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Geography 417

History Lab - Understanding and Using Primary Sources

Image: Flag of California

Primary Sources

Before you Start: It's always a good idea to print a copy of this exercise out first. Then you can pencil in your answers on the paper copy as you go through the assignment. Should your internet connection fail, then you won't have to start over. Also, you'll have a 'hard copy' as proof you did the assignment.

When you want to enter your answers, remember to press TAB after you have typed in a response. You can also use your mouse to move to the next response box. DO NOT press enter until you are finished. Once you press Enter or click the Submit button below, you will be redirected to a page that displays your answers. It's a good idea to keep a copy of this as well.

Background:The ability to do some rudimentary historical and/or spatial thinking has been shown to improve teacher quality.  Part of such thinking stems from the epistemological question "How do you know what you know?" Rather than completely rely upon the distilled histories and opinions of others, professional educators are capable of "doing history" and forming their own opinions about historical events.

To this end, this exercise has been developed to help you gain some skill using primary sources, those resources that historians themselves rely upon.  This exercise may prove helpful as you seek to utilize primary sources in your classrooms so that distant places and times might come alive for your pupils. 

The ability to effectively interpret and use primary sources is also a skill in which you are supposed to be able to demonstrate some competency.

CSBE Standard: This exercise addresses in part several of the California State standards for 4th graders:

4.4 Students explain how California became an agricultural and industrial power, tracing the transformation of the California economy and its political and cultural development since the 1850s.

  1. Discuss immigration and migration to California between 1850 and 1900, including the diverse composition of those who came; the countries of origin and their relative locations; and conflicts and accords among the diverse groups (e.g., the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act).

  2. Describe rapid American immigration, internal migration, settlement, and the growth of towns and cities (e.g., Los Angeles).

  3. Describe the development and locations of new industries since the nineteenth century, such as the aerospace industry, electronics industry, large-scale commercial agriculture and irrigation projects, the oil and automobile industries, communications and defense industries, and important trade links with the Pacific Basin.

  4. Analyze the impact of twentieth-century Californians on the nation's artistic and cultural development, including the rise of the entertainment industry (e.g., Louis B. Meyer, Walt Disney, John Steinbeck, Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, John Wayne).

 

CSET Standard:This exercise address in part several CSET Skills and Abilities requirements. Specifically covered by this lab are the domains below:

Part II-B. Candidates for Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials analyze, interpret and evaluate research evidence in history and the social sciences.

 

Objectives: In general, students will be able to identify and evaluate primary documents from the Library of Congress, a well-respected repository of historical documents.

* DO NOT start this exercise the night before it is due. You may need help, or a server may go down.

*DO stop by your instructors office if you are having trouble.

*DO remember to put your name in the response box below.

This exercise in primary sources relies upon the American Memory Website, hosted by the Library of Congress.  It’s easily one of the best uses for the internet yet created.  There are many, many useful exercises and ideas on this website for teaching a variety of history and geography topic AND it is an excellent resource for honing your abilities with primary sources. 

Part I: Vocabulary and Fundamentals

Step 1. Click on the link to the right to open in a new browser window the: The Learning Page from the American Memory Website.  

    **Remember you can switch back and forth between open browser windows by pressing Alt + Tab. 

Step 2.  Though there are many avenues possible that may prove useful as an entrée into primary documents, you need to just click on the green "getting started" link.   You should do yourself a favor and explore the Library of Congress website, especially the American Memory collections.

Step 3. Open the "Getting Started" page and answer the question below. :

1. Fill in the blank.  According to the website, the American Memory archive has over 100 collections and more than  million primary source documents, photographs, films and recordings.

Step 4. Click on the words primary sources and open a new window that offers a basic background on primary sources.  Note that there are ready-made activities for teachers and students on this page. Read the paragraph to the right of the painting and answer the following questions.

2. Fill in the blank. is an example of a primary source listed on this page

3: Fill in the blank. is an example of a secondary source.

Step 4: Scroll over (move your mouse over) the words artifacts, documents, sounds, etc on the left of the picture and read the paragraphs that pop up to the right of the pictures.  Answer the following questions:

4: What type of primary source would a bicycle from the 1880s be considered?

Questions 5 and 6: Fill in the blank.  In the paragraph about documents, the website argues that  “Just because something has been published does
not make it or reliable, but even sources can tell us important things about the past. 

7.  Fill in the blank. A diary or a journal kept by a pioneer coming to California would be considered an document. 

8. Fill in the blank. This website also suggests that is (are) particularly important for understanding the history of minority groups, because their histories may have been overlooked and may not otherwise survive in the written records that are frequently used to document the past.

9.  Fill in the blank. In addition to audio, this website lists as yet another type of primary source, a type that may prove useful as you seek to combine art and humanities instruction with social studies.

