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Primary Sources available in many different ways

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Primary Sources available in many different ways

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Whether you are looking for a pre-packaged ready-to-go lesson plan or a vintage comic, you can find it here. Read below and visit the links to see how you would like your primary sources packaged for your class.

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The US Library of Congress has a database of millions of historical artifacts including maps, videos, images, artwork, books, articles and more that are searchable online.

Why Primary Sources? Utilizing primary sources requires students to analyze, evaluate and correlate historical artifacts and can be used to project and explain current day phenomena.

Find out more: Watch the video links below from the Library of Congress for an overview on how primary sources may benefit your classroom.

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LOC librarians have created collections of items related to a variety of topics. Search all of science to find a topic or search for a specific topic.

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Search results from Digital Collections, Available Online, Science & Technology

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Content:  Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
Grade: 9
Time: 45 min

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Content: Infectious Disease
Grade: middle/high school
Time: 45 min
Creator: Gina Bernacchi

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Content: Earth & Space Science
Grade: 5th
Time: 2 class periods
Creator: Jennifer Gaffney

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Jennifer Gaffney Survivor Planet Edition.docx

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Content: Sustainability
Grades: middle/high school
Time: 45-60 minutes
Creator: Jordi Owens

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Content: Air quality
Grade: high school
Time 1-3 class periods
Creators: Kim Cox and Jody Lanterna-Lewis

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Kim Cox and Jody Lanterna-Lewis Positive effects of COVID

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aka: pre-created lesson plans with linked primary sources. Use the catalog or the search function to find ready-to-go lessons on thousands of topics.

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Find anything using this search feature - books, videos, maps, graphics, articles, music and more. Hint: use the filter it you are getting too many results.

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Contains over 20 million catalog records for books, serials, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources in the Library of Congress collections.

Find titles, authors/creators, subjects, call numbers, or standard numbers in alphabetical or sequential lists, with cross-references.

Keyword Search Find search words anywhere in the catalog record. Includes Keyword (Expert) search.

Additional Catalogs & Research Tools

The LC Catalog is the main access point for the Library's collections. Click on the links below to use specialized catalogs and tools for additional LC resources:

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Find material in the Library's collections of books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources. Search by keyword or browse for authors/creators, subjects, names/titles, uniform titles, and call numbers.

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Public-domain and copyright free sets include a variety of content and materials.

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Free to Use and Reuse: Work Projects Administration (WPA) Posters | Free to Use and Reuse Sets | Library of Congress

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Learn more about WPA posters. Browse more content that is free to use and reuse.

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Great intro to using maps. Students compare a map of Washington DC from 1876 to a map today and gain insights on perspective, industrialization, ecosystem changes and more.

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Facts about the Library of Congress

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Strategic Plan

View the 2019-2023 Library of Congress Strategic Plan. (Download PDF)

View the 2019-2023 Library of Congress Digital Strategy.

Library Organization

An agency of the legislative branch of the U.S. government, the Library of Congress encompasses several integral service units, listed below. Download a current Library of Congress organization chart.

Office of the Librarian

The Office of the Librarian is the administrative branch of the Library of Congress and has overall management responsibility for the Library. It sets policy and directs and supports programs and activities to accomplish the Library's mission.

Congressional Research Service

CRS exclusively serves Congress by providing confidential, objective and authoritative research and analysis to help inform the legislative debate.

Copyright Office

The U.S. Copyright Office administers the Nation's copyright laws for the advancement of the public good, offers services and support to authors and users of creative works, and provides expert impartial assistance to Congress, the courts and executive branch agencies on questions of copyright law and policy.

Law Library

Congress established its Law Library in 1832, recognizing its need for ready access to reliable legal materials. The Law Library has grown over the years to become the world's largest law library, with a collection of over three million volumes spanning the ages and covering virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Library Services

The mission of Library Services is to develop qualitatively the Library's universal collections, which document the history and further the creativity of the American people and which record and contribute to the advancement of civilization and knowledge throughout the world, and to acquire, organize, provide access to, maintain, secure, and preserve these collections.

Other Offices

Other offices that operate independently of individual service units but are within the Library's organizational structure are listed here.

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Welcome Message from Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S.

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Benefits of Teaching with Primary Sources

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Benefits of Teaching with Primary Sources

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Video: 4:16

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About This Program | Teachers | Programs | Library of Congress

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The Library of Congress offers classroom materials and professional development to help teachers effectively use primary sources from the Library's vast digital collections in their teaching.

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Video Length 3:39

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LOC web page overview

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This is a truly amazing feature. Library of Congress librarians will send you resources for what you are looking for. Your students can directly contact them too! Response times are quick and will help you find just what you need in a fraction of the time it would take to search.

