This section contains tips and techniques for gathering information from visual
materials and documents, like diaries and letters.
Documents are in PDF format unless otherwise specified. They require Adobe®
Acrobat® or the free utility
Adobe®
Reader®.
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The Cover to Samuel Lane's Almanack for 1738. New Hampshire Historical Society Collections.
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A new Fashioned
almanack
or a journal for the year
1738
wherein is contained or pened down some Remarkable Providences:
as Deaths, Thunder and Lightning - Lights in the air: together with a general course of the Weather etc.
by me: Samuel Lane
(not) master of arts (nor yet) Studient in Physick & astronomy
Hampton: in New Hampshire whose Latitude is about 43 degrees
15 min north etc: as I call it. |
Interpreting Historical Materials:
Tips for Evaluating
Historical Documents
Tips for Historical Interpretation
of Visual Materials
In studying and interpreting historical materials, it is useful to follow a general plan. These documents suggest
sets of basic questions a student researcher may pose when approaching historical
visual or
written material.
Everyday Documents: An Introduction
Students are invited to look more closely at everyday documents common to their own lives and see them as the "stuff"
of history. The exercise includes a brief set of questions that a student, acting like an historian, might pose
when studying documents. An 1831 teacher's note is provided to show that questions may be applied to old as well
as new materials. A vocabulary list defines a few terms common to historical study, such as primary source,
hypothesis, and transcript. The exercise will serve well as a preparation for the museum's lesson
Document Detectives.
Using Primary Sources: Studying Your
Town
Students examine photographs, maps, and town directories of their local community in order to draw inferences about
life in the late 1800s and early 1900s. While it may be conducted locally, the activity is designed to introduce
students to services and resources of the New Hampshire Historical Society's research library. The exercise could
very well serve as a stepping-off point for a more extensive study of one's local community. The Society's librarians
can provide direction and recommend additional resources for such a project.
Exhibiting Your Own Collection:
Classroom Activity
Students assemble a collection from a number of "objects" (actually an eclectic selection of clipart)
and create an exhibit from the collection. In the course of the exercise, students wrestle with such real curatorial
problems as how to define a theme for their exhibit and how to cull objects to meet space limitations. Student
visitors to the museum may better appreciate the arrangement of objects after completing this activity. (A New Hampshire Historical Society exhibition on the decorative arts exemplifies the challenge. Curators had to select and
organize approximately 100 objects from a collection of over 6,000 to create an exhibit with a cohesive theme in
the gallery space allotted.)
This student exercise was developed by Matt Welter, Curator of Education for the
Neville Public Museum
of Brown County, Wisconsin, and is used with his permission..
Letter from John Stark:
Introduction to Primary Sources
This file provides a background for studying original documents and uses a 1777 letter written by John Stark as
an example.
Lewis Hine Photographs: "Boy with Bare
Arms . . ."; "Little
Girl", and "Small
Boy . . ."
These three files each contain a photograph taken by Lewis Hine in and around Manchester's Amoskeag Mills in 1909.
Each document also includes a photograph analysis worksheet.
Analyzing Cartoons: Political
Cartoons in New Hampshire History
Students study how cartoons can be used to make political statements. The lesson focuses on the contributions of
three notable New Hampshire figures; however, it is easily adapted to other issues and other times.
[HTML Version]
Sources of Community History
The printed, manuscript, and archival sources listed here are useful for studying the history of New
Hampshire communities in the eighteenth century. The list is divided into three parts: documents found at the
town level; documents found at the county, provincial, state, or federal levels; and personal papers and
accounts.
Lesson: Petition of 1779 from Twenty Slaves in
Portsmouth
This lesson from the New Hampshire History Curriculum, Book II, guides students in a study of
the eloquent 1779 petition for freedom presented by twenty slaves to New Hampshire’s governing Council
and House of Representatives. Accompanying the petition, and inviting comparison, are excerpts from New
Hampshire’s proposed State Constitution of 1779.
New Hampshire History: A Quick
Reference Chart to Topics of Study (slides)
[READ ME: Information
about viewing slide shows.]
Are you trying to find a research topic for the study of New Hampshire history? This interactive slide show lets
you browse through eight suggested general areas of study and ten eras in New Hampshire history. Matching a selected
focus with a particular era brings up pertinent study topics. The show also lists (by era) people who have been
important in the state's history.
While the chart is available on paper in each of the books of the curriculum, an advantage of this version is that
wherever possible, study topics link to pertinent documents and lesson plans available on-line at the Historical
Society's Web site. A single-page
version of the Quick Reference Chart is also available
from this site. [<1 MB]
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