while they may have missed the mark in their Women’s Suffrage physical display https://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2020 by covering up politically based signs in the image they posted at the entrance; when they were rebuked for the action, they immediately came back and admitted their mistake in doing so. The physical sign now sits - as created - at the door to their exhibit. Heading through the doors one begins a journey back in time to the struggles for a woman's right to vote.
But that said, what I like about the NARA exhibits are their creativity, the way they dig into an off-the-beaten-track topic. They take their topics, locate interesting documents, and then tell a great story. Their online exhibits - put on by the National Archives Foundation (https://www.archivesfoundation.org/) - are excerpts from their physical exhibits. They still tell the story, and what stories they are!
Here are three that might interest you, and that can have interesting connections to the classroom (both online and in class).
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” —President Dwight D. Eisenhower ”
This is an exploration into the way that the government shapes what we eat, how we eat it and possibly, how often. Download the e-book of the documents that made up the physical exhibit and you’ll see letters, images (Frank Meyer – who knew meyer lemons were brought to the U.S. from China by this man who traveled the world discovering interesting foods?), diaries, legal documents, farm development information, and more that trace the different ways that the Government has played a large role in our food. One fun thing I discovered was that margarine was brought to the U.S. from France at the turn of the 20th century. The dairy industry lobbied heavily against it and for years it was against the law to sell. The image below shows the penalties for getting caught. The scarcity of dairy products during the war helped to alleviate the animosity of non-dairy butter, and margarine was a food staple throughout years after the war. The discovery that hydrogenated fats could be unhealthy brought many back to the butter fold.
Fast forward to today: the dairy industry is facing a similar event with nut milk. This kind of topic can easily lead to discussions that show how history is repeated, and can be used to help us come to a deeper understanding of things when we face them ourselves.
Excerpt From: National Archives Museum. “What’s Cooking, The National Archives and Records Administration, 2014. Apple Books.
https://books.apple.com/us/book/whats-cooking-uncle-sam/id943225898
Think: Investigations into the growth of U.S. agriculture, regulations, war, influence of the radio (technology), propaganda.
•The Influenza of 1918.
When I saw this one, I would never have guessed that I’d be writing this from my shelter-in-place office at home. This exhibit’s opening lines: “It is an oddity of history that the influenza epidemic of 1918 has been overlooked in the teaching of American history. Documentation of the disease is ample, as shown in the records selected from the holdings of the National Archives regional archives. Exhibiting these documents helps the epidemic take its rightful place as a major disaster in world history.”
These words are no longer true. We know only too well far more about this 1918 pandemic than we’d ever care to know. But it is instructive to look back, remember how it was handled and can be comforted by the fact that it ends. Ours will too.
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic/records-list.html
Next up:
Congress: the branch of the government tasked with making the laws that influence the way we live. These include those relating to commerce, war, money and overseeing the Executive Branch.
In this exhibit, the curator highlights 25 topics ranging from the creations of the Legislature, to the creation of the bill of Rights, to the War of 1812, Reconstruction, Votes for Women, New Deal and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Each links to a set of documents that help to explain the topic.
I wonder: what if you handed out each topic and document set, have your students ask questions about each one, research the answers to those questions and place them within a larger context? I'm betting you'd get some interesting stuff!
Exhibits of all kinds give snippits of information, place them within a larger context, and give the visitor opportunity to gain not only a sense of the larger topic, but generates questions that can spur them to further research.
Try: assigning a topic to your students. Ask them to locate documents that tell the story of their topic. Then have them arrange them into an exhibit with explanations; an overview, explanatory captions and a roundup of the impact. In their Works Cited paper students can explain via annotation the importance of each document and why they chose it. If you like, students can write a ‘process’ paper that outlines the steps, their claim, their evidence and the impact.
Share these exhibits online or via a gallery walk
When you can, visit exhibits at museums, government Agencies, libraries and parks. In the meantime, check out online exhibits - they provide excellent stories that can spur engaging inquiry questions. Send your students out on the look out for some great exhibits. Start here at the National Archives Foundation then head to:
The Library of Congress
National Gallery of Art
National Agriculture Library
National Botanical Gardens
National Portrait Gallery
Museum of Pop Culture
Grammy Museum
Autry Museum of the American West
Orlando Science Center
...ohhh... so many!
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Last curiosity chat!
I will admit that talking about trains and primary sources and lessons seems a little out of the ordinary. But that is the best way to engage kids – sharing ‘out of the box’ ideas. The every day-ness of primary sources is what makes them special. We encounter music every day, trains have been a part of our national landscape for over 100 years, automobiles, movie theaters and films, photography... all are the ‘stuff’ that rounds out our sense of what is real about life.
This post is a quick look at 3 sites to play with. Play with them. Use them as Q-focus items at the beginning of a unit- or in the middle as an engaging way to add some fun to your day. These sites can be used by students as they write reports or conduct inquiry. Send them on a scavenger hunt. Mostly, enjoy the sites for the many ways they can help your student see some of the day-to-day experiences of people in different places and time.
