Primary Source Education

It was common practice for official documents even at the county level to declare what year of independence the United States were in. This is the latest example I've ever seen, which also happens to coincide with the first month of the War of 1812.

Even though my fellowship at the Maryland State Archives is wrapping up I still feel the crunch of demands. On April 27, I served as a judge for the state-wide competition of National History Day and for the last several weeks I’ve revised and improved my documents in the classroom exercise.

Arranging a ride to History Day at the University of Maryland Baltimore County was problematic because only one colleague lives in Annapolis; he unfortunately was visiting his parents in Columbia the previous evening. I enlisted Auni Gelles, the Maryland Humanities Council coordinator, to find an alternative. Luckily she was previously contacted a woman asking for a riding companion familiar with the area to act as navigator. After a few coordinating e-mails we met for the first time at 7 am day-of. She was even more a newcomer to Maryland than I and we had an instant rapport. She moved to Maryland for her husband’s work and was seeking a job as an education administrator (a.k.a. “Dean”).

It would be inappropriate to describe the details of my responsibilities as a History Day judge since the competition is ongoing. Following the orientation and break-out into our designated group assignments. My three member team reviewed the morning run-offs in the Junior Papers category. The theme was “Turning Points” and the topics were as broad as the Europe’s greatest religious event to specific as a county commission. A fellow judge John Olderman, who serves as the administrative aid (a.k.a. “Chief of Staff”) for Montgomery County Senator Richard Madaleno. Although he was a fairly quiet and measured young man, he possessed an unsmiling humorous wit and strong appreciation for local history. Senator Madaleno apparently shares this interest and facilitated the MSA research project into Brookeville. During the lunch break, John asked more about the MSA and I introduced him to my colleague Ryan; having worked there for several years he was a superb spokesman.

My task ended after lunch, the same as my ride, so we left at 12:30. As she dropped me off at my apartment building she asked for a copy of my resume to pass around.

Potential sources to be used in the exercise

My Documents in the Classroom project was a significant draw of my time these past couple weeks. Although most of the work was completed several months ago, it required re-working in order to meet the expectations of my supervisors and any potential teachers. The current documents in the classroom materials on the LOSIM Website utilize external links and non-native primary sources like the 14^th Amendment. In preparation for the Progressive Education Summit in January I conceived a primary source exercise. Based on case studies which are composed almost exclusively of native materials, rather than concepts or events, the exercise could engage individual students, small groups, and classes. By viewing combinations of over a dozen different records they could recreate a case study on the LOSIM Website or just a few to follow a theme related to slavery.

Since most of the records are written in script and even give me a hard time, it was necessary to transcribe records. This took quite a long time because even though I was familiar with the records I now had to read every word regardless of how important it seemed. Census or slave assessment records were a simple matter of creating a table on a Word document to represent the form and layout. Other records, like the last will and testament of the biographical subject’s father, required thorough examination.

Documents are described by their corresponding
footnotes in the original case study

Eventually I paired these transcripts with new scans, images on the MSA server, and others downloaded from Ancestry.com. The only image I did not transcribe was an 1850 census slave schedule because the cursive was contemporary looking and intuitive. Although transcription was time consuming, creating the documents key was more difficult. Essentially a teacher’s guide, it outlines what a document is in the Summary, how they document relates to others in the case study (Relationships), and what the meaning of the document is to records that precede it in the biographical narrative (Discussion).

My work pleased supervisors Chris and Emily. They suggested I include teaching standards information and create an HTML Webpage that links to each record and transcript. I’m currently awaiting my colleague Ryan Cox’ input on the former and have gone as far as I can with the latter. I used KompoZer and cribbed the HTML and CSS from a documents in the classroom Webpage I use in my LOSIM work. Emily said my work could be considered a “Documents in the classroom 3.0” effort, which was more or less why I did it. I think there is a great value for this ready-made primary source exercise. Once the teaching standards are in place it would only take a teacher an hour to become familiar with this exercise and use it effectively—far less time than it would be to develop a lesson plan on their own.