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We encourage you to ask a specialist using one of the links below. To ask a general question or browse our FAQs use the tabs above. Areas offering chat service are indicated using the “chat” icon .

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Earth Science PS Activity Plan Template.doc

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Primary Source Set: The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads: The Hetch Hetchy Controversy

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Primary Source Set: The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads: The Hetch Hetchy Controversy

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Students use Library of Congress primary sources to examine the controversies inherent in conservation programs.

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[Detail] Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir on Glacier Point, Yosemite Valley, California, in 1903

The debate over damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park marked a crossroads in the American conservation movement. Until this debate, conservationists seemed fairly united in their aims. San Francisco's need for a reliable water supply, along with a new political dynamic at the federal level, created a division between those committed to preserving the wilderness and those more interested in efficient management of its use. While this confrontation happened nearly one hundred years ago, it contains many of the same arguments which are used today whenever preservationists and conservationists mobilize.

This unit includes two separate lessons which set the stage for and explore this particular controversy. While each relates to the other, the two are not dependent on each other and, therefore, may be taught separately. We have sought to provide a framework for instructors along with teaching materials they might print or let their students use online. With the exception of the extension activity suggestions, students will be working with a "limited archive" of our selection.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

identify nineteenth-century leaders and thinkers who influenced the formation of the Conservation Movement;

gain an appreciation of the different ways "conservation" can be defined;

understand specific differences and similarities between and among those who advocated conservation;

understand arguments given to support the conservation of diverse resources;

know the major purposes of and provisions of legislation establishing Yosemite as a national park;

possess a clear understanding of the controversy that Hetch Hetchy sparked between "preservationists" and "conservationists".

Time Required

One to two weeks

Lesson Preparation

Resources: Lesson One

Conservation Writers

Note: the links below will take you to a Library of Congress American Memory record for the documents. The actual documents appear on page images, which are linked from the record page.

Congressional Debate of "An Act to Protect the Birds and Animals in Yellowstone Park. . ., 1894

Surveying the Public Lands, 1898
Specifies that the purpose of forest reservations is "to improve and protect the forest within the reservation, or for . . . securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States," and stipulates that the regulated harvesting of timber, mining of mineral resources, and use of water on forest reservations may be permitted by the Secretary of the Interior.

"An Act For the preservation of American antiquities." [S. 4698, Public Act No. 209], 190)
Authorizes the President "to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks . . . and other objects of historic or scientific interest" on government land "to be national monuments;" forbids unauthorized injury of objects of antiquity on Government lands; and authorizes the granting of Federal permits for the study of objects of antiquity on such lands.

Resources: Lesson Two

These links are to documents selected from "The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920" regarding the establishment of Yosemite National Park and the debate over damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley. The Editors Comments and Conservation Timeline all contain valuable background information for teachers as does the collection's Preface.

Conservation Writers

Congressional Debate

The resources below consist of transcripts of the committee hearings and debate over two bills during the year 1913. By this time, battle lines had been clearly drawn between "preservationists" and "conservationists" and may be easily detected in the testimony.

Note: the links below will take you to a Library of Congress American Memory record for the documents. The actual documents appear on page images, which are linked from the record page.

U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 26, Chap. 1263, pp. 650-52. "An act to set apart certain tracts of land in the State of California as forest reservations." [H.R. 12187], 1890
Establishes the foundations of Yosemite National Park, where the Hetch Hetchy Valley was located.

U.S., Statutes at Large, Vol. 33, Part 1, Resolution No. 30, p. 1286. "Joint Resolution Accepting the recession by the State of California of the Yosemite Valley Grant and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove in the Yosemite National Park." S.J.R. 115; Public Resolution No. 29, 1905

N.H. Egleston, Committee Report on Granting Use of Hetch Hetchy to the City of San Francisco, 1909
Reports the 1909 hearings on the Hetch Hetchy Grant.

Statutes at Large, Vol. 38, Part 1, Chap. 4, pp. 242-51. "An Act Granting to the city and county of San Francisco certain rights of way in, over, and through certain public lands, the Yosemite National Park, and Stanislaus National Forest, and certain lands in the Yosemite National Park, the Stanislaus National Forest, and the public lands in the State of California, and for other purposes." H.R. 7207; Public Act No. 41, 1913
The legislative outcome of the Congressional hearings over Hetch Hetchy.

Lesson Procedure

Lesson One: What is "Conservation" and Why Does it Matter?

