Analyzing Objects

Porcelain

Musket Ball

Smallpox

Nail

Reaper

Shirtwaist

Transistor

Coffee

Record

Tire

Dishwasher

Dress

Stereograph

Stone

Mail

Shoe

Question 1:
Reflecting on what you know about historical facts and relating these facts to new information that you've uncovered.
Question 2:
By telling a story about the uses of the object and the also the particular way that item may have been used by that historical person.
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Module Id: 689
User Id: 1452
Question 1:
I is an old stone, perhaps a marker because it is fenced-off. There appears to be inscriptions near the bottom.
Question 2:
I may tell a story of the people of that time and the reason for the stone marker.
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Module Id: 1039
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Question 1: A very well-worn pair of shoes
Question 2:
Who might have worn these shoe?. For how long were they worn? Was this the only pair this individual owned and did the purchase of these shoes consume much of the household budget?
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Module Id: 1002
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Question 1: It seems to be a reaper used to harvest grain.
Question 2: I might tell the story of how food production was conducted over 150 years ago.
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Question 1: A collection of square cut nails.
Question 2:
Who made these nails? Where were they produced. Where were they to be used? How do they tie into the greater history of building America during the 19th Century?
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Module Id: 953
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Question 1:
It is a very old coffee can. It seems well-worn, perhaps because it had other uses after it's contents were depleted.
Question 2:
It shows the necessity of coffee as a much-loved beverage in this country. It also shows the thrift of the average American home in repurposing anything to other uses.
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Module Id: 1147
User Id: 1452
Question 1: It is an early model automatic dish washing machine, probably post World War 2.
Question 2:
How the invention of labor-saving devices redefined the responsibilities of housewives in America.
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Module Id: 1093
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Question 1: Many old automobile tires probably collected in a scrap drive during World War 2
Question 2: How major events in history can cause radical upheaval in normal society
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Module Id: 1108
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Question 1:
The comparing of ideas gleaned from facts that you already know with a careful, analysis of this information related to primary and secondary information.
Question 2:
Have the student create an idea about the item's significance and it's context in history, and to then examine other possible uses or stories about the historical item, based on it's relevance to stories about it's use in that period of history.
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Module Id: 689
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Question 1:
Question 2:
It tells the story of how the nation's disagreements are reflected in the history of the stone's location.
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Module Id: 1039
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Question 1:
What happened in the late 18th Century U.S. was reflected in the decisions of the 19th Century U.S. It illustrated how sectionalism over slavery and economics caused, rather than prevented, division in the nation.
Question 2:
By examining the boundaries of the U.S. and it's North American neighbor countries. This tells the story of how growth of one people affects the territories of others.
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Module Id: 1039
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Question 1:
The shoe is emblematic of the severe changes. that the Civil War cost the nation. The imposition of an income tax was previously unheard of. The shear quantity of goods drastically altered production and procurement methods and greatly increased the scope of the Federal government in citizen's lives.
Question 2:
Draft notices changed the nature of military service, which had been voluntary, previously. Bills of Purchase would show the immense scope in quantities required to field any army. Newspaper notices of battle casualties would have reminded citizens of the immense human costs of war.
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Module Id: 1002
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Question 1:
It is a McCormick Reaper which greatly increased food production by increasing how much food was harvested, after planting. This allowed the collection of food (reapers) to keep pace with the seed drills and horse-drawn steel plows.
Question 2:
The dramatic increase in canals, all-weather tool roads, and rail roads changed farming from subsistence to more commercial farming in just 50 years. Freight prices for moving farm produce decreased by as much a 80% in just 50 years. More of the U.S. population began living in cities as a result of these changes.
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Question 1:
It is a McCormick Reaper which greatly increased food production by increasing how much food was harvested, after planting. This allowed the collection of food (reapers) to keep pace with the seed drills and horse-drawn steel plows.
Question 2:
The dramatic increase in canals, all-weather tool roads, and rail roads changed farming from subsistence to more commercial farming in just 50 years. Freight prices for moving farm produce decreased by as much a 80% in just 50 years. More of the U.S. population began living in cities as a result of these changes.
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Module Id: 952
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Question 1:
When nails were scarce the more expensive and, or time consuming log cabin, post and beam, or brick/ stone homes limited expansion of America to the West. When square-cut nails, and later, wire-cut nails were encouraged to be mass-produced, then the cheaper balloon frame house allowed much less expensive and easier-to-build homes to greatly expand the movement westward.
Question 2:
By having more people settle westward, the western sections of America were more quickly populated. This allowed for more territory to be claimed by the U..S. Government as American lands for increased settlement. This, in turn, increased more desire for immigrants to get cheap, available land, something that they had been denied in their old countries.
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Module Id: 953
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Question 1:
It helped to provide a quick drink for our troops in the war. After the war, it was marketed as an alternative to the laborious task of percolating coffee each morning.
