Steamship Arabia Museum

What material possessions did the people of the 1850’s consume? Was it the stubbornly embedded image of flour, tin plates, and shabby clothing? This question is easily answered by students with a resounding, yes. They have been given this image by uniformed teachers, stereotypical media, and entrenched family mythology. There is hope however, students and teachers need only pack up and drive mere miles to Kansas City Missouri to the City Market and take a tour of the Steamboat Arabia Museum, click on link for further information. This amazing collection of pre-Civil War artifacts is without rival. And when you visit the museum you are confronted and confounded with your stereotypes and preconceived notions of the West. The settlers of the West consumed many strange and exotic products that show their connection with the rest of the world. From fine china to sardines and rubber overshoes these settlers were not the disconnected bumpkins of the stories from our past, but were in fact people who were as materialistic as many of us today. This is a must see for anyone teaching in Northeast Kansas.

TAHPS Day 3 - Visual History

I found today’s discussion of the text The Art of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum to be fascinating. The ideas that the American public has and continues to be fascinated, if not entwined with being deceived, to be the most interesting aspect of the discussion. And our depth of deception knows almost know bounds or time periods. There is no cyclical pattern of ups and downs in the popularity of deceptions. Instead they weave themselves throughout American History. In addition, there seems to be no particular type of deception that is more popular than another. For example, the common carnival freak might be as much or more popular than the millionaire magician or the infamous con artist.

And just like the people the medium of entertainment and or infuriation of deception has evolved and reinvented itself over time. The magician now performs his/her acts on national television in place of the Opera House or town square. The con-deception may come through your email in the form of a “jackpot lottery” or “wish for success” rather than the door-to-door salesman. With evolution and the passage of time comes the ever-changing face of deception, from Barnum to David Blaine the book does a nice job of chronicling many of the more famous deceivers. The namesake of the book, P.T. Barnum is the measuring rod by which all other deception artists are measured and the author does a wonderful job telling his story and judging other would be masters of deception against his success. All-in-all a great discussion covering a great book, one I would recommend.

Photo Source: http://www.taxidermy4cash.com/bartlett.html

Nelson-Atkins Museum

Everybody has driven by and saw the beautiful lawn with the huge shuttlecocks that look as though they just landed, but have you dared to enter one of the great treasures of Kansas City, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art? The Nelson-Atkins holds the largest selection of publicly viewable art for the citizens of Northeast Kansas. The museum houses many rare and exquisite paintings, sculptures, and photographs. But beyond all of this the Nelson continues to give back through the Ford Learning Center creating new young artists and developing educational traveling trunks for area teachers and their efforts don’t end there. Altogether an amazing place and one that I would recommend for any teacher looking for a place to integrate art and history.

Daguerreotype Project

The average photo taken during a family outing last week may not seem like something of much interest to someone living two states away. However keep those photos in a safe place for roughly two or three hundred years and those same photos may tell a story, activate imaginations, and their intrinsic value escalates. Why is this so? It is because humans are curious about the past and are always searching for a connection to it so they may learn a bit more about their own lives.

Our own Daguerreotype projects started with examinations with the ordinary, the macabre, and the lovable Daguerreotypes of the early and mid 19^th century. These images developed on polished silver plates were the first successful system of photography and as with any new technology people wanted a slice of the experience. But what would you photograph? This is where the connection to our own sensibilities comes into play. Many of the people of the 19^th century were getting Daguerreotypes of along many of the same themes that we might today; family, work, and everything in between. We were shown images of deceased children, the last image for a grieving family, miners working the muddied grounds of California looking for Gold, and the family pet.

So how do we or should we use these images in our classrooms? The answer is an unequivocal, yes. These images are a window to the past that a book full of words cannot compete with. For the average student who is connect to as many as three or more electronic devices and who receives much of their information visually a simple Daguerreotype is a connection they can make. They understand a photo and they can, with some simple instruction, analyze these photos and pull out stories of peoples lives long gone and thus creating a student historian rather than a data return specialist. What an amazing tool for teaching!

Citation: American Memory Collection; Digital ID: cph 3d02055 Source: b&w film copy neg. post-1992

TAHPS Day 1-Document Project

Class, Philanthropy, Religion, and the evolving Industrial Economy how are they at once different and intertwined. Today was the start of our TAHPS summer institute and the discussion centered on the ever changing and undulating face of American society. To tell this story Paul E. Johnson and Sean Wilentz weave together the history of Matthias a colorful character of American History in their book Kingdom of Mathias: Sex and Salvation in 19^th Century America. Mathias’ story mirrors that of many Americans of the 19^th century and their growth within the emerging middle-class. Middle-Class America trotted down the path of middle-class emergence while at the same time creating the very path. In a very real sense the American Middle Class was to embark on a path of self discovery creating a new section of society as their feet pounded the pavement of creation.

With them came all the baggage of inherited traditions and values, including religion and preconceived notions on society, among others. Religion became the thread that wound through all classes while at the same time keeping these divisions cemented. Threading religion into American society is not to be frowned upon because religion is so pervasive in American life. Religion is the glue that for most people binds and guides them in their everyday lives. As Dr. Petrik stated in her discussion with the class today, when a person moves to a new location they are drawn to the familiar and the church fits the bill. And it is Mathias that exploits this familiarity to make himself anew in the middle-class image of the self made man. But Mathias is overshadowed in this quest of the self made by a person whose life has been shaped, quite literally, by events of the 19^th Century, Sojourner Truth. Sojourner not remakes her name, but her life as well. These transformations are mere personal examples of the ongoing struggle of an entire generation trying to find its way in an emerging American society of Middle-Class. For further entertainment on this subject please see the following project designed by Ben Doll, Adam Plummer, and Vickie Wold here.