Identifying People and Situations in Historical Photographs
1. Who are the people in the photograph?
1. The people in the first photograph are women from a different generation. It looks like it could
be the 20s or 30s to me.
2. The people in the second photograph are Adolf Hitler and young blonde haired boy. There are
women in the background as well.
3. There are African-Americans in the third picture who seem to be protesting and policemen with
police dogs who look like they are trying to control the protests.
4. The fourth picture is a picture of Lady Liberty hanging a man.
5. This picture shows a family (mother, father, and child) looking out onto the Statue of Liberty.
6. There are people inspecting others in this photograph. The people being inspected are likely
immigrants coming into America.
What is the situation of the people in the photograph? Provide evidence from the photo
that tells you this.
1. The women in this picturing appear to be preparing a meal. Evidence from the photo include
them operating a stove and the woman at the table is operating a mixer. There also seem to
be cans of food on the table.
2. Hitler is interacting with a young blonde haired boy so I’m going to assume that the boy also
has blue eyes. Hitler had an idea of a perfect race of people and the criteria these people met
were they were blondes with blue eyes.
3. I believe that these African-Americans are protesting, this is probably during the 50s and 60s
when racial tension was at an all-time high and the Civil Rights movement was taking place.
The policemen are there trying to control these protests and they have dogs, a dog is pictured
attacking a man of color in this picture.
4. Lady Liberty is hanging a man who may be of color. Some evidence from this picture are that
she is holding a noose and the noose is around the man’s neck. It is not clear what the race of
the man is, but from this picture he looks dark.
5. In this picture a mother, father, and their child are standing near a body of water looking out at
the Statue of Liberty. I do not know where in New York they would be standing because I am
not familiar with New York, but they are obviously looking out at Ellis Island.
6. It seems to me that immigrants are being inspected before they enter America, likely Ellis
Island again shown here in this picture. The windows are similar to the ones of the
immigration building on Ellis Island and this picture reminds me a lot of the scene on the movie
Hitch where they visit Ellis Island and go to the immigration place.
What message do you think the photographer was trying to convey?
1. In this picture I believe that the photographer’s message is that especially back before most of
us were born that jobs in the kitchen were primarily done by females. I’m not saying that it is
extremely different now, but a lot more men work in the kitchen now and a lot less people in
2. general spend time actually cooking in a kitchen. Now men do a lot of cooking and most
people prefer fast food to a meal prepared in a kitchen.
2. The message in the second picture is that Hitler may be making the first contact with a
member of his super race of people. This young blonde haired boy may not realize how
fortunate he is at the moment.
3. While the African-Americans are protesting, they aren’t doing anything wrong. They aren’t
being violent, they don’t even have signs or anything. Even though they aren’t being violent,
the police have showed up with dogs and a dog is attacking a colored man. Why? How come
the police can use violence to stop a non-violent protest? I believe the message this shows is
that historically police have been violent with minorities when it wasn’t exactly necessary.
4. The message being conveyed in this picture is that the same people telling you that you are
provided all the tools to succeed here in America are the one’s who cause you to fail or in this
case kill you. I believe that this is a black man in this picture too, so it could also be saying that
it is extremely hard for black people to succeed in America.
5. To contrast the message shown in the previous picture, I believe that this picture is showing
people’s hope of the American dream. These people are looking hopefully out at the Statue of
Liberty which serves to me as a great symbol of the American dream.
6. I don’t really know what message could be shown in this picture, I think that it is really
important that we know about how a lot of the people in America got here though and a lot of
people came through Ellis Island.
Why is this photograph important to history?
1. This photograph is important because like I said it’s not just women back in the kitchen
anymore, men do it too. Also, we don’t do a lot of cooking back in the kitchen anymore or from
scratch. People want something quick and easy nowadays so they are willing to give up
quality for fast food.
2. This picture is important to history because it shows a prime example of Hitler’s super race in
effect. It is important to see things like that, you should be aware of things that have happened
in the past to work to try to avoid them in the future.
3. I think this is especially important to history and definitely at the moment. Within the past 5
years there have been a lot of racial tension building up again because of police brutality
specifically on black people who most of the time were innocent. I think we should look back
and really think about what’s going on and realize that violence is not the answer to problems.
4. This picture is important to me because it is nice to know that I am not the only person who
has had the thought that sometimes you’re doing everything right and it is America or the
government who is holding you back.
5. Like I said earlier, the message of this picture totally contradicts the message of the previous
one and the idea of the American dream is really nice. I would like to say that it is equally
achievable for everyone, but I don’t know that for sure.
6. Again, I believe this picture is important because it is important to know where a lot of the
people in our country came from. Most of us are immigrants and this picture can help back
that up, a lot of people who live here today, their great grandparents may have had to pass
through Ellis Island.
3. What questions does this photograph raise?
What is going on exactly? Where do they take place? What time period are they set in? Who are the
people in the pictures?
Write your own caption for the photograph:
1. “Women Prepare a Meal”
2. “Hitler and One of His Children”
3. “African-Americans Protest”
4. “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”
5. “The American Dream”
6. “Inspection”
What could you do to find more information about this photograph?
To get more information on these pictures all you need to do is describe what is going on in these
pictures in the Google search bar and you can find out just about anything you want to know.
Describe what time period it is and what is going on.
Based on what you have observed list 3 things you might infer from the photograph