Using images as sources in the time of the Civil War and forward.

1. Solving History’s Economic Mysteries 5:
Using Images to Teach Civil War and More
Deborah Kozdras, Ph.D.
University of South Florida
Stavros.coedu.usf.edu
dkozdras@usf.edu

2. Using Works of Art to Teach History
• art is a unique pedagogical tool helping students construct a
historical understanding of the past, in a way that other
sources cannot (Barton, 2001; Epstein, 1994a, b; Gabella,
1994, 1996, 1998; Levstik & Barton, 2001/2005).
• another group of researchers, including historians and history
educators, is considering art as historical evidence that can
advance students’ historical thinking just as is done by other
primary documents.
http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MS_06372_Spring2013.pdf

3. Art as a Pedagogical Tool
• In a study of her own eleventh grade U.S. history class, Terrie
Epstein (1994b), for instance, found that when various arts
were used, students developed knowledge that is “human or
lifelike” in form, unlike the analytical knowledge that they
gain from history textbooks or other non-art sources.
• when art is used as an evaluative tool to measure students’
historical understanding, students who felt uncomfortable
expressing their ideas in writing performed better (Epstein,
1994a)
•
http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MS_06372_Spring2013.pdf

4. Art as a Pedagogical Tool
• Marcy Singer-Gabella (1994, 1996) studied an eleventh grade
U.S. history class where works of art, such as photography,
film, painting, and music, were used as main teaching
resources. The study argues that because art is an expression
of human experience, it allows students to acquire a type of
historical understanding easily accommodating various
perspectives and fosters a degree of empathy for historical
actors.
http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MS_06372_Spring2013.pdf

5. Art as Historical Evidence
• A group of historians published a series of articles in a special
issue of Journal of American History (Coventry et al., 2006),
reporting their experiences in using works of art to teach
students.
• They argued that learning about the past through art requires
both teachers and students to be equipped with the
intellectual thinking skills they would need when working
with other primary sources.
http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MS_06372_Spring2013.pdf

6. Art as Historical Evidence
• History educators confirm this argument and further define
historical thinking as the ability to place a piece of artwork in
a larger historical context, and to make an argument about
the artwork’s place in a particular time period, just as
historians do when they inquire about the past by using
works of art as historical evidence (Barton, 2001; Desai,
Hamlin, & Mattson, 2010).
http://www.socstrpr.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MS_06372_Spring2013.pdf

7. 3 Teachers Case Studies
What they did
• Sharon: Teaching “The Spirit
of the Age”
• Brandon: Teaching Diversity
with the Arts
• Tom: Teaching History as
Art
Findings
• students do not
automatically comprehend
the meanings and
significances of primary and
secondary sources within a
larger historical context
• sources alone do not teach
students nor do they equip
students to think historically

8. So what?

9. Critical Media Literacy & The Economics of Attention

10. See, Think, Wonder
1) What do I see?
Evidence
2) What do I think?
Inferences
3) What do I wonder?
Critical Media
Strategy Questions

11. Civil War in Art
• http://www.civilwarinart.org/items?sort_field=Ite
http://www.civilwarinart.org/items?sort_field=Item%20Type%20Metadata,datesort

12. Civil War in Art
How are the roles of men and
women separated?
Who is doing the harder
work?
Are you surprised to see
women working in this way at
this period of time in history?
What is the publication?
Who read this media?
Why did they choose these
images to be on the cover?
What other critical media
literacy questions can you
think of asking?

13. What is wrong with this picture?
http://www.civilwarinart.org/items/show/43

14. Art activity

15. Historical
Paintings
• Genre emerged in
1700s to describe
paintings with subject
matter from classical
history and mythology,
and the Bible
• During the first half of
19th
century history
painting was one of the
few ways that the
British public could
experience its overseas
Empire. In this context,
history painting
became a form of
documentation.
http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/h/history-painting

16. Paintings: Primary or
Secondary Sources?
The phrase “created at the
time under study” provided a
focus for their discussion and
decision. The page about the
item identifies this as a
chromolithograph published
in 1893, and Columbus is
thought to have visited San
Salvador in October of 1492.
With those dates in mind,
would this be a primary
source for studying Columbus’
first encounter with land in
the New World? It was
created 400 years after the
event, definitely not “at the
time under study.”
https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2011/10/what-makes-a-primary-source-a-primary-source/