Americans have a long history of advocating for the preservation of natural resources. Between 1850 and 1920 naturalists, politicians, authors and artists identified numerous features of the natural and human landscape of America which they believed worthy of preservation. They explained and justified their positions in lectures, articles, essays, books, and at congressional hearings. Out of this process, they formulated views on the nature of conservation itself and why governmental agencies and private individuals should conserve. Their ideas are as varied as the resources which they believe should be conserved.

This lesson introduces students to some historically significant leaders, thinkers, and artists of the early conservation movement through selections from their writings and art. By exploring these selections students can formulate their own summaries of what each leader believed conservation was, why they thought it important, and what resources they thought were worthy of preservation. Interestingly, the range of resources and the arguments used have not changed a great deal over time and are commonly found in today's news.

Yet a shift in argumentation may be detected as one works from mid-nineteenth-century naturalists such as Henry David Thoreau to turn-of-the-century conservationists such as Gifford Pinchot and John Muir. By 1900, the federal government had begun setting land aside for national parks and forests, and it became necessary for the federal government to formulate and defend policies governing its use as ranchers, miners, and foresters sought clarification and permission to access these lands and resources.

Federal grants of private access to such lands soon sparked opposition from men like John Muir and newly formed organizations such as the Sierra Club. In the debates which ensued, we find evolving positions which more clearly articulate both the similarities and differences between environmental advocates' views. We also begin to see the "Conservation Movement," which had seemed to be unified in its goals, divide into conflicting factions. The core arguments and environmental philosophies formulated then have remained and are evident in present day debates over issues such as logging and mining on federal property.

1. Identify which readings to duplicate and share with students.

2. Before distributing readings, have students identify the types of natural resources people currently are trying to preserve and why these people feel as they do. (What is a "natural resource? What arguments do they use to support their positions? Can people want to preserve the same things but for different reasons? Are some arguments "better" than others?)

3. Have students read selections, identifying both the resources and reasons given. (Which are the most compelling? Which do they personally agree with? What problems might the government have if it enacted laws supporting these positions? Who might oppose these positions / individuals and why?)

4. Compare the current with the historical. (What has changed or stayed the same? Do Americans value the same things today for the same reasons?)

Extension

These readings (and the viewpoints they illustrate) mirror closely literary movements of the time periods during which they were written. By reading the works of Romantic writers (Cooper, Bryant, Emerson) or studying nature-based art (Hudson River School) and photography, students can gain an understanding of how thoughts about nature affected those who visually captured it.

Lesson Two: Case Study - Should the Hetch Hetchy be Dammed?

In this lesson students will examine the controversy surrounding the city of San Francisco's request to turn the Hetch Hetchy Valley into a water reservoir to meet its increasing needs. (The Hetch Hetchy was a part of Yosemite National Park.) Students will explore the divisions this controversy exposed within the conservation movement by using teacher selected documents and text representative of both sides of the debate along with actual records of the congressional hearings held to decide the valley's fate.

1. Review what students know concerning the various reasons people supported conservation efforts.

2. Introduce this lesson by informing students that they will be re-creating a Congressional debate over the Hetch Hetchy Valley in California's Yosemite National Park, which served to clarify the issues and divide the conservation movement clearly into "preservationist" and "conservationist" camps.

3. In full class discussion or interactive lecture, review the reasons for setting aside Yosemite as a national park. Students should notice during this review the mixture of reasons, some "preservationist" and some "conservationist", adduced by various advocates. Use selections from works and public acts concerning Yosemite from list of sources below.

4. Form groups focused on the major interests of various parties involved in the Hetch Hetchy controversy: the city of San Francisco, the Sierra Club, Progressive conservationists such as Pinchot, Congressional representatives from other states, and business interests. Each group should choose at least one spokesperson to play the role of a leading figure (e.g. John Muir for the Sierra Club or the chair of the House Committee on Public Lands). Others in the group may adopt roles as appropriate as witnesses, research assistants, publicists, lobbyists, or members of Congress. Each group will develop a strategy for researching the resources listed below to gain an understanding of the arguments advanced by their particular interest group and to glean what they consider to be the best arguments for their position in the public hearing.

5. In the 3-4 day interval between the initial lesson and the mock hearing, students will research their positions using online and print resources. The teacher will provide assistance as needed. Advocates for the various positions may also engage in various forms of public advocacy for their point of view, such as radio spots, print advertising, posters, flyers, and short speeches.

6. On the day of the mock hearing, all members of the class except those in roles as spokespersons or witnesses will become members of the House Committee on Public Lands, the committee which began holding hearings on the damming of the Hetch Hetchy in 1908. Each spokesperson will be given an allotted time to make a statement, and then will stand for a minimum number of questions from the committee. The time limit and number of questions will depend on the number of persons testifying. At the close of the hearing, the committee will vote on whether to send the Raker Bill to the full House.