Part II: Rules of Thumb for using Primary Sources

Step 5.  Though you are encouraged to look through the links to Teacher and Student activities, etc.  Our purposes are best suited by jumping straight to the second activity in the Student Lesson section called Analysis of Primary Sources.  Click the link below, read the information on this page and answer the questions below.

Link: Analysis of Primary Sources

10. Fill in the blank. The website argues that one way researchers guard against bias in their source is to their evidence against other evidence and sources.

11. Use the time and place rule to place the following pieces of historical evidence or data about the Gold Rush in rank order, with 1 being the best piece of evidence and 4 being the least reliable.  All of the "evidence" below bears witness to a Gold Rush era mining camp that was buried by an avalanche in 1850.

  1.  A diary, recently found in a lost bank vault, written by a Gold Miner from the camp who was the only one to escape.

  2.  The mining camp itself, recently found, in a secret Valley in the Sierras.

  3. An account of the disaster, written by the son of the sole survivor of the tragedy.

  4. A newspaper account of the mine camp disaster, told word for word by one who watched the event from atop a nearby mountain

12.  Read the "bias rule" carefully and consider the "Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources", then select from the fictitious sources below regarding Father Junípero Serra's life, the one that probably has the least potential bias:  .  Be prepared to defend your answer in class.

  1. The account of the event written in a biography written 10 years after his death by his brother.
  2. His collection of letters to the King of Spain
  3. His personal diary.
  4. His columns in the “mission newspaper”

Part III: Application to California

Step 6:  You could explore the rest of this exercise, it takes you to an interesting set of documents and a lesson regarding slavery in the US.  Since this class has a focus on California, you will in the meantime turn instead turn to "California as I Saw It" website, another in the collection of the American Memory on-line museum.  This is a collection of primary source texts all providing accounts of California in the first 50 years or so of its statehood.  Another link is below:

California as I Saw It

Using this website, you can search the on-line books, texts and documents by subject, author or title.  For example, you might be interested in Death Valley, so you would click on the subject link and then click on the alphabetically appropriate link for Death Valley.  Scrolling down to the D's, you'll notice a link to Death Valley- Description and Travel .  Clicking on that link takes you to a page with information about this manuscript, including the author's name, publication date, some other data and a brief description. 

Step 7: To check that you can use this resources, use one of the search functions to find a text in which the virtues of a California herb called Canchalagua was extolled to the Americans.  Answer the following questions.

13. Fill in the blank. What is the name of the author of this text: . (first name first, last name last).

14: What year was the text originally published:

Step 8: Find the link that reads "View Text ", and take a look over the text.  Read a few paragraphs from several chapters to get a feel for the language and style of the time.  What you cannot easily find is the graphic that would have been included.  Click this link to see it.   Read through the concluding chapter a little more carefully and attend to what begins on page 88.  Answer the following questions:

15.:  Which profession does the author claim to be: .  Consider how this admission alters the authority of the text.

16: The true purpose of this "Sketches of California" is revealed on page 88.  What is the purpose of this manuscript .

Step 9 : After you have gotten a comfortable notion of the author's intentions and the characteristics of this manuscript, use the response boxes below to answer these "Questions for Analyzing Primary Sources", adapted from the American Memory's Learning Pages. 

Finish each sentence so it accurately characterize the reading. Use the words emphasized with italics to help you fill in the blanks.

17. Was it created through a spur-of-the-moment act, a routine transaction, or a thoughtful, deliberate process?
Answer:  It was a

18. Did the recorder have firsthand knowledge of the event? Or, did the recorder report what others saw and heard?
The recorder (had)

19. Was the recorder a neutral party, or did the creator have opinions or interests that might have influenced what was recorded?
The recorder

20. Did the recorder produce the source for personal use, for one or more individuals, or for a large audience?
The recorder produced this for

21. Was the source meant to be public or private?
The source was mean to be

22. Did the recorder wish to inform or persuade others? (Check the words in the source. The words may tell you whether the recorder was trying to be objective or persuasive.) Did the recorder have reasons to be honest or dishonest?
The recorder may have had reasons to be

For this last component of this lab, you need to peruse some of the rest of "California as I Saw It" Collection.  You should start by clicking the "California as I Saw It:" First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 link takes you to another page which explains how the collection was created, but it also has a section entitled "Voices Included, Voices Absent", that contains some clues to what types of books are in this library and what types are missing.  There are some 190 "books" in this collection, so take a few minutes to look at least a half dozen.   Find one that you think might be useful in a classroom setting. 

LAST: In the box below, record the name of the author, the date, the title of the work and a couple of subject or key words.  Write a short paragraph defending why you think this source would be useful to a 4th Grade social studies class. Don't use the "return" or "enter" button, the text will wrap by itself.

Type your name, email address and code into the boxes below and click sumbit.





When you click the button below, you will be directed to a web page that shows your answers. The instructor will get a copy of this email as well, but you may want to keep a copy for your records. If you are curious about the correct answers, please bring your questions to class

 

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