Primary Source Spotlight: Race Riots/Protests

Primary Source Spotlight: Race Riots/Protests

Wilmington, North Carolina 1898 New York City 1900 Atlanta, Georgia 1906 Springfield, Illinois 1908 East St. Louis, Illinois 1917 Chicago 1919 U.S. 1919 Ocoee, Florida 1920 Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921 Rosewood, Florida 1923 Harlem, New York 1935 & 1943 & 1964 Mississippi 1962 Watts, Los Angeles 1965 Detroit, Michigan 1967 Washington D.C. 1968 Los Angeles -Rodney…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Does the Camera Ever Lie?

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Does the Camera Ever Lie?

Zoom into a more detailed image of this newspaper page from 1901. Read only the headline and image captions. Then carefully review the images and make an educated guess about what the article will discuss. Now read the article. How does it answer the question posed in the title? What evidence is provided to support this…

Integrating Tech: Using Skitch & Evernote to Analyze Images

Integrating Tech: Using Skitch & Evernote to Analyze Images

This is a guest post from Kerry Gallagher, a Technology Integration Specialist at St. John’s Prep, a 1:1 iPad school serving grades 6-12, and former middle and high school history teacher. We learn about the lives of our friends partly through the images they share with us on social media platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and…

Today in History: Spanish Civil War

Today in History: Spanish Civil War

Today in History–July 17–the Library of Congress features the Spanish Civil War, which began on this date in 1936. Often considered a precursor to World War II, the military contest between left-wing forces and fascists attracted international involvement on both sides. The war lasted nearly three years and ended when  Nationalist troops led by Francisco Franco overcame Republic forces and…

Today in History: Samuel H. Gottscho and William H. Schleisner

Today in History: Samuel H. Gottscho and William H. Schleisner

  Today in History–June 21–the Library of Congress features Samuel H. Gottscho and William H. Schleisner. On this date in 1934, Samuel Herman Gottscho snapped a photograph of the north facade of the Nebraska state capitol in Lincoln. A photography enthusiast, Gottscho was a traveling salesman for 23 year before becoming a professional photographer in 1925 at the age…

Brady, the photographer, returned from Bull Run

Today in History: Mathew Brady

Today in History–February 27–the Library of Congress features Mathew Brady who photographed presidential hopeful Abraham Lincoln before a speech on this day in 1860. At successful studio photographer, Brady set out to document the people, places and events of the Civil War. The historical impact of the endeavor is priceless but at the time, left him penniless. Find out…

Migrant agricultural worker's family.

Learning from the Source: Zooming into Documentary Photography

Zoom into the picture above and you will see a face recognizable to many. The mother in the photo is Florence Thompson, most famously known as the migrant mother. This photograph was one in a series taken in 1936 by Resettlement Administration photographer Dorothea Lange. In this primary source lesson, students will examine photographs individually…

Walker Evans, profile, hand up to face

Today in History: Walker Evans

Today in History–July 16–the Library of Congress features photojournalist Walker Evans. On this date in 1936 Evans took a leave of absence from from the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to accept a summer assignment with Fortune magazine. Evans and writer James McGee  worked together to document the lives of sharecropper families in Alabama, which would eventually be published in the book, Let…

Today in History: Coca-Cola

Today in History: Coca-Cola

Today in History–May 8–the Library of Congress features the soft drink Coca-cola, first sold  on this day in 1886 at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.  This carbonated beverage soon became a favorite in the United States; the company sales were around 100 million by the late 1890s. Learn more about the history of this iconic soda by visiting…

Lange photographing Japanese-American evacuees

Today in History: Dorothea Lange

Today in History–October 11–the Library of Congress features photographer Dorothea Lange, who died on this day in 1965. Best known for her “Migrant Mother” photo, Lange began her career as a studio photographer. During the Depression she took her camera to the street, photographing the homeless. These images led to her employment with the federal Resettlement Administration (RA),…