Susan+Nelson's+Final+Project+Sources


 * 6-D-1 VIDEO & MAP Resources for Local History Project 2-25-10**

[] This American Memory site from the Library of Congress contains some of the earliest film clips made! Because the database allows the viewer to create a chronological title list, I would have students do so as part of my local history project to allow them to view Gilded Age short videos. Six small videos are available for the approximate Gilded Age Era 1900-1915. To enrich their understanding of life during this time, I would have students watch and analyze these video snippets using the NARA motion picture worksheet. I feel this guided sheet really helps students catch details by providing a specific set of prompting questions. Once students determined the type and purpose of early films, I would have them develop some sort of early “rating” system, akin to our G, PG, PG-13 type system. This could turn into quite a humorous venture as students seek to determine what audience would enjoy what type of film. Or, I could have student use the rating system as they know it and provide rational as to why each film receives a certain rating. An “end product” might be the creation of a movie review booklet that gives the rating and a basic overview of each film. It would also be neat to connect to student’s current knowledge of trailers for movies by having them design and present trailers for these early movies. I see great potential to have much fun with this site, despite the small number of resources from the Gilded Age.

[] This American Memory site focuses on women on the silent screen and includes short video clips of women in real life situations as well as acting on the stage. Because the normal household certainly had female members, it would make a powerful connection to have students analyze the way women are portrayed on the early screen. In particular I would have students use the SEA method to examine how women are characterized on the screen. What are women wearing? How are they behaving? Why are the hair styles and why do you think they wore their hair that way? These might all make great analysis type questions. I could also have student complete a Venn diagram of two specific clips types: everyday life scenes & women at work scenes. Do women appear differently about town than at work? How are women similar is both cases? I would hope to foster a greater sense of women’s lives during this era. The “Silent Era” link also portrays women, but as objects of entertainment. Again, a Venn comparing and contrasting women entertainers [] and [] with the more “serious” images of women working or going about daily life could lead students to a greater understanding of how women were viewed during the Gilded Age. What would a local Fairview woman have thought of women in these various movie clips?

[] This site provided a video that explains the contradiction of the word “Gilded” and why the era really wasn’t that great. Primary source footage includes scenes of the statue of liberty, wealthy people’s homes, workers, streets, jobs, strikes etc., and explains why the Progressive Era was born. I would use this video as part of my local history project by have student view it a couple of times and list aspects of the era that revealed the reality under the gilded coating. By generating this list, students would gain a much better understanding as to why reform was needed, but also come to understand the lives of ordinary people of that era. Students could make a list various scenes portrayed and blog about what life was like in this era. Another option would be to have students add on to a wiki page as they determine various aspects of the era. Then, various teams of students could research particular topics from the video: racism, strikes, immigrant life, methods of transportation, architecture, famous families, sweatshops, slums, disease and prejudice. Were these problems likely prevalent in the local community? Student research might need to tap local historic photos to compare/contrast with the scenes in the video.

[] This video portrays a foreign disaster that occurred in 1907. There is an American connection because the engineer who spotted the problem was on his way to New York to address the cantilever bridge troubles when the bridge collapsed killing 75 people. The video can link closely to the Gilded Era as an era of inventiveness and technological innovation. The economic boom of this era and the new technology ideas allowed for the bridge’s construction, however, “progress” had a price. The video has authentic footage of the damage, and a narrator explains what happened. I would have student analyze this video using the NARA worksheet to guide them to understanding the video’s purpose, and to assist them in seeing critical details. To tie to local history, I could have my students compare and contrast this bridge disaster, and the response, to the 1893 Erie flood. (Another idea is to have students compare and contrast disaster responses in Quebec and the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.) I think students find disaster intriguing, and the causes, consequences, and responses to disasters reveal a lot about a society. Students could chart out similarities and differences between these types of disaster from that time period, noting how the building boom of that era with new steel, made taller buildings and larger bridges, also making people susceptible to an accident or disaster.