7. The teacher will follow up the vote with a review of the principal arguments advanced by each side, exploring the main differences that emerged between preservationists and conservationists through the controversy over Hetch Hetchy.

Extension

This lesson will involve students in extensive research in collections specifically focusing on Yosemite and the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Student extension activities include:

developing research further into a formal essay on some aspect of the controversy;

developing a comparison between the establishment of Yosemite and another national park such as Yellowstone;

exploring period photographs and paintings for insights on the role of visual imagination in the controversy;

identifying and developing a comparison with a more contemporary controversy such as the Michigan debate during the summer of 1997 over whether to permit angle drilling for oil along the shores of Lake Michigan;

Lesson Evaluation

Evaluate students through formative assessments of their participations in the mock hearing about the Hetch Hetchy controversy.

Credits

Michael Federspiel and Timothy Hall

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The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads: The Hetch Hetchy Controversy | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Jump to: Preparation Procedure Evaluation The debate over damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park marked a crossroads in the American conservation movement. Until this debate, conservationists seemed fairly united in their aims. San Francisco's need for a reliable water supply, along with a new political dynamic at the federal level, created a division between those committed to preserving the wilderness and those more interested in efficient management of its use.

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This collection includes maps of transportation across the US from the 1800 - current. Students can analyze changing transportation and relate to resource use, pollution, ecosystem impact and more.

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These maps document the development and status of transportation and communication systems on the national, state, and local level. Transportation maps can depict canal and river systems, cycling routes , railway lines and systems, roads and road networks, and traffic patterns. Communication maps illustrate the location and distribution of telegraph routes, telephone systems and radio coverage.

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About this Collection | Transportation and Communication | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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These maps document the development and status of transportation and communication systems on the national, state, and local level. Transportation maps can depict canal and river systems, cycling routes , railway lines and systems, roads and road networks, and traffic patterns. Communication maps illustrate the location and distribution of telegraph routes, telephone systems and radio coverage.

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Fun Science Facts from the Library of Congress

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Everyday Mysteries | Library of Congress

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Welcome Message from Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the hom…

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Free to Use and Reuse: Travel Posters | Free to Use and Reuse Sets | Library of Congress

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Learn more about these travel posters. Browse more content that is free to use and reuse.

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Variety of propaganda posters to jump-start student creativity. Fyi - not all of these are science based.

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Free to Use and Reuse: Work Projects Administration (WPA) Posters | Free to Use and Reuse Sets | Library of Congress

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Learn more about WPA posters. Browse more content that is free to use and reuse.

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Students use Library of Congress primary sources to examine accounts by Americans from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of their life changing experiences with nature.

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[Detail] The burning of San Francisco

People have always tried to understand the natural world in which they live. In early times, they created myths to explain their experiences with fire, flood and other violent forces. Over the centuries, new scientific discoveries added to their knowledge. Yet, nature continues to affect human lives and people still seek to record their feelings about these uncontrollable forces.

Examine accounts by Americans from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of their life changing experiences with nature. Witness their experiments with the new technologies of motion pictures and panoramic photography to record the immensity of events with which they struggled. Read their moving personal accounts. Study the poignant lyrics of songs they wrote to memorialize each event. Use your research skills to search the Library of Congress online collections to broaden your understanding of how people have dealt with disaster. Then share your learning by creating a presentation for others in which you assume the role of a witness to such an event and create your own personal account.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

Read and discuss literary and nonliterary texts in order to understand human experience.

Read to acquire information from a variety of sources.

Orally communicate information, opinions, and ideas effectively to an audience for a particular purpose.

Interpret history using a variety of sources, such as biographies, diaries, journals, artifacts, eyewitness interviews, and other primary source materials.

Time Required

Three to four weeks

Lesson Preparation

Before you begin:

Check your library or media center to see what historical fiction and resources are available to support research on American natural disasters.

Students should have background in searching the Library's online collections. Refer to "Using Primary Sources" on the Teachers page to assist them.

Materials

Resources

Lesson Procedure

In this lesson, explore the ways natural disasters have affected American lives. Examine records people made of their experiences. Try to find out how people felt who lived through each event. How did they recover? What changed because of their experience? What lessons did they learn? When you finish, put yourself into the shoes of an eyewitness to one of American history's most remarkable events and tell the story of the disaster in your own words.

Activity One: Introduction (one class period)
These activities introduce students to the concept of primary source documents as ways of recording an historical event.

