Overview:
By working with one primary source document, students will gain an enhanced understanding of the value of unique materials. The scrapbook will be used as an example of how primary source documents can illuminate a previous era. Because it documents a normal person’s life, the scrapbook will be a valuable discussion piece in terms of demonstrating the many narratives of American history.

This lesson is ideally suited to “US History II: Reconstruction to the Present, 1877-2001 ,” but it is adaptable to other courses with a focus on teaching historical methodology, or to an elective on women’s history. The section could fit into the curriculum around units USII.8, USII.9, or USII.10, when students are learning about pre-WWI America.

Objectives:

• To analyze a primary source document
• To familiarize students with the wide variety of materials that constitute primary source documents
• To discuss American college life in the early 20th century
• To discuss women’s social history
• To discuss the historical method and the value of unique materials

Time needed:

• One 40-minute class period

Classroom setup and materials:

• computers for each group of 3 students
• paper and pens/pencils

Procedure:

1. Divide class into groups of 3 students, and make sure that each group has access to a computer.
2. Give students the URL of the scrapbook and instruct them to flip through its pages in order to identify these key aspects:
3. What years of coverage are represented in its pages? What people’s names repeat frequently? What places are represented by materials in the scrapbook?
4. Next, ask the students to identify more complex concepts such as key events in Daisie’s life. In particular, ask them to locate evidence of Daisie’s main interests while she was a student at Simmons. Where did she go to school? What did she study? What did she do for fun?
5. Remind students that Daisie would not have the right to vote in America until 1920. Discuss the role of women’s education – and especially vocational programs such as those offered by Simmons – in changing the American landscape for women.
6. Transition to a discussion of historical methodology. Ask students this question:
7. “If you wanted to learn more about this person, what sort of documents would you locate?” This question should give the instructor an opportunity to discuss the variety of primary source documents available to researchers, from birth and death certificates to newspaper archives.
8. Next ask students these questions:
9. “What use does a scrapbook like this serve? What kind of historian would be informed by it?” This question should give the instructor an opportunity to discuss everyday history. This scrapbook represents the history of a normal person, not a mover and a shaker. It is also the history of a woman, someone who would not normally be represented in historical documents.