[] This site holds a map of Fairview Township in 1896, just on the cusp on the Gilded Age Era! To connect to my local history project, I would have students analyze this map using the NARA analysis sheet. Students could find familiar names of local sites, like neighborhoods that exist today! Students could make deductions about land use. Comparing and contrasting with another map of PA [] that shows natural resources might intrigue students-noting Erie Country does not appear to be blessed with the resources portrayed on this 1872 map. Students could locate current maps of PA resources and see if other resources have been discovered in their county.

[] This site contains a whole series of older PA maps that students can search by date. I would have students click on 1910, view and analyze several maps using the SEA method. The goal would be for students to gain insights into the kind of map making that was done during the Gilded Age. Students would draw conclusions about what map makers thought was important, as well as the kinds of ink/technology used to create maps. A Venn diagram could be used to compare and contrast maps from other dates, or even a modern day map. I would push students to zoom and analyze these maps for specific details of their local community if possible.


 * 5-D-1 AUDIO & MUSIC Resources For Local History Project Posted 2-19-10**

[|**http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/cgi-bin/sheetmusic.pl?Rag&titlepages&1**] This University of Colorado Digital Sheet Music Collection offers the covers of sheet music and the sheet music itself from across history! Since I am interesting in the Gilded Age Era, I would have students examine the songs in the Rag Time collection and analyze covers, lyrics, and even style of music using the NARA or SEA analysis sheets. The ties to local history could include research into sales of various music pieces, how often this music was purchased, how many people even knew how to play the piano? The piano appears to be a turn of the century staple in many homes, and I would challenge students to explore this music collection as a way of extrapolating what the culture of that time was like. It might be interesting to take all the titles and type them up in a wordle type format to further understand common themes present in the songs. Of course the visual analysis of the covers offers many insights into US culture as well, and it would be neat to have students fill out KWL’s to promote thinking. For example, we could write the title of a song on the board and have students draw images of what they think would make an appropriate Gilded Age cover. In reverse, we could examine the covers, and predict the song content. A lot here to look at and do!

[|**http://pdmusic.org/**] This Public Domain Music site offers searching by Composers, Song Styles, Song Eras, and Miscellaneous categories. It would be neat to select music for the backdrop to the local history project. I might have students select from the category that interest them, Hymns perhaps. From there I would have students search the site, which is organize by themes AND dates, looking for hymns that fit the Gilded Age time period. Further analysis of two different types of music using Venn diagrams would be interesting, especially if we used hymns and aforementioned Ragtime J  I would also allow students to search by composer, corresponding the dates with Gilded Age composers. Once student chose a composer of that era, they could complete NARA sounds forms if the music is available online. If students design technology related visuals, like power points, they could use this music as backdrop to enrich the Gilded Age feel. We could do a variety of emotional connects to the music as well. For example, play a piece and ask students to name a color or write words that fit the “mood” of the music, then expand by discussing how that “mood” reflects other aspects of the era we have studied. Playing a compilation of Gilded Age music might be a great way to start a study of this era, or a great way to generate predictor ideas on what the era was like.

[|**http://www.dws.org/sousa/**] On this site the viewer can learn a great deal of background on the music of John Philip Sousa. In addition, the site provides links to Sousa music that can be played and analyzed. For example, a click on //The Stars and Stripes Forever// link allows you to play the music, view the lyrics, examine the cover of the sheet music, and read the “Story Behind the Music.” I would incorporate this into my local history project by first having students do some basic research on Sousa and his music. I would also have students analyze a piece of Sousa music using the NARA sound analysis sheet. I would work to cross connect some local history celebrations, which would require some research, with particular types/styles of music. (i.e. What song selections would you use on Founder’s Day?”) Students could also make connects to local history by analyzing the lyrics of music and the cover sheets of Sousa’s sheet music. Key questions would be “How does Sousa’s music serve to unify the nation?” “How are his lyrics universal?” “What does the music demonstrate about American culture of this time?” Venn diagrams might prove useful for analysis of how music reflect, or doesn’t reflect, the historical/cultural “mood” of the day. Finally, since the people who lived in the Gilded Age were people just like my students, I would have them write some free responses choosing their favorite Sousa piece and why. If we could find sales records, it would be neat to compare our musical opinions with those of our ancestors!