1. On the board or overhead, brainstorm ways in which nature affects people's lives.

2. Play a song about a natural disaster.

3. While listening to the song, students write five words or phrases from the song that interest them on a note card. On the back of the card, they should write their reactions to those words or phrases.

4. Discuss the following questions:

Why would the songwriter compose this song?

What event may have sparked the idea for this song?

What words or phrases help you to understand the songwriter's perspective of the event?

How does listening to this song change your understanding of the people's emotions who experienced the event?

5. Next, show students a photo related to the event. Repeat the 5 word reflection activity and group discussion.

6. Finally, present a newspaper story with a personal account of the event. Repeat the 5 word reflection activity and group discussion.

7. Pass out an encyclopedia or history book description of the disaster.

8. Using a Venn diagram, have students compare and contrast the kinds of information about the event each medium provided.

9. Reflection Journal: have students explain how these sources differ from encyclopedia accounts of the event.

Activity Two: Modeling Analysis Sheet Use (two class periods)

1. Discuss students' Reflection Journal entries from previous lesson. Clarify how primary sources differ from secondary sources. Note that informational articles often do not contain people's feelings about the experience.

2. Explain the lesson's goal of learning critical thinking strategies to examine primary sources.

3. Together, complete the Primary Source Analysis Tool to examine a photo of the disaster. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher's guide Analyzing Photographs and Prints to focus and prompt analysis and discussion.

4. Next, examine an account from a witness to the event. Students analyze the oral history, recording their thoughts on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher's guide Analyzing Oral Histories to focus and prompt analysis and discussion. (Note that oral histories are written in the narrator's own words and may reveal biases and prejudices which may seem inappropriate. They may also contain spelling errors or non-standard English.)

5. Using a handout of the song lyrics, have students study the song, recording their thoughts on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher's guide Analyzing Sheet Music and Song Sheets to focus and prompt analysis and discussion.

6. Compile and record information about the event using different colored markers for each source.

Activity Three: Guided Reading (two weeks)

1. Help students select a book based on a natural disaster.

2. Help students to establish a schedule to complete the reading of the book. Possible questions to focus student responses might include:

What were your feelings after reading the first chapter of the book? What gave you this impression?

What details did the author use to show the setting of the story and give you a sense of what the characters were like?

What were the main problems the characters faced in the story? How did they attempt to solve them?

What surprised or confused you in the book?

What was the passage that seemed most real to you?

What did the characters or their families, communities, or governments do to help people recover from the event?

What effects did the event have on the characters' lives and on their communities?

What lessons did you learn from the way people handled the event?

What questions would you like answered about the event?

What changes would you have made in the story?

Activity Four: Coaching Independent Research (four or five class periods)

1. Using the reference materials available, have students compile information about the event from their novel. Possible questions to guide the research include:

Who was involved in the event?

When and where did the natural disaster take place?

What were things like before the event took place?

What seemed to have caused the event?

What happened during the event?

What were the effects of the event?

How did the people react to the event?

How did people recover from the disaster?

What changes were made or lessons were learned as a result of the event?

2. Direct students to the the appropriate natural disaster from the Gallery of Artifacts.

3. As students analyze the primary sources, have them record their thoughts on the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher's guide Analyzing Primary Sources to focus the group work, and select additional questions to focus and prompt a whole class discussion of their analysis.

4. Provide time for students to search additional Internet resources about the event and summarize their research.

Activity Five: Preparing the Wax Museum Presentation (four class periods)

1. Review the elements of the wax museum presentations: Prepare a historical fiction account for your book based on the following outline. Your oral report is in a "wax museum" format and should be 3-5 minutes in length. Dress up like a person who witnessed the event in the book and describe the event as that person would.

1. Introduction

1. Use an interesting attention getter to introduce the subject of your presentation.

2. Include the date and place of the event and explain why this event was important in American history.

2. Body

1. Tell the facts about when, where, why and how the event occurred.

2. Use your photographs to explain more details about what happened before, during, and after the event.

3. Describe how this event affected the people who experienced it. Use your artifacts to demonstrate your points.

4. Explain how things changed as a result of this event.

5. Tell how you felt as a witness to the event.

6. Explain how the people recovered from this event. Present the lessons you learned from the people who experienced this event.

3. Conclusion

1. Wrap up the personal account.

2. Include whether or not you think the event could ever happen again.

2. Allow time for preparation and presentation.

3. Rehearse oral presentations with partners.

4. Optional: Send out invitations to parents, other classes, and community members.

Extension

Students may extend their experience by examining a recent natural disaster, locating and analyzing primary source documents related to it, and noting similarities and differences to those of earlier times. Students may also examine how the events are presented in children's books.