FASHION
The clothes we wear every day helps inform those things we can – and can’t easily – do. When women wore a corset. it was hard to breathe much less run around the block or other athletic endeavors. Fashion reflects culture with sari, burka, dresses, jeans, swimming suits making up a part of how we interact with our physical space, while creating a standard of behavior that is kept within the bounds of that dress. The “roaring 20’s” and the “swinging ‘60’s” both included major shifts in dress and fashion; both of which included gender role changes in behavior and expectations. Send your students to the timeline from the Fashion Institute of Technology:
How does fashion inform culture?
FOOD
What we eat is determined by geography, economics, and culture. Take your students back in time through the many foods:
This site covers Medieval recipes, Byzantine recipes, Elizabethan recipes; and includes discussions on feasts, as well as a typical dinner conversation in an Elizabethan household. For those who might like to try their hand at creating a medieval dish, there is a section for beginners.
Look for
Perys in Confyte (Pears in honey sauce)
Cherry Torte
Marinated Olives
Steamed Cabbage
HOUSEHOLD GADGETS
We know that today we can pull out the mixer if we want to make a cake; pop our clothes into the washing machine, and iron our clothes with an electric iron. How did we get here? How was laundry completed in the early 1800's? Rolling pins have a history? Who knew?
Check out these sites:
Have fun with your students by introducing a “gadget of the day” and let them guess its use.
Example: Place this image on the board, or project it on your whiteboard or screen:
Ideas for use:
-Keep the image up for one week, allowing students to place their guess on what this is and how it was used in a box that gets opened in class. You can read the guesses out loud and discuss them together. Give kudos to any correct answers (prizes?) and acknowledge any who tried. Chat about the creativity of answers and critical thinking involved.
-Use as a Q-focus by placing it on the board and let students follow the QFT to ask questions. Prioritize the top three questions that allow for the research that can be carried on right away in class leading to discussion of research techniques and subsequent hypotheses.
-Use at class beginning,giving students 5-10 minutes to research while you take role, etc. Have them put their answers in their resarch journal and share at the end of the week (plus they could, if they wanted, research during the week), or as quick discussion before starting class.
(one proviso: there are some broken links - check the sites in another tab using site titles).
Trains?
"The Last Spike" 1881.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Last_Spike_1869.jpg
Why not trains?
Think about it: one of the biggest stories of America is the continual drive across the continent. Walking alongside wagons, riding horses, or traveling by stagecoach moved migration west no faster than the pace of the horse or oxen; with the trek taking months. The advent of the railroad provided the means to move not only migrants, but supplies, household goods, food, and industry. With the ability of steam engines to power not just the transportation but also the means of production for a variety of business ventures, Americans were set to take over the continent.
But why trains? Using trains as a focus for an inquiry can generate questions that bounce from science (how does steam work to power engines?) to environment (does rail travel help or hinder environmental impact?) to economics (what is/was the advantage or rail travel for industry as well as the small business along the route?) to culture (what was the impact to native cultures both socially, economically and environmentally?) to the questions about the mystery and intrigue of rail travel through literature; and of course: history (what are the varying viewpoints of the social impact of rail across America?). We can touch on all the elements of the History Social Science Standards (C3) by looking at rail through varying lenses and then bringing those discoveries up to today.
Students can investigate train history from varying perspectives using the Circle of Viewpoints. Who benefits from a train line through your town? What does “benefit” mean in this context? What are the costs – economic, cultural and/or social – that accompany the train? Students taking on a particular perspective will easily find essential questions that can guide them through their inquiry.
Trains hold a fascination in our culture, from the romantic to the historic to the “how did they do that?” allure of science and discovery. There are train enthusiasts in nearly every state and train museums abound. Here are some resources that have an online presence that can be used in the classroom to create ‘big picture’ inquiry lessons covering all subject areas. Students not normally interested in these kinds of things (“trains? That’s baby stuff”) can find much to like here as they apply their own perspective and interest to the inquiry.
Fashion, social order, migration, energy, transportation, native responses and ramification to native cultures, political workings, and of course, economics are all a part of the story of the movement across the American West.
The following links are useful as starter pack sites to get everyone thinking and imagining.
To jumpstart your thinking – here’s a lesson from the New York Times Learning Network 
in which they use several primary sources to help students utilize differing perspectives.
Hathi Trust brings us the American Railroad Journal from which we can gather statistics, schedules, 
advertisements and stories.
The Railroad Picture Archives: 
allows you to search by locomotive, location, model, date and more. They have an interactive U.S. Railroad map. The images are sent in by contributors with a starting date of the year 2000. There is a section on heritage locomotives.
The Lib Guide from Christopher Newport University offers excellent resources that covers the building of railroads across the continent: This Guide is an excellent resource for information on the American West topics of all kinds.
Perfect for an inquiry in which the railroad is the focus by giving resources that place it within the larger “American West” topic.
The Library of Congress Web Guide for the Pacific Railway Act contains congressional publications from laws, bills, debates, journals of the time between 1774-1875.
Women in railroad history: Check out this primary source set.
Science! Don't forget science!!
The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association has an awesome site on the physics of steam locomotion. Dig deeper into the site for more great info.
