Credit: University of New Hampshire Media type: gravestone Annotation: William Dickson gravestone Year: 1692 What does this gravestone tell us about the past

When we think of historical evidence, most of us think of musty documents and brittle treaties. But everything you can see and touch is potential historical evidence. Your smartphone is evidence, along with your backpack and keys, your TAP card and shoes.

In this assignment, you will find an image of one piece of evidence that links significantly to the material we are studying in this module, and then you will present your evidence, your image, to your fellow students. They in turn will learn from what you’ve discovered and respond to your work.

The evidence you present must be a primary source; that is, it must have been created at the time we are studying in our assigned reading for this week (1500-1700) and so reflect that time and its historical concerns in some significant way. Such evidence might be a newspaper cartoon, a quilt, coin, painting, or invention. It may be a piece of jewelry or furniture. Think outside the box and see what you find. Avoid going with your first ‘find.’ Do some research.

Finding Your Evidence

We live in an amazing time. The Internet is the largest treasury of images in human history. You can access that storehouse with a few keystrokes.

Several websites will help you in your research, though what follows are only suggestions. Start your search at the Library of Congress , (https://www.loc.gov/ ). At the top of the LOC (Library of Congress) home page you will find a search box. Find the downward facing arrow in the “All Formats” box, click on it, and choose “photos, prints, and drawing” from the drop-down menu. Be sure to put in a search term — a topic that interests you.

Another resource is the Google Images page.. It works just like the Google search page, but its results are images, not websites. If you find an image using Google Images, be sure to dig deeper and find the information you need to identify the image. That might mean going to the webpage on which the image resides, a link to which is supplied by Google. Also, be sure that information is correct by finding another source that can confirm it.

Go to the National Archives site.: heck, your tax money supports it. Put it to use.

Care to tap an archive of 550,000 historical images? Here is the search page for the New York Public Library, one of the great libraries of the world

Finally, another resource is the Digital History website. On this page, images are organized by themes. Scroll down to skim them. The website can be searched by “eras” as well, with each era having its own stock of images. To find these, explore the site. It’s organization is simple.

In choosing one piece of visual evidence, be guided by your curiosity and the desire to instruct others about what you have found. But remember that the piece of evidence you choose must be an image that is downloaded directly within your Initial Post so that all can scan it while they read your Initial Post. Make sure that image of your evidence is a part of your Initial Post.

Answer These Questions about Your Evidence

When you’ve selected the image of you piece of evidence, present it to the class by answering the following questions:

1. Presentation: Post an image of your evidence so that others can examine it. (that is, upload the image of your evidence to this forum). To learn how to embed images in a discussion post in Canvas is easy.
2. Identification: Name your evidence and provide the year in which it was made. Also, provide its maker, if known.
3. Description: Describe your piece of evidence in about 250 words given the image you’ve selected of it and which you’ve uploaded. Slow down and actually see the image in all its detail. Remember that seeing is a skill. Be careless of nothing and dissect the image in detail so that another, unable to view the image, would be able to form a clear and memorable mental picture of it in their minds.
4. Analysis: Now provide the historical context for your evidence by drawing on the assigned reading. 1. What does that context tell us about this piece of evidence? 2. What does the this piece of evidence tell us about the time in which it was created? That is, why is your piece of evidence historically significant? Be specific and do the image justice.
5. Why This Piece of Evidence: Why did you choose this particular piece of evidence? Explain.

Submit the image of your piece of evidence and the answers to these questions in your Initial Post to this forum. Note the deadline.

Next….

After the Initial Post deadline, examine the images of evidence others have posted in this forum and their answers to our questions. Respond to one of these by the deadline by answering one or more of the following questions:

• Might the student’s analysis of his or her evidence be improved? Does it tell us more about the past? In what way?
• Did the student provide accurate information in their answers? (How might one check?)
• How does this piece of evidence link to the assigned reading for this week?

Learn from a pro….

How does a professional historian take apart a piece of visual evidence and explore its significance? Sit beside historian Frank Goodyear as he analyzes an 1858 daguerrotype of Niagra Falls .