Lesson Evaluation

Students interpret and construct meaning from the photographs, song lyrics and life histories and apply the information by creating an original oral composition. They compare fictional and factual accounts of an event and learn independently as they research a natural disaster and its effects. Finally, students create a quality product synthesizing information and meaning from several sources.

Student products may include:

1. A personal interpretation of photographs.

2. An interpretation of song lyrics.

3. An evaluation/analysis of an oral history.

4. A journal with reactions to an historical fiction novel.

5. A presentation including an original fictional eyewitness account of the event which demonstrates the ability to apply information gathered through research to a new composition.

6. A poster with photographs, maps, diagrams, drawings or other information about the natural disaster.

Rubrics for these products should be designed in a teacher student collaboration. Students may also complete a self evaluation of their participation in the lesson.

Credits

Patricia Solfest & Kimberly Wardean

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Natural Disasters: Nature's Fury | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Jump to: Preparation Procedure Evaluation People have always tried to understand the natural world in which they live. In early times, they created myths to explain their experiences with fire, flood and other violent forces. Over the centuries, new scientific discoveries added to their knowledge.

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Students use Library of Congress primary sources to examine electrification as both a technological and social process

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Teachers

Using documents from the Library of Congress, students investigate electrification as both a technological and social process. A focus of the student's investigation is Thomas Edison.

Objectives

Students will be able to:

analyze the role of Thomas Edison in the electrification of America;

demonstrate an understanding of electrification as both a technological and social process;

analyze advertising and assess its significance as it relates to electrification and consumption;

develop an understanding of the emergence of the mass-consumer economy.

Time Required

Two weeks

Lesson Preparation

Resources

Lesson Procedure

Lesson One: President Coolidge Honors Edison (1-2 class periods)

Direct students to the student section of this lesson: President Coolidge Honors Edison.

Students analyze a speech by President Calvin Coolidge.

Students may work individually or in groups.

Class discussion of student findings and conclusions is essential.

Be sure students cite examples to support their responses.

Lesson Two: Edison's Role in the Electrification of America (2-3 class periods)

Direct students to the student section of this lesson: Edison's Role in the Electrification of America.
Biography:
Students focus on the life of Thomas Edison. The timeline activity could be an entire class project and displayed in the classroom.
Phonograph:
This activity works well if student groups work on different sections of the project.
Sound Recordings:

1. Provide students with an example such as vaudeville. Explain how vaudeville influenced popular vocal recordings. Play excerpts to demonstrate how each recording sounded. For some genres, provide copies of the words with an analysis.
You may want to use the collectionAmerican Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920.

2. Assign groups to each of the seven genres of Edison Diamond Disc recordings. (See Overview of Edison Disc Recordings by Genre.)

3. Each group prepares a presentation for the class, incorporating selected portions of various recordings and an analysis and explanation of each genre.

Motion Pictures:

1. Assign groups of students to specific sections of:

2. Assign presentations to each group. The presentations should provide:

a brief summary of an aspect of Edison movie history.

an analysis of one of the film genres.

Lesson Three: Merchandising and Advertising (1-2 class periods)

Direct students to the student section of this lesson: Merchandising and Advertising.

Advertisement Gallery: Assign students to work in pairs for written and oral work on each advertisement.

Lesson Four: Women and the Mass Consumer Society (2-3 class periods)

Direct students to the student section of this lesson: Women and the Mass Consumer Society.

Extension

General

Ask students to brainstorm words or phrases based upon electricity that describe human behavior, feelings, emotions, or situations. Some examples are: live wire, charged, dim-witted, bright, shocked, out like a light, plugged in, and recharge your batteries; and words and phrases with a mechanical or electronic/computer focus: screw loose, zapped, and overloaded circuits.

Lesson Two

Library of Congress digital collections provide numerous collections offering interesting and informative material about the era.

Lesson Three

Students may do more in-depth research of the three magazines to further an understanding of the world of the 1920s. The advertisements for other products, such as automobiles, provide interesting comparisons with today's products. Students may analyze the technological and social changes occurring in the increasingly electrified mass-consumer society depicted in the mass circulation magazines.

Students may read Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, a wonderful novel about the mass-consumer society of the 1920s.

After completing the activities in this unit students participate in a "talk show" to discuss the various themes of this unit. Guests could include Thomas Edison, and other individuals such as: farm men and women, including teenagers; urban residents with a variety of gender, class, racial, and ethnic characteristics; and business, political, and civic leaders, such as the head of the Chamber of Commerce. Students in the audience prepare questions prior to the show. The teacher acts as host, wandering about the audience, or that role may be assigned to a student.
Questions to consider for discussion:

1. The increased emphasis on leisure and entertainment: is it good or bad?

2. How has electricity altered people's lives?

3. Are there differences in the impact of electricity on men and women's lives?

Lesson Evaluation

To assess understanding of the social and technological effects of electrification, students identify and analyze examples of each kind of change: new inventions, changes in work activity for women and men--both at home and in the workplace, uses of leisure time, and changes and continuity in values and beliefs.

