Reading Historical Images

with Recollection
Wisconsin
Wisconsin Council for the Social
Studies March 16, 2015
Emily Pfotenhauer, WiLS
Handout and slides:
recollectionwisconsin.org/wcss2015

recollectionwiscon
sin.org provides free
access to a growing
set of state and local
history resources
from the collections
of libraries, archives,
museums and
historical societies
across Wisconsin.
South Wood County Historical Museum,
Wisconsin Rapids
http://content.mpl.org/u?/swch,64

Program sponsors and partners

WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services)

Milwaukee Public Library
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Wisconsin Historical Society
Nicholas Family Foundation
Academic libraries, public libraries, archives,
museums, and historical societies around the
state

Wisconsin Historical Society

http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/maps/id/248

February 2015:
recollectionwisconsin.org includes

218,726 historical resources

from 219 digital collections
and more records are added every
month.

McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids

http://content.mpl.org/u?/mcml,1319

Photographs
Postcards
Letters
Diaries
Maps
Yearbooks
Scrapbooks
Music
Recipes

City directories
Local histories
County histories
Oral histories
Artifacts
Artworks
Magazine
articles
Newspaper
clippings
New Berlin Historical Society
http://content.mpl.org/u?/nbhs,33

The digital materials that Recollection

Wisconsin brings together may be used
for teaching purposes under the
guidelines of Fair Use (non-commercial,
non-public, limited quantities).

UW-Madison Archives
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/SSRecI
DSearch?

Reading Historical Images

Visual literacy skills:

Close looking, observation, attention to

detail
Understand how meaning is
communicated visually
Evaluate content and authors intent
Understand photographs as created texts

Defining visual literacy

Because so much information is communicated visually, it is
more important than ever that our students learn what it means
to be visually literate. Those who create visual images (such as
photographs) do so with a purpose in mind, using certain
techniques. In order to read or analyze an image, the audience
(our students) must be able to understand the purpose and
recognize the techniques. Just like media literacy, visual literacy
is about analyzing and creating messages.
Frank W. Baker, Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom
http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/MEDLIT-excerpt.pdf

Visual Literacy Further

Resources
Media Literacy Clearinghouse: Photography and Visual
Literacy http://www.frankwbaker.com/mlc/visual-literacy/
Frank W. Baker, Media Literacy in the K-12 Classroom
http://www.iste.org/docs/excerpts/MEDLIT-excerpt.pdf
Center for Creative Photography: Learning to Lookhttp
://www.creativephotography.org/study-research/educators/lear
ning-tolook
University of Maryland, Seeing Everything in the Picture
http://www.humanities.umd.edu/technology/visuallit/see/
view.html
New York Times, Whats Going on in this Picture? series
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/lesson-plans/whats
-going-on-in-this-picture
/

Questions to ask a photograph

What are the main elements of the
image (people, objects, actions)?
What is given prominence/emphasis
(through composition, color, focus)?
What DONT we see? What is outside
of the frame?

Questions to ask a photograph

Who created this photograph? Why did
they choose to capture this scene?
Is the image posed or candid?
How might the people in the photograph
have felt about having their picture
taken?
Why was this photograph created? How
was this photograph used?

Reading Historical Photographs

Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.7: "Integrate visual
information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos
or maps) with other information in print and digital texts."
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7: "Integrate and evaluate
content presented in diverse media and formats, including
visually and quantitatively, as well as in words."
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.6: "Assess how point of
view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text."
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1: "Prepare for and
participate effectively in a range of conversations and
collaborations with diverse partners, building on others
ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively."

Reading Historical Photographs

Disciplinary Literacy in Social Studies
Thinking Like a Historian (Wisconsin
Historical Society)
Through Their Eyes: How did people in the
past view their world? How did their worldview
affect their choices and actions?
Continuity and Change: What has changed?
What has remained the same? Who has
benefited from this change? Who has not
benefited, and why?

Hands-on experience analyzing and

evaluating primary sources

Exercise: Reading
photographs
National Archives Photo Analysis Worksheet
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons
/worksheets/
photo_analysis_worksheet.pdf

Finding More LOCAL

Historical Images
http://recollectionwisconsin.o
rg

Online Exhibits

--Civil Rights movement in

Milwaukee
--Bicycling in early Wisconsin
--Native American bandolier
bags
--Wisconsin department
stores
--Stories from city directories
--Deer hunting

--Effigy mounds
--Lumber camps
--Sausages
--Home economics
education
--Farmers markets
--Postcards from Main Street
--Octagon houses

wiscohisto.tumblr.
m

pinterest.com/
recollectionwi

Lesson Plans
recollectionwisconsin.org/t
eachers

Whats next for Recollection

Wisconsin?
Bringing Wisconsins
collections
to a of
Digital
Public Library
national stage
America
dp.la

Twitter:
@recollectionwi
Facebook:
facebook.com/rec
ollectionwisconsin

Monthly email
newsletter:
Sign up at
recollectionwisconsin.
org

Milwaukee Public Library

http://content.mpl.org/u?/mcml,1319

Thank You!
Emily Pfotenhauer
emily@wils.org

Handout and slides:

recollectionwisconsin.org/
wcss2015

Mineral Point Historical Society

http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/
singleitem/collection/mphs/id/3/rec/29