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Exercise 6: Images of Suffrage (due electronically and in-class on April 5)

In this exercise, you will locate a "primary source" image relating to the women's suffrage movement between 1860 and 1930, and analyze it in historical context. The goals of this assignment are first, to introduce you to internet resources you can use to acquire a better understanding of the suffrage movement and women's history during this period, and second, to walk you through the analytical process historians when they interpret historical documents.

I. First, browse the following websites, looking for topics and images that intrigue you:

II. Once you have located an image you would like to analyze, print-out two copies, one for Lori Creed & one for your reference.

Enter the citation information in the box below. This information should include the artist's name, the title in italics, the medium (e.g. photograph, drawing), the date, and the institution or individual who owns the work, the city, and, if needed for clarification, the state. If the location is unknown use, “whereabouts unknown” in parentheses. Follow this with information about the internet source, including the access date, URL, and digital id number. For example:

Harris & Ewing. Penn[sylvania] on the picket line-- 1917. Photograph. 1917. Records of the National Women's Party. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. Database on-line. American Memory. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mnwp.160022. Accessed March 27, 2007.

[Box, 10 lines]

Copy the URL again into the following box:

[Box 2 lines]

III. Answer the following questions, consulting all of the databases as you develop your answers. If you cannot answer one of the questions, briefly explain why the information can't be found.

  1. Why does this document interest you? What do you think it is about? What questions underlie your interest in this topic? [Box 20 lines]

  2. What kind of document is it? (For example, is it a drawing, photograph, film clip, or something else.) [Box 1 line]

  3. What is its genre? (An advertisement? Political cartoon? Journalistic photograph? Portrait?)[Box 1 line]

  4. When was it created? [Box 1 line]

  5. When was it published? Is the web facimile you are looking at taken from the “original,” or a reprint or copy?[Box 3 lines]

  6. Where was it written? [Box 1 line]

  7. Where was it published?[Box 1 line]

  8. Who produced it? Use a quick search of these web sites and/or Google to say a little bit about who the creator was. [Box 10 lines]

  9. For what purpose was it created? [Box 10 lines]

  10. Are there other images of this type? How does this one compare and connect with them? Do a little creative searching in these websites to try to find similar images. [Box 10 lines]

  11. Why and how was this document preserved? Did it benefit from being part of a large print run, or was it a one-of-a kind item? Did its survival require a special effort on the part of its owners, past and present? Or did it immediately find a home in a library or archive, which has cared for it ever since? [Box 10 lines]

  12. Look for other primary source documents that help explain its significance. Give one example, and briefly explain how it relates. [Box 25 lines]

  13. What does this image tell you about the history of women's suffrage? How does it connect to events or ideas covered in class, or in the timelines you read for March 29? [Box 25 lines]

  14. If you were to write a history based on this image, what questions would you use to define your topic?[Box 15 lines]

If you would like more advice on how to approach a primary source, see the useful guides published on dohistory.org and by the University of North Carolina School of Education.