The purpose of this activity is to validate student constructed generalizations about the process of electrification. Assign this activity at the start of the unit so students can gather their documentary materials as they do the various lessons.

1. Students assemble a gallery of excerpts from documents in collections investigated in these lessons. Additional documentary material may come from other American Memory collections.

2. Students create presentations.

3. In a report to the class, students state their generalization and present their document selections, explaining and analyzing how these excerpts validate their generalization.

Sample generalizations:

Thomas Edison, while given credit for things he did not create, was a significant figure in the development of modern forms of entertainment.

Electrification had significant social effects on women.

Magazines played a significant role as educators of women in the development of the mass-consumer society.

Americans sought to redefine their long held values in light of the changes in society.

The social and technological changes of the period were a mixed blessing for women.

The "New Woman" of the 1920s was a product of the changes brought about by electrification.

Credits

Robert Gabrick & Barbara Markham

Students

Lesson One: President Coolidge Honors Edison

President Calvin Coolidge presented a medal to Edison in 1928, saying: "[T]here is scarcely an electrical process or instrument of to-day which does not reflect in some way changes wrought by his researches."

Go to the Coolidge Speech marking the presentation of the medal, and answer the following questions:

1. According to Coolidge, what makes Edison a leader?

2. What do people call Edison? Why do Edison and Coolidge disagree with such labels?

3. "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration." What does Coolidge say is important about such a belief? In particular how is the value of "work", a significant component of American values, important in explaining Edison's success?

4. One of the important beliefs about success in America is that you can rise to the top from the lowest level. Identify Coolidge's remarks about Edison's rise to success.

Lesson Two: Edison's Role in the Electrification of America

The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies

Inventing Entertainment includes primary sources on both the Victrola phonograph and the movies.

Edison Biography

1. Read The Life of Thomas A. Edison to gain an understanding of the major features of Edison's life.

2. The Timeline for Inventing Entertainment provides information about the major events in Edison's personal life and the key dates for the phonograph and motion pictures. Develop a timeline which provides the most essential items relevant to the development of the phonograph, sound recordings, and motion pictures.

Phonograph

Thomas Edison developed both a cylinder phonograph and recordings and a disc phonograph and recordings.

1. Go to Edison Sound Recordings and read the introductory material.

2. Despite Edison's pioneering work, "Victrola" became a term people used as a synonym for the phonograph. The History of the Cylinder Phonograph is an informative summary of Edison's work with the first type of phonograph and recordings.

3. Also informative is the complete catalog for Edison Phonographs, Cylinder Types: 1913-1914.

4. Edison's work with discs is in The History of the Edison Disc Phonograph. This collection provides a history of both the Edison cylinder and disc phonographs.

5. Based on the material about Edison's development of the phonograph:

Construct a visual display and history of the phonograph, illustrating the changes over time.

Include Edison material as well as that of various models over the years up to now. Materials for recent equipment can be found in contemporary publications.

Compare and contrast these systems in terms of design and technology.

Sound Recordings

Edison recordings also provide an auditory archive.

1. Go to Edison Sound Recordings to search the selected recordings.
The disc recordings include instrumental, vocal, spoken word, spoken comedy, foreign language and ethnic, religious, opera, and concert selections.

2. Go to Overview of Edison Disc Recordings by genre.
Each genre offers an opportunity to analyze the type of selection and cultural factors which influenced their development. Prepare a web-based presentation with your group that incorporates select portions of several recordings and analyzes each genre.

Motion Pictures

Edison's work with the movies began with the earliest camera test in 1891 and ended in 1918, when his company ceased film production. Edison Motion Pictures is the brief introductory page to the film collection.

Working in your assigned group:

1. Read your section of:

2. Create a presentation that contains:

a brief summary of an aspect of Edison movie history; and

an analysis of one of the film genres, including films.

Lesson Three: Merchandising and Advertising

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 documents aspects of the "transition to a mass-consumer economy [and the] widespread electrification of plants, factories, and households." Entertainment implies the availability of leisure time to enjoy it. Notions of "work" as an activity were being redefined during this period. More and more people could purchase goods and services which were not necessities.