[] This American Memory site contains Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment links from the years 1870-1920. Specific sound recordings from the Library of Congress are searchable by browsing, keyword, subject, or author. To connect to local history, I would have students search by browsing these selections, look for pieces dated during the Gilded Age. Because the various styles are listed next to the title, I would have students choose at least two different types of music and complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting aspects of the pieces. From there I would have them respond to a SEA analysis of the two pieces. I may need to make this more directed by assigning one group Rag Classical and Vaudeville pieces to analyze, while another group of students could analyze a trumpet solo and a song sung with lyrics. The groups could then cross reference with each other and share their findings. In this way students are drilling down to the essential elements contained in various Gilded Age music pieces. These aspects could be compiled, along with a sample piece, on a sort of musical time line on a wiki (so the music could be played), providing students with a holistic look at Gilded Age music their ancestors had access to.

[] This website offers listeners the opportunity to view early sound devices and listen to some of the earliest recordings ever made! Easy to navigate, intriguing information about sound recordings is presented clearly and with helpful photo images. I would use this as part of my local history project by having my students explore the site and listen to the various earliest recordings. The specific link I would want all students to explore to expose them to the earliest recordings is Sounds of Early 20th Century ([]) where students encounter seven wax cylinder excerpts! To help assist students in analyzing these pieces, I would definitely use the SEA method! But, I would add an additional section of “What questions would you like to ask about these recordings?” AND I would have a place for students to answer these questions as they continued their exploration throughout the site. Students would listen to each sound bite and make observations on their forms, and also raise and answer their own questions. For example, these pieces are very, very short in duration. Why? Students could also be encouraged to make models of these cylinders, and place an array of their favorite old time music on their models. Follow up and enrichment about how much these devices cost, how available they were to the general public, and how easy it was to purchase these devices would all allow students to determine if local Fairview families could have possessed and listened to these recordings.


 * 4-D-1 Local PHOTOS & POSTERS** for Final Project Posted 2/112/10 by Susan Nelson

[] This collection consists of over 7,000 advertisement posters from the US and Canada. Dated between 1911 and 1955 the site provides examples from five product lines: Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda. Because my project is based in the Gilded Age Era (1870-1914), I would use this site for my local history project by having students use those years as search tools. For example, when a student enters the year 1911, he would find various posters of ads. A closer examination of ad posters would reveal what kinds of products were available during the Gilded Age, perhaps utilized by the Sturgeon family in Fairview! I would have students examine the ad, perhaps using the NARA work sheet for posters, so they could eventually incorporate their knowledge of the product/s into a “Daily Life in Fairview during the Gilded Age” presentation or journal product. Additionally, if a student chose the toothpaste product “Sanitol Tooth Powder,” they could analyze the poster for the purpose of the product, the cost, or other poster details. Using this analysis, students could determine if the product would be something possibly desired by the Sturgeon household, or even determine whether the family would want to incorporate the product into a family budget.

[] This NLM (National Library of Medicine) website houses Images from the History of Medicine (IHM). The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century. Though the site is fascinating and contains many posters related to health issues (i.e. smoking/AIDS), I had to dig around for a long time to find any connections to the Gilded Age. I would encourage students involved with my local history project to use keywords Erie, PA as a search possibility. Both Hamot Hospital and St. Vincent Hospital appear on undated postcards. A possible direction students could go with these resources is to analyze the postcards, or other posters they find, using KWL sheets. Students could expand their research and learn more about each hospital based on the questions they generate. Key ideas students would seek to answer connected to local history would be whether the hospitals were in existence during the Gilded Age, and how local residents of their communities utilized the hospital facilities, if indeed they did! What kinds of injuries merited a hospital visit? Did any members of the Sturgeon family ever get treated at either local hospital? A whole different angle to approach this site would be noting that Erie, PA also turns up a poster “The American Ambulance in Russia” which was created IN Erie, PA by the Erie Lithograph Company. Students would be encouraged to locate more information about this company and the posters the company designed. Was this company active throughout the Gilded Age? Where was it located? A SEA scan analysis may generate a whole batch of questions that would further assist students in developing questions to dig deeper into local history.

