Links to Offsite Resources for Analyzing Artifacts

Resources for Students

• Making Sense of Maps
  This guide offers an overview of the history of maps and how historians use them, a breakdown of the elements of a map, tips on what questions to ask... [more]  LINKS TO MAPS IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Making Sense of Letters and Diaries
  This guide offers an overview of letters and diaries as historical sources and how historians use them, tips on what questions to ask when reading... [more] LINKS TO LETTERS IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Making Sense of Advertisements
  This guide, written by Daniel Pope, offers an overview of advertisements as historical sources and how historians use them, a brief history of... [more] LINKS TO ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Analyzing an 1804 Inventory
  In this interview Barbara Clark Smith discusses strategies for analyzing household possessions, specifically a 1804 inventory of the possessions of... [more]  LINKS TO INVENTORIES IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Analyzing Photographs
  In this interview, Frank Goodyear discusses strategies for interpreting an 1853 photograph of Niagara Falls taken by Platt Babbitt. The daguerreotype... [more] LINKS TO EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Analyzing Letters
  In this interview, Teresa Murphy discusses strategies for reading letters, specifically three 19th-century letters written by labor activist,... [more] LINKS TO LETTERS IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Analyzing a Colonial Newspaper
  This interview with Barbara Clark Smith discusses strategies for interpreting colonial period newspaper coverage, specifically a 1775 article about a... [more] LINKS TO NEWSPAPERS IN THE INDIAN CONVERTS ARCHIVE
• Analyzing Portraits
  • Mrs John Freake and Baby Mary: http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/pre_18thcentury/mrsjohnfreake/index.php
  • Copley Family Portrait: http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/18thcentury/copleyfamily/index.php
• Analyzing Houses:
  • Catherine Beecher's American Home: http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/19thcentury/americanhome/index.php
• General Resources:
  • EdSitement: http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/19thcentury/americanhome/index.php

Resources for Educators on Helping Students Analyze Artifacts

• Artifacts and Fictions Videos: This video workshop for high school American literature teachers introduces techniques for reading cultural, political, and religious artifacts and connecting them to the literature they teach. In each video program, experts in multiple disciplines do close analysis of a wide range of visual, print, and physical artifacts.
  • Workshop 1. Visual Arts
  • Workshop 2. Political History
  • Workshop 3. Social History
  • Workshop 4. Oral Histories
  • Workshop 5. Domestic Architecture
  • Workshop 6. Cultural Geography
  • Workshop 7. Ritual Artifacts
  • Workshop 8. Ceremonial Artifacts
• Artifacts and Fictions Website
• American Passages Website: American Passages: A Literary Survey provides professional development and classroom materials to enhance the study of American Literature in its cultural context. It is organized into 16 Units; each exploring canonical and re-discovered texts, and presenting the material through an Instructor Guide, a 30-minute documentary video series, literary texts and an integrated Study Guide.
• American Passages Videos. Most Relevant Videos:
  • 1. Native Voices
  • 3. Utopian Promise
  • 4. Spirit of Nationalism
• American Passages: Norton Instructor's and Student Guides
  • Sample Chapter: Unit Three--Utopian Promise