The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

• Students should have had prior lessons establishing a connection to the period of the Gilded Age and the concurrent immigration

• Select one image from the collection.
  
  
• Ask the students to use the Photo Analysis sheet from the National Archives to analyze the selected photo as a class. Ask them to look at the people, objects, and actions in the image. You can find the Image Analysis sheet at - - www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/ analysis_worksheets/photo.html
  
  
• In the discussion ask the students to focus on the following questions:
  
  1. What does this image tell you about living and / or working conditions at the time it was taken?
  2. What might motivate someone to take such a photograph?
  3. What other images would you like to have if you were an historian creating a narrative of that time period?
  

Activities:

After completing the above motivational activities, distribute the attached chart for students to complete as they examine other photos.

1. Use the following strategies to allow students time to examine each of the photos in the collection:

   • Displaying each photo for a few moments on a projection screen and allowing students time to examine the photos and take notes.
     
     
   • Setting up groups of photos at "history lab stations" in a computer lab and having students examine photos in groups, spending a few moments at each station before rotating to the next one.
     
     
   • If individual students have access to their own computers in a computer lab or classroom: allowing time for them to explore the photos on their own.
   
   
   
2. Break the students up into small groups and ask each group to select three photos that will go on display at the "Gilded Age Immigration Museum." Ask the groups to provide rationales for their choices.
   
   
3. After the photos have been selected, ask the students:
   
   
   • What common theme was used to select the photos chosen?
     
     
   • What generalization can one make about immigration and this time period based solely on the three photos selected? Can a thesis statement be created based on this generalization?
     
     
   • What problems do you think historians have in selecting sources for use in supporting a thesis?

• Ask the students: If you were going to highlight a contemporary problem through photography, toward what issue or condition would you point your lens? Why?