[|http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/picturing_the_century/galleries/newcent.html#] Picturing the Century One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives site contains primary source photos in galleried organized by themes. The gallery called The New Century (1901) best fits with my local history project. I would use this gallery to give students an overall sense of what was occurring around the nation in the year 1901. Have students use the NARA photograph worksheet with an additional question added to the bottom section (Step 3 Questions). I would add the question: “What does your photograph tell you about life in the United States at the Turn of the Century?” Then teams could show their photos on the big screen and share their analysis, linking all of us with that additional question, hopefully pointing out the “big picture” of life in America in 1901. With this photo analysis as backdrop, students could then shift to a local focus and determine if the images reflect national character/elements that would be seen in the local Fairview area during that time. Cultural connections to be explored could include how people dressed, transportation, presence of immigrants/African American in the local community, forms of entertainment, architecture, natural disasters, funerals etc. (One note re: natural disasters; earlier links explored an Erie Area flood. Vast comparison contrast possibilities exist to examine the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and Erie Flood of 1893! How did the government respond in each case? How do images of damage compare?) The analysis of themes from these images would become vivid for students if they completed Venn diagrams comparing/contrasting images from the country with local/ “around town” in Fairview, which are pictures I will seek next.

[]  Family Old Photos takes the searcher to primary source photos taken in and around Erie, PA. Requiring some “digging” the viewer can click on various links that show what life was like in Erie County throughout the 1900s. The user can click on any photo to view an enlarged version with a caption of the picture and/or information that may include birth records, ancestry, etc. This is a nice source for researching the people and places of Erie, PA. By choosing images related to the Gilded Age (1870-1900) students would gain a better sense of life during that era. To tie to local history, and build a larger national context, students would locate similar photographic themes from the National Archives that correspond with local themes. For example, businesses and churches are represented in photographs. A SEA photo analysis of corresponding architectural pictures could help students recognize how their local community reflected the nations and vice-versa. I envision students having a challenging time on this site due to the “smattering” approach/lack of organization of the images. Nonetheless, the images are in there! Perhaps students who are successful in their navigation can teach others/model the searching process. Ultimately I would want the students to generate products, perhaps posters that reflect their ability to locate, analyze, and synthesize the images. For a concrete example, I envision a poster containing a well dressed Californian next to a photo of a well dressed Erie County person. A comparison/contrast list would be below each photo. The same could be done with the other themes: presence of immigrants/African American in the local community, forms of entertainment, architecture, natural disasters, funerals etc. These visuals, viewed side by side would create a rich classroom environment “surrounded” by images of the Gilded Age.  [] University of Pittsburgh’s Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection 1901-2000 houses Pittsburgh Image Collections from several major universities and contains scads of photographs in and around Pittsburgh, with over 15,000 images housed in 44 collections, the viewer gains great insight into how Pittsburghers worked and played through history. The coolest aspect of this site is the zoom tool built in to the site! By clicking on the + icon, the viewer is able to zoom and zoom to really examine specific details up close! I see this site as a great choice to enrich student searching skills. For example, on this site the search for “women” produces a lot of hits. When narrowing to “women workers” students see images of women in various jobs. But, to tie to my local history project idea of Life in the Gilded Age, I may want students to explore specifically what kinds of jobs women had during that era. Searching using “women workers + 1905” [] sharpens the search a lot, and provides images of women at specific jobs from that specific year! This information could branch in a couple possible directions for the local history aspect. One direction would be the study of women’s role in the Gilded Age. Because I have not found specific Fairview/local images of women (yet!), I would work on helping students analyze information from the photos, probably with SEA forms, and work them toward predicting/deducing the kinds of jobs women held during that era. Possibly cross-referencing with local employment records or primary sources written by women would determine if local women held similar jobs. The primary source photos of a nearby city could also serve as reference point using KWL worksheets, where the photos themselves serve as the Know aspect of women’s role, or types of employment opportunities, or how men’s jobs compared to women’s jobs, or hypothesizing WHY women worked in these places. I see curriculum connects possible to economics (i.e. Designing the family budget is a whole new experience if both parents work.), language arts letters sent from a woman worker in Pittsburgh to a female friend/pen pal in Fairview, and even business education, possibly examining WHAT the job entailed, why the job pictured is important to that region of the country, and/or if this type of work is done differently today.