Question 2:
They deny the student of history knowledge of what women actually thought of these new foods (psychographics of marketing). It shows the attempts of food producers to "win over" women consumers but not the success actually experienced by these producers.
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Module Id: 1147
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Question 1:
It shows how war time military production efficiently transitioned to American consumerism. Before the war, automobile companies retooled to make tanks and planes. Typewriter companies (Remington Rand) helped produce M1 Carbine rifles.
Question 2:
It showed the rapid resolve of consumer capitalism to quickly react to problems and provide never-before-seen remedies to a transition from military to civilian production. More consumer goods resulted from this transition than at any other time before it. New military and civilian industries developed around the microwave. Uses were for advanced radar systems (for military and civilians water and aircraft) and for microwave ovens, mainly for civilian purposes.
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Module Id: 1093
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Question 1:
It showed not only the continued uses of worn-out items like tires, but the necessity of limited uses of consumer goods, where the emphasis was placed on increased military production.
Question 2:
Who was the intended audience? What message was being made? (Were there any "hidden" meanings to the message.) How effective was the message to its intended target audience?
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Module Id: 1108
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Title: What does this corn cob doll mean to a 19th girl, living in rural Virginia?
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
Pass a corn cob doll around the class and have students carefully observe it's colors, texture and ware. Then have them speculate on what kind of girl would have used this doll, the conditions in which the child lived, and the life of her family during this time in history. I would then provide letters and diaries chronicling the history of that family, in order to better explain the significance of that doll to the girl and how it fit into this families overall story.
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Module Id: 689
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Title: Do Stones Tell Stories?
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
I would compare other famous stone monuments, such as Plymouth Rock and Stonehenge. I would give a brief background of each and their contributions to history. I would then open with a background story of the stone marking of the District of Columbia and the laying of the 40 stone boundary markers. Then I would pose" what if" questions. What if Alexandria didn't get some of it's territory returned from D.C.? How might this have affected the session attitudes of that time?
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Module Id: 1039
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Title: The Diverse Costs of the Federal Government to Wage a Major War
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
I would circulate artifacts from the Civil War (Bills of Sale from suppliers to Federal Government procurement agents; paper money from the North and South to illustrate how a new form of wealth and payment had to be created to pay for major wars; Newspaper articles and pictures of soldiers in camp to show how warfare created new social situations for Americans.) After these artifacts were circulated, I would have students gather into groups of three and describe how life would have changed for Americans during the Civil War.
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Module Id: 1002
User Id: 1452
Title: How Mechanization Improved Life in 19th Century America
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
Show the class pictures and sketches of early 19th Century farming techniques where human labor furnished almost all of the effort in farming. Then show pictures and illustrations of the horse-drawn McCormick Reaper and John Deere Tiller to illustrate how far farming had progressed. I would then provide statistical information to compare the populations in towns and cities in the latter 19th Century to the earlier part of that century. I would have the students provide hypothetical statements to explain the effects of farming technology to population growth and movement.
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Module Id: 952
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Title: Westward Bound; The Mighty Nail's Move Westward
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
Show students examples of nails, throughout history. Ask which type of nail looks harder to make? What would determine the cost of these nails? Is it easier to build a house without nails? (Show pictures of waddle-and-daub, brick/ stone, and log cabins.) Ask if any students have built anything with nails? Ask how much more difficult it would be to build without nails. Have the students put their thoughts together in a short essay, regarding this topic, and how it would have quickly caused expansion of America's population, westward.
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Module Id: 953
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Title: How Nutritious Food Won The War
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
Show videos from the War Department about the challenges of feeding our troops in combat conditions. Ask students what foods that they eat that are instant, processed, freeze-dried, etcetera. Show examples of foods that we use today (instant coffee, cake mixes, freeze-dried camping food). Have a discussion about how these foods may have tasted during the 1940's verses now.
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Module Id: 1147
User Id: 1452
Title: How Capitalist Manufacturing Beat Communism
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
Show a video of U.S. war production in World War 2. Then show a video of the transition of the U.S. industrial base into post-war consumer production. Then I would show videos of the relative spartan existence of average Soviet citizens, with their food lines, cramped government-issued apartments and lack of reliable automobiles and then show statistical data that bears these facts.
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Module Id: 1093
User Id: 1452
Title: The Sacrifices Needed to Win a War
Grade Level: High
Short Answer:
Have groups of three students examine war propaganda posters from WW 2, along with the ration cards of average American families. Ask each group to write what images might exists in the minds of the average American school-aged child, concerning sacrifices needed to win the war. Have each group write the images and attitudes that these conditions may have been in their minds, as students during the war.
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Module Id: 1108
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