When we think of historical evidence, most of us think of musty documents and brittle treaties. But everything you can see and touch is potential historical evidence. Your smartphone is evidence, along with your backpack and keys, your TAP card and shoes.

In this assignment, you will find one piece of visual evidence and then you will present your finding to your fellow students. They in turn will learn from what you’ve discovered and respond to your work.

The visual evidence you present must be a primary source; that is, it must have been created at the time we are studying in our assigned reading for this week (EARLY 1900’S) and so reflect that time and its historical concerns in some significant way. Such evidence might be a newspaper cartoon, a quilt, coin, painting, or invention. It may be a piece of jewelry or furniture. Think outside the box and see what you find.

But how will you find your image? Good question.

Luckily, the Internet is the largest treasury of images in human history. You can access that storehouse with a few keystrokes. We live in a magical age.

Several websites will help you in your research, though what follows are only suggestions. Start your search at the Library of Congress (Links to an external site.), (https://www.loc.gov/ (Links to an external site.)). At the top of the LOC (Library of Congress) home page you will find a search box. Find the downward facing arrow in the “All Formats” box, click on it, and choose “photos, prints, and drawing” from the drop-down menu. Be sure to put in a search term — a topic that interests you.

Another resource is the Google Images page (Links to an external site.). It works just like the Google search page, but its results are images, not websites. If you find an image using Google Images, be sure to dig deeper and find the information you need to identify the image. That might mean going to the webpage on which the image resides, a link to which is supplied by Google. Also, be sure that information is correct by finding another source that can confirm it.

Go to the National Archives (Links to an external site.): heck, your tax money supports it. Put it to use.

Care to tap an archive of 550,000 historical images? Here is the search page for the New York Public Library, one of the great libraries of the world (Links to an external site.).

Finally, another resource is the Digital History website (Links to an external site.). On this page, images are organized by themes. Scroll down to skim them. The website can be searched by “eras” as well, with each era having its own stock of images. To find these, explore the site. It’s organization is simple.

In choosing one piece of visual evidence, be guided by your curiosity and the desire to instruct others about what you have found.

When you’ve selected your piece of visual evidence, present it to the class by answering the following questions:

Presentation: Post a copy of your visual evidence DIRECTLY AT THE TOP OF YOUR INITIAL POST so that others can examine it. (that is, upload the image to this forum within your initial post. NOTE WELL!! – A link to the image is NOT the image; post the image itself, NOT the link to it so that all may view your image as they read your answers to the questions below.). Click HERE to learn how to embed images in a discussion post in Canvas. It is easy. (Links to an external site.)

What’s key with this step is that your image be visible to all students. Students have little time and don’t click on image links — so avoid these! Unless the image is instantly viewable in your Initial Post along with your answers, students won’t comment on your image in their responses and the Discussion.

Identification: Name your visual evidence and provide the year in which it was made. Also, provide its maker. Knowing the maker is important!

Description: Describe your piece of visual evidence in about 250 words. Slow down and actually see the image in all its detail. Remember that seeing is a skill. Be careless of nothing and dissect the image in detail so that another, unable to view the image, would be able to form a clear and memorable mental picture of it.

Analysis: Now provide the historical context for your visual evidence by drawing on the assigned reading. Impress us with your knowledge of the reading. Ask yourself – 1. What does that context tell us about this image? 2. What does the image tell us about the time in which it was created (i.e., the context)? That is, why is your image historically significant? Be specific and do the image justice.

Why This Image: Why did you choose this particular image? I mean, you had thousands to choose from. So why this ONE?