**//Learning Activity 3-D-2 //**
 * Local Documents, Data, and Cartoons Posted Week #3 Feb. 1-5, 2010. **

· [] This site contains the actual document //History of Standard Oil// by Ida Tarbell. This expose on the corrupt practices of JD Rockefeller’s Oil Empire would have been available to the public during the Gilded Age. The local Sturgeon family was likely familiar with the theme of the books, and perhaps even read it! (The text was obtained from the book The History of The Standard Oil Company by Ida M. Tarbell. Copyright, 1904, by McCLURE, PHILLIPS AND CO.) ** How would you incorporate this source directly into the lesson. What would your students use this source for? **

· [] (tells of Erie flooding in 1893). This website contains primary source newspaper documents from around the US in 1893. Of particular interest is the Erie flood that occurred that year. Residents of Fairview would likely have experienced the same type of weather, and known about their neighbors being flooded. **How would you incorporate this source directly into the lesson. What would your students use this source for? What would the students do with this information (activity?)?**

· [] and [] These sites contain Erie Country genealogy data information specific to Fairview Township. Included are data like first and last names, addresses, and occupation. The Sturgeon family is referenced often, most of them appearing to be farmers. **How would you incorporate this source directly into the lesson. What would your students use this source for?**

· [] Obituaries appearing in the Erie Newspaper for 1900 to 1906 (M - Z). Note that two Sturgeons are listed here. No one by the name Sturgeon appears in 1880-1899. Four Sturgeons are listed as deceased from 1880-1889. Two Sturgeons are listed 1870-1879. · [] This site links viewers to Harper’s Weekly Cartoons for various Presidential elections ranging from 1860-1912. During the Gilded Age Era Harper’s Weekly would have been a prominent resource, and many Americans follow political campaigns. **Why is this important to the information the students will need? What will they need this information for? What will they be expected to do with this information?**
 * Why is this important to the information the students will need? What will they need this information for? What will they be expected to do with this information?**

** 2-A-1 by Sue Nelson Original Resources Posted to Wiki Week #2 Digital History Site ** []  This Digital History site is an online digital library of American History. I found access to key American documents, historical newspapers, and court cases. There is a section on ethnic voices where students could access information about Asian, Italian, and Irish Americans. I found the quote on the top of the website to be a very good description of this website, "using new technologies to enhance teaching and research." There is a wealth of information that would be helpful in creating lesson plans, worksheets, and learning modules. This website has it's advantages for both students and for teachers. A neat site that I will bookmark for future use myself! **(Christy McCanna)**

How Stuff Works Site []

Sue's website on How Stuff Works is "really neat," for lack of a better way to state it. I clicked around viewing videos on the history of prohibition to how to get stains out of clothes (searching deeper into the site). What a great resource I am sure I will use in the future with my colleagues and students. The subject matter that Sue presented related to videos in history, but the site offers a wide range of topic areas. **(by Jennifer Brunetti)**

Family Old Photos [] Sue's website to Family Old Photos takes us to photos taken in and of Erie, PA. With four pages of photos, the user can click on any photo to view an enlarged version with a cation of the picture and/or information that may include birth records, ancestry, etc. This is a nice source for researching the people and places of Erie, PA. **(by Jennifer Brunetti)**