The draft Webpage for the exercise

Ardra Whitney: Week 1 @ The HistoryMakers

Greetings from the Windy City!



For the next 3 months, I will be calling Chicago home as I participate in the 2012 IMLS Summer Immersion Program with The HistoryMakers. The week was filled with several meetings and presentations from HistoryMakers staff, including: Julieanna Richardson, Public Historian and Founder/Executive Director; Dan Johnson, Digital Archivist; Jessica Levy, former Research and Program Coordinator; Y’Houshua Murray, current Program Coordinator; Alison Bruzek, NSF Project Director; and Paul Mackey, Production Manager. Through these various meetings and presentations, fellows received an introduction to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive collection; discussed grant expectations; and learned about the organization’s office and archival procedures. We also got to do some really neat ice breakers to help us become more acquainted with one another.

On Wednesday, June 6^th, fellows had their first African American history lecture with Christopher R. Reed, Professor Emeritus with the Department of History and Philosophy at Roosevelt University. Reed began the lecture by sharing photos and stories about African Americans like journalist and newspaper editor, Ida B. Wells and her husband, newspaper owner, Ferdinand L. Barnett.  He also showed us 19^th century photographs of his great grandparents, who were former slaves. His great grandfather, he said, served in a colored infantry during the Civil War. My favorite part of the lecture was Reed’s discussion of the black presence at the World’s Fair of 1893-- because he mentioned the Fon people from the Dahomey Kingdom in West Africa. I find this group of African people to be particularly fascinating because the Dahomean state maintained an all-female military regiment for nearly 200 years. The women warriors were referred to as Mino, meaning "Our Mothers" in the Fon language.

“The simulated village of the Fon people from Dahomey was among the most widely publicized and frequently visited fair sites. Newspapers and magazines extensively covered the exhibit, photographers included it in souvenir booklets, and many observers flocked there each day. The interest in this exhibit, perhaps more than any other, revealed the disparity in perceptions of Africans by an international audience. Some people saw at the exhibit the rich culture of the Fon people, as well as a reminder of a distant African past that had shaped all humanity--as did Bishop Henry McNeal Turner of the African Methodist Episcopal church, commenting at the concurrent Conference on Africa held in Chicago, publicly expounded his belief that all humanity started black" (p. 184). Other fair goers saw in the Fon village a non-industrial, rural lifestyle that was anathema to their Victorian tastes. The scantily clad, bare breasted women and the robed men with their traditional musical instruments and other accouterments both fascinated and repelled many fair goers.”
 - Excerpt from Reed’s book "All the World Is Here!": The Black Presence at White City

On Thursday, June 7^th and Friday, June 8^th, fellows participated in a 2-day training session on Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Encoded Archival Context—Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF)  led by Katherine Wisser, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Archives/History Dual Degree Program at Simmons College. In addition to her informative and well-presented workshop, Wisser provided great insights into professional networking in the field of archival encoding/description. Case in point, Wisser’s continued interest and participation in the development of EAC-CPF has made her Chair of the EAC Working Group and allowed her to collaborate with information professionals from all around the world.  

At the end of the Summer Immersion Program, I will be responsible for completing 30 interview evaluations and EAD/EAC-CPF finding aid assignments. This week, I completed my first interview evaluation assignment for head waiter, letter carrier, and humble activist, Alvin Little. In watching Little’s interview, I was almost moved to tears by the power and simplicity of his life experiences. He realized early on that nobody would give him anything and that if he wanted something he would have to work for it. In his interview, Little says that in order to be successful in life, one must qualify themselves to achieve their personal and professional goals. Congruently, I look forward to learning from and contributing to my fellowship experience--as much as possible--so that I can qualify myself to do outstanding work as an archivist.

Ardra Whitney
IMLS Fellow
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture