HIST 813 Primary Sources 29 October 2005

As I was finishing my teaching project this past week, I had the chance to really search the various archives of digitized sources. I am starting to really learn the difference between the agencies. For example, the Library of Congress has a lot of pop culture, non-government holdings. NARA is almost exclusively made up of documents from government agencies. I learned by researching which ones to tap for something I was looking for. I definitely became smarter when it came to finding a primary source to fit my topic.

Richmond Chapter 10: Immigrants on the Prairies

This chapter was an overview of the various immigrants to settle in early Kansas. I had always known about the Italians in Frotenac, the Swedish in Lindsborg, and Mennonites scattered throughout. However, there were a number of groups Miner mentioned that I had never heard of. The French are one example.

To teach this, I would have students choose one of the settlements and create a museum display showing the history (past and present), the people, culture, and the accomplishments of the settlement.

HIST 813 Primary Sources 18 October 2005

While looking at the web-site of the Kansas State Historical Society, I reallized that other states' archives may be full of primary sources that they have digitized as well. I started looking and I found that I was right. Most states have a web-site for their state historical societies. Many of those have digitized collections that anyone can access. I looked through some from Minnesota, South Dakota, Ohio, and others. The Ohio web-site is very good. I found pictures of ex-slaves taken by workers from the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s.

I will keep this idea in mind when I am researching a topic. I can go to the historical society website for the state in which the incident occured and see what they have available.

Richmond Chapter 9: The Frontier is Settled

This chapter was about the hardships people faced during the settlement of Kansas. I found the information about the grasshopper invasion of 1874. We always hear about the dust bowl, but very little about this is taught.

I think a great activity for this would be to have students read personal accounts of this experience. I am interested to know if there are any pictures of this available. After looking at these and reading the accounts, a great discussion could be had. I would have the students ponder what the settlers must have been thinking. What was the cause? Could they have wondered if it was a punishment by God because of the religious background and the 'plague of the locusts' in biblical Egypt. Finally, I would have the class speculate as to whether or not this could happen again in Kansas. What would we do about it today?

Richmond Chapter 8: The Cattle Trade: Trail Herds, Towns, and Ranchers

This chapter was a short overview of the beginnings and changes in the cattle industry in Kansas. Miner writes of the unique characteristics of the various cattle towns in Kansas. When I was reading about the cattle drives and how the sound could be heard for a very long time before the cattle were visible, I thought of a learning activity that might engage my students.

The mental image I got when reading this told me that it would make for a good children's book. My students would research life in Kansas along the cattle trails. They will then write a story geared for elementary students. The story will be fiction but, through it, important historical information will be passed along. We could take the books to the elementary school and have my students read them to the younger kids.

HIST 813 Primary Sources 14 October 2005

This week I spent some time looking again through what the Smithsonian sites had to offer. I visited Smithsonian Education mainly to get ideas for the format of the teaching project I am working on. However, on this site, I found and printed a number of lesson plans that I plan to use to enhance some current lesson plans I have. One that I think is particularly interesting is the one on Revolutionary money. I can use this in World History when talking about the American Revolution and European colonization as well as in American History as a review of colonial times (since the HS standards begin at Reconstruction).

Another lesson I liked was Letters from the Japanese American Internment. I have tried to gather these and put together a unit on this in the past, but the creator of this lesson did such a good job that I think I will use theirs from now on.

Richmond Chapter 7 The Development of the Railroads

This chapter was a much more brief overview of the rise and fall of railroads in Kansas. I found it particularly interesting that Miner made a brief mention of the railroad that used to go through my hometown, Iola.

This chapter would be a good one to give notes from. As an activity, I have a few suggestions. First, I would have students plot the railroads on a Kansas map. Next, I would have them compare the populations of certain towns before the railroads, at its height, and again today. From that, students can draw their own conclusions about the impact of the railroad on certain towns. 'What If' questions would be appropriate here also.

Miner Chapter 3 "How the Iron Must Burn"

This chapter on the birth of railroads in Kansas and all of the unintended consequences that resulted from it made me see railroads in a new way. This chapter certainly covered many different effects the railroad had on Kansas. Miner discussed everything from to relations with Indians to suffrage. One of the more interesting things I found had little to do with the railroads, but it made me think of a great learning activity.

Miner uses quotes from many different sources in discussing relations with various Indian tribes. It is interesting to see how differently tribes are viewed. People in the U.S. at this time are starting to show sympathy for native peoples. However, others have the attitude that the only good Indian is a dead one. One particular man is quoted as saything that if those sympathizers had encountered the kind of horror that some Indians had inflicted upon white settlers, they would change their minds. I think a great activity would be to give students the opportunity to read numerous accounts by settlers (from all perspectives) and natives. Once they read the accounts, they could have a discussion about what they think, where they should go to find more information, and how the primary accounts may have changed or altered their opinions and knowledge of white settlement.

There has been some discussion around Lansing regarding why the state prison was placed there. I was disappointed that Miner stopped short of explaining this and only talked about the placement of the universities.

Update on Paper

To be honest, I am struggling a bit with my topic. I think my topic is a bit too broad and consists of two papers in one. I am not as far along as I would like to have been at this point. I have not yet made my trip to the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka to look at their holdings.

I am going to narrow the thesis to this:
The early history of Kansas has led to Kansas being as diverse on racial issues as geographic areas. How the lynching of Fred Alexander was handled in the press is evidence of Kansas' racial schizophrenia.

I will focus less on the specific details of the Alexander case and more on how the case was presented.

I would also like to add a brief discussion on Kansas' racial issues today.

HIST 813 Primary Sources 7 October, 2005

I decided to return to NARA this week and do more exploring there. Within the Most Requested link, I stumbled across links to WWII photographs. Here, NARA has collected hundreds of WWII photographs and put them together in a bundle that is easily browsed. Lookin through these photographs gave me a lesson idea. Students could choose from the volume of photographs and put together a photo essay of a topic in WWII. A teacher would have to be careful with how much access to these photos to grant to students as many are of dead bodies. If I were teacher anything lower than high school, I would pick the photos they saw.

I went on to look through the digitized collection of holdings at the NARA Central Plains region. I found a lot of interesting documents and photographs, but nothing that jumped out at me as a possibility of using it in class.

Richmond Chapter 6: The First Years of Statehood

This chapter covers material dealing with the early years of statehood for Kansas. Kansas didn't have much time to mature before she was engulfed in the Civil War. I think the best way to cover this material with students is to have them map the many skirmishes that occurred in Kansas during this time. I see giving them a blank map (as well as a map of Kansas then and now) and having them use information like this and other primary sources to plot the events. This activity will teach them a lot about this time in Kansas' history and sharpen their geography of the state as well.

Richmond Chapter 5: "Bleeding Kansas: The Territorial Period"

This chapter was incredibly informative over the forming of Kansas government. I think the best teaching activity to go along with this information would be a class project to construct a newspaper. There were so many events that happened in Kansas at that time, enough to fill a newspaper. Each student could research one event and write an article, find a picture, etc. for it.

This chapter also mentions events in Leavenworth. Any time they can make the connection between local history and state history is beneficial.