17. Paintings: Primary or
Secondary Sources?
How would the answer
change if the picture were
being used to study late
nineteenth-century attitudes
about the event? Most of the
institute participants agreed
that this picture would be a
primary source in that
context. They added that it
would also be a primary
source for the study of
nineteenth century painting.
At one point, I overheard a
teacher remark “This is
exactly the type of
conversation you want in your
classroom!”
https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2011/10/what-makes-a-primary-source-a-primary-source/

18. http://www.sil.si.edu/Exhibitions/Smithson-to-Smithsonian/lesson1.pdf

19. Paintings as Sources: Values
• Can effectively capture the spirit, opinions and
sentiments generally characterizing that time.
• Contain evidence about a culture at specific moments
in history- customs, styles, preferences, atmosphere,
architecture, manner of dress, appearance.
• Provide a visually stimulating piece of historical
evidence.
• Examples of art styles of the time.
• Comment on features of regime.
• Can show how people viewed a time.

20. Paintings as Sources: Limitations
• Produced by an artist with a definite point of view, and
therefore inevitably biased, being influenced by the
opinions and prejudices of its creator.
• Limited scope- generally highlights one specific aspect
of a period of history.
• Artist not generally concerned with providing a factual
account of a historical event or circumstance, but
rather with producing a creative piece of work or
expressing own opinions and emotional reactions.

21. Economic Way of Thinking
Principles of Economic Thinking
1. People choose.
2. All choices involve costs
and benefits.
3. People respond to
incentives.
4. People create economic
systems that influence
choices and incentives.
5. People gain when they
trade voluntarily.
6. Decisions have future
consequences.
Questions Based on Principles
1. What did they choose to do?
2. What were the benefits and
costs of their choices?
3. What incentives existed or
were introduced?
4. How did the system
influence choice? How did
changes influence choice?
5. How did trade work? What
were the gains from trade?
6. What were the future
consequences of decisions?

22. Timeline of Civil War Paintings
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/civilwar_timeline/

23. Paintings Activity

24. Daguerrotype
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/dag/medium.html

25. Civil War Photographs
Ask students to study the
technology visible in “Wagons
and Camera of Sam A.
Cooley” and think about the
photographic technology they
most often use. How would
the size of the camera affect
use? Invite students to list as
many other factors as they
can that would affect how
and where they would take
photographs. As a follow up,
students might research
photographic processes from
the Civil War era and consider
how that has changed over
time.
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/civil-war-photographic-technologies/pdf/teacher_guide.pdf

26. Home of a Rebel Sharpshooter
Alexander Gardner moved the
body into position and added the
rifle, which is not a sharpshooter’s
rifle, but a Springfield rifle, from
his own belongings.
Ask students:
Given that we often assume
photographs to be accurate
representations of the world, how
does this information change your
perception of the photograph, its
title, and the accompanying prose
description?
How does this information affect
your perception of other
photographs that you might not
expect to be posed?
What questions can we ask to
discern how true to life a
photograph is?
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012647605/

27. Matthew Brady – Civil War Photos
• No battle scenes
• Primitive technology
required people to be
still at the moment the
shutter snapped
• Wet plate glass process
difficult to master in a
studio and more
difficult outdoors
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos#documents

28. Civil War Photography Unit
• Photographers mixed
their own chemicals and
prepared their own wet
plate glass negatives.
• The negatives had to be
prepared, exposed, and
developed within
minutes, before the
emulsion dried.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/civilwarphotos.html

29. Is this photo fact or fiction?
The title information says
“General Grant at City Point,”
so the image claims to show
General Ulysses S. Grant on
horseback, in front of his
troops at City Point, Virginia,
during the American Civil War.
But, once you look closely at
the content of the photo,
questions begin to surface. . .
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/mystery.html

30. Photo Analysis Activity
Meet the document.
Observe its parts.
Try to make sense of it.
Use it as historical
evidence.
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/brady-photos/activities.html

31. Photo Analysis Activity
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Photographs_and_Prints.pdf

32. http://frankwbaker.com/mediatriangle.htm
Media Studies Triangle

34. Civil War Reasons
• https://www.archives.gov/
files/education/lessons/cot
ton-gin-
patent/images/patent-
drawing-xl.jpg
https://www.eliwhitney.org/7/sites/d
efault/files/minisites/cotton/patent.ht
ml
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/cotton-gin-patent
http://www.trackmyt.com

35. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

37. Friendly Competition: The Two Henrys

38. I: Inquiry/investigation
“Reading” like a detective: pg. 2
How have maps shaped how we see Florida?
Text dependent questions
• What is cartography? (R1,
R4)
• Why did early cartographers
and artists struggle with
creating maps? (R1, R3)
• How are things different
today? Compare and
contrast the way
cartographers used to create
maps to how we create
maps using technology
today.
Pg. 2 first article

39. Report: pg. 9
• Read the info on page
9. Find the landmarks
on the map. Imagine
that you are living in
this time period and
traveling to these
places.
• Write a narrative
journal by using the
information in the text
and go beyond the text
to be creative.