The Introduction to Prosperity and Thrift and The Prosperity of the Coolidge Era argue that "Always associated with self-restraint, moderation, and frugality, thrift now came to acquire the meaning of 'wise spending'." One of the important tasks for influential leaders at this time was to find new ways to retain America's old values while adapting them to new circumstances.

Mass-Circulation Magazines

Mass-circulation magazines documented the mass-consumer economy of the time and the increasing electrification of homes. The following activities provide opportunities to analyze several of these magazines, all from 1926: Good Housekeeping, Country Gentlemen, and Household Magazine.

Introductory Assignment

1. Go to the sections Introduction to Prosperity and Thrift and Merchandising and Advertising for an overview of this lesson's topic. Links provide access to documents that explore more specific subjects.

2. Reflect on the magazine titles to understand their focus. Review the "Table of Contents" and investigate the entire issue of each magazine.

What meaning[s] does each title seek to convey?

Who is the intended audience?

Specific Assignments

1. Good Housekeeping is the only one of these magazines which is currently published. Compare and contrast a current issue with this issue from 1926. Consider such things as the content and subject matter of the articles, the full range of advertisements, and the artwork and illustrations.

2. Country Gentlemen is no longer published. What magazines are currently aimed at the same audience? Find an issue of such a magazine and do the same analysis suggested for Good Housekeeping. Make reproductions of selected pages, as they provide useful visual comparisons.

3. The Advertisement Gallery provides an opportunity for an analysis of advertisements of the developing mass-consumer economy. Each ad provides a window into the world of people like Mrs. Lathrop. Use the Primary Source Analysis tool as you study these ads. Your teacher may have additional questions to guide your analysis.

Advertisement Gallery

Lesson Four: Women and the Mass Consumer Society

Christine McGaffey Frederick's Selling Mrs. Consumer, published in 1929, provides factual material, but also illuminates the larger issues relevant to women as consumers, and to the development of a mass-consumer economy.

Introductory Assignment

Provide the answers for these questions that are raised in Selling Mrs. Consumer:

1. What are the characteristics of the "New Woman" emerging in the 1920s?

2. What is the relationship of the mass-consumer society to this "New Woman?"

3. What are the essential elements of electrification, both technological and social?

4. How has the process of electrification affected women in particular, as well as men?

5. What impact has electrification had on the household?

6. What is the relationship of electrification to the developing mass-consumer society?

Specific Assignments

1. Host a radio show.

Create a radio interview program with Mrs. Frederick as the guest. Choose a "show host" to pose questions to Mrs. Frederick and her staff. Different classmates may alternate role-playing Mrs. Frederick.

Write and perform commercials for consumer products from the magazines in Prosperity and Thrift, 1921-1929. The actual text for the ads can come directly from the ads in the magazines. Create a real radio show atmosphere. Include music in the the show, perhaps from Edison recordings from Inventing Entertainment.

2. Enter contests in Good Housekeeping. Select one:

"My favorite appliance is . . ."

"I would like a set of appliances[Name them] because . . ."

"How electricity has changed my life"

"How electricity helps the man of the house"

Questions for the man of the house:

"What arguments would you accept as reasons to purchase electrical appliances?

"What are the reasons you want electricity in your home?"

3. Enter a contest in Country Gentleman in 1926 aimed at the rural readers. Write a letter to the editor in 250 words or less explaining how life on the farm has changed with the availability of electricity. Assume that children are a part of the family you write about.

4. Read the following:
Prosperity: Fact or Myth by Stuart Chase is a summary of the economic conditions of the 1920s. Chapter IV looks at "the specific goods and services delivered to the ultimate consumer."
Answer the following questions about the Chase article:

1. How is Middletown linked to the larger world (p. 55)?

2. Chase analyzes the classes of Middletown. Identify some of the characteristics of the different classes. (p. 55)

3. Summarize Chase's findings about working class houses valued at less than $2500. (pp. 56-7)

4. Summarize Chase's findings about houses valued at $2500 to $4500. (pp. 57-8)

5. Summarize Chase's findings about houses valued at $7500 or over. (pp. 58-9)

6. The rest of the chapter (pp. 59-63) covers a variety of characteristics about homes of the 1920s. Identify those statistics which focus on aspects of electrification and usage.

5. It is 1926. You have just moved into a new house with electricity. As a housewife you have been reading Good Housekeeping and other magazines, including those with articles by Christine Frederick, the author of Selling Mrs.Consumer. You want to purchase electrical appliances. What arguments would you use to persuade your husband to agree to such purchases?

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Thomas Edison, Electricity, and America | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

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Using documents from the Library of Congress, students investigate electrification as both a technological and social process. A focus of the student's investigation is Thomas Edison.