These shoes represent a much needed item for safety and health for any soldier fighting in the Civil War, for either side. They reveal to us the need of more revenue in order to keep the troops cared for and able to fight. During this part of the 19th century, an income tax was found to be necessary by President Lincoln to help pay for this expensive war. Even though our citizens may have not liked this additional tax, they would have understood the necessity of it.
Production of these shoes, was an overwhelming task. In turn, cottage industries were founded in which small shops could produce a few hundreds of pairs of shoes to help with this pressing need. Now we see the federal government coming in closer contact with her citizens.
With this added need of essential items to help with the war effort, this causes great changes to our government.

One great primary source we see that changes the connection between our government and its people would be the Emancipation Proclamation. Changing the issue of slavery caused people from both the North and the South to realize that our country would differ now both economically and powerfully. It would now become a very different world of many people, northern, southern,free, and enslaved.
Some pieces of literature at that time are valuable tools to see and understand that time period. At the top of the list would be Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a book that President Lincoln said upon meeting the author, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War.” Reading from parts of this book, students could understand more clearly the horrible pain it was being the property of another person. Reading Ambrose Bierce’s “Horseman in the Sky” students could comprehend how cruelly the war tore families apart, sons against fathers, brothers against brothers. (We also see this division in the White House itself as the First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln had Kentucky family members who fought on the Confederate side during the war.). Another outstanding primary source would be the letter Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mrs. Lydia Bixby - a woman whose five sons who lost their lives in the Civil War.
These historical documents and pieces of literature help to convey much of the physical and emotional pain caused by this war.

Instant coffee caused American women to rethink meal preparation in general. This concept went back to wars being fought and the need to feed troops in the field. Our nation saw this need especially in the Second World War. Food was a vital element to keeping troops healthy, well fed, and satisfied. Much research went into this essential need by food companies leading to success in manufacturing meals that would help keep our troops going and on their feet. They were also able to develop food items that were able to withstand extremes in temperatures.
But, they were faced with a dilemma when the war ended suddenly in August of 1945 with the surrender of Japan. Now we had a surplus of much of these instant food items which had been needed by our troops, troops who were now headed home and out of the battle field.
We now needed to encourage housewives to rethink the use of these ready made foods. This would take some coaxing since American women were used to preserving and canning their own garden foods and cooking family meals from scratch. Advertising companies were able to conquer this challenge by depicting these ready made foods as modern and sophisticated!

Women in the first half of the 20th century were for the most part stay at home ladies. The man of the family worked out of the home earning the living for the family, while the wife’s job was the care for the home and prepare delicious, labor-intense, home cooked meals. After World War 2, the approach to food preparation took on a drastic new role. Women now lived in new home, with new modern appliances. She was now becoming a part of a sophisticated world with less labor drudgery involved. She is now ready modern magazines telling a woman it’s okay to smoke, drive a car, enjoy a drink before dinner and to cook her man a tasty time-saving meal plus a home-baked cake from a box. She now has more time to socialize with her husband and friends and later to have time to pursue a job and even a career. Advertising showed women they have come a long way, and still have a ways to go!

We see now at white dress symbolizing purity and representing the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. The white also the 'clean slate' of the future.
This dress depicts women and their lives on several levels. This dress would have been made by a woman either at home or in a factory. It shows a life with few choices or freedoms over how that life would be lived. The dress also represents women trying to have a voice in their culture, home, marriage and their country. She wants to break away from the hardships in her life and have more say in her what matters to her. These women were willing to do whatever was necessary to help her achieve these goals - she would fight, picket, have bonfires, even be arrested yet claim they were political prisoners, not criminals! These amazing women wanted to represent our Statues of Justice and Our Lady of Liberty carrying her cause to generations to come.

It would be interesting to see journals, letters and diaries of ladies involved with this movement - to also see how black women added to this movement. Black women at that time were especially fighting a losing battle. They were controlled by everyone - white women, white men and black men - with no voice at all in how her life would be lived. She suffered at the hands of many people with silent patience. It is wonderful learning about black women like Ida B. Wells who steps out and claims her power, rights and voice.
It would also be revealing to study other countries who were also involved in this powerful movement at that time. Countries such as Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Holland. What did women have to say in these places at this time?

This stone is one of several stones used to mark the delineation of the borders for our Nation's Capital, Washington, D.C. In the development and building our 10 mile area for this vital national city, we see certain other issues addressed. Our Capital was to be equally placed between the North and the South - and was to have to slaves in it. Being in the border area between Virginia and Maryland (both slave states) slavery was a serious controversy. Alexandria, VA was originally to be a part of the Nation's Capital, but with slave owning and trading such an important part of Virginia's economy, Alexandria was reverted back to Virginia and was not to be part of the Capital.
Issues also arose about creating a monument to our first president in the Capital, since George Washington was a significant slave holder!
A key problem was the use of slave labor to construct buildings and monuments in the new Capital. Slavery had been outlawed in the Capital, but was still widely used by private citizens and contactors organizing the building or this new Capital. People knew it to be wrong, but simply chose to ignore it. The erecting of our Capital caused much debate over this issue of slavery which in turn lead to the Civil War.

Many of the changes we see in boundaries and how they have been torn down would deal with the boundaries created by slavery - and the North and South. We no longer have free or slave states. Barriers are gone! Years ago, when travelling and crossing a state line (boundary) from the North and South - there would be a sign on the highway to say you were crossing the Mason-Dixon Line separating North and South. They no long exist. We have seen boundaries broken down dealing with segregation and Jim Crow laws. Schools are now integrated, as are restaurants, hotels, neighborhoods...
Boundaries have been broken down in the area of voting as well. Today black persons and women are allowed the right to this privilege. Most of these boundaries we have seen changed are invisible one, but vital changes none the less.