40. Close Reading for Map Texts: Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/resources/Analyzing_Map
s.pdf

41. Pg. 11. 3 Lenses
1) Geography: Spatial lens. Where were railroads constructed? Why there? Why do
we care?

42. 3) Economic lens
What scarcity problem did Plant
address?
What were his incentives?
What were the costs and benefits
of his decisions?

43. Use the text and
the map to
consider the
economic
implications &
impacts
(consequences) of
the railroads.
Ask questions and
do research to fill
in your missing
information.

44. Pg. 11. Three different texts.

45. R: Report/response
What were the costs and benefits to Henry B. Plant’s decision?
• Use diverse sources,
including images
(R3.7)
• Use a decision-
making grid (R1.3)
• Write a report based
on your findings in
the decision-making
model. (W1.2, W1.4)

47. http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/maps/index.htm

49. http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/interactive-map/?ar_a=1

51. Economics of the Civil War
Lesson 18 Why Did the South Secede”
Lesson 19 An Economic Analysis of the Civil War

52. Why Fight a War You Know You’ll Lose?
• In light of the economic
advantages of the
North over the South,
it seems in retrospect
almost irrational for
the South to have
engaged the North
militarily. Why did the
South secede?

53. Visual 18.1 Why Did the South Secede from the
Union?
• Was the South irrational to fight the Civil War? Some
people thought so. William Faulker, a distinguished
novelist from Mississippi, put the question in these terms:
• Who else would have declared a war against a power with:
– 10 times the area?
– 100 times the men?
– 1,000 times the resources?

54. Visual 18.2 Advantages of the North
At the outset of the Civil War, the North had many material
advantages over the South.
• The North had a population of 22 million.
• The South had a population of 9 million which included 3.5
million slaves.
• The North had 92 percent of the nation’s industries.
• The North had 22,000 miles of railroad track. The South
had 9,000.
• The North controlled the U.S. Navy and the merchant
marine.

55. Visual 18.3 Advantages of the South
While the South had fewer material advantages, some elements were in its
favor.
• The South had a clear war objective – to win independence. The North fought
for the somewhat less definite goals of preserving the union and eliminating
slavery.
• The South needed only to defend its territory. The North had to carry out an
invasion.
• The South had a strong military tradition. Many U.S. Army and Navy officers
had been recruited from the South. Great arsenals and army bases were
located in the South.
• The South believed that its cotton trade with Great Britain and France would
cause these nations to provide aid.

56. Economic Analysis of the Civil
War
Lesson 19

57. Visual 19.1 Did the U.S. Civil War Cause
Industrialization?
• Many individuals believe that the Civil War brought
unprecedented economic growth to industry.
• Simulated by increased demand for wartime goods, many
industrialists charged ahead to produce the goods and
services. Production of iron and steel are examples.
• Taking the Civil War as one example, how does war seem to
affect a nation’s economy?
• Does war foster or suppress economic growth?

58. Northern Production Increased
• New war factories
• Labor saving machines were invented
– Sewing machine
• Agriculture production increased
– Reaper
• Railroads expanded

59. Visual 19.2 Benefits and Costs of the U.S. Civil
War
Benefits of the U.S. Civil War
• End of slavery
• Protection of the Constitutional structure of
U.S.
• Increased industrial production of war-related
goods
• Higher military employment

60. Visual 19.2 Benefits and Cost of the U.S. Civil War
Costs of the U.S. Civil War
• Human death and dismemberment
• Destruction of capital (tools, factories)
• Loss of livestock
• Reconstruction
• Economic decline of the South
• Uncompensated loss of capital investment in slaves
• Inflation
• Production inefficiencies
• Decreased production of civilian goods and services
• Loss of rights of states to secede or claim independence from
the Union when in disagreement with the President or the
Congress.