Google Maps and Gettysburg

Thanks to the Ten Roads Blog (actually done by a high school student) for sharing a link to a very cool website (more of a mashup really) that uses Google Maps and photos.

The Encounter at Gettysburg page is being developed by Chuck Kann and incorporates Google Maps to allow visitors to locate monuments, farm houses and other significant portions of the Gettysburg battlefield. To navigate the site, you click on the your search criteria on the left side of the page. You can select monuments and landmarks by type, by state or by location on the battlefield. Once you have selected your desired monument or location, you simply click Get Map and then depending on your selection, you could then choose from additional monuments or locations.

For example, I clicked on PA in the Monuments associated with State box then clicked Get Map. From the new list, I selected the 11th PA monument. The Google Map image tells me where the monument is located (I can even view it as a satellite image), I have a photo of the monument and then information that is written on the monument.


Until next time....

New Image of Lincoln at Gettysburg Found

While in Boston this morning I opened my complimentary copy of USA Today to find a headline article about a new image of Abe Lincoln at Gettysburg being found at the Library of Congress.

The story discusses how an amateur historian was looking at photographs of the famous Gettysburg Address and found Lincoln in his famous top hat riding a horse to the speaker's stand.

You can read the entire article HERE.

Here is a close up of the photo from the article showing what appears to be Lincoln

Photo from USA Today.

I have posted before about using photographs in your classroom. The historian in the article had researched the events around the Gettysburg Address and was simply looking at photographs and made a terrific discovery. You and your students can do the same thing in your classroom. Who knows, you may be the one to find the next photo of Lincoln or other famous Civil War figure.

Researchers advocate instructional approaches that engage students in the processes of doing history (Friedman, 2005). This process includes building historical knowledge through the use of primary sources, conducting historical inquiry, and encouraging students to think historically. As part of this process, students must be active learners, by seeking answers rather than waiting for them when engaging in the analysis of primary sources. The reason for this is that the process of engaging in historical thinking is more than simply absorbing information; instead it requires seeking out answers to questions (Friedman, 2005). While viewing a primary source, students will examine the historical document and then construct a narrative based on that document. Through the process of constructing this narrative, students have begun to develop inquiry skills that they will be able to use throughout their life (Wineburg, 2001). According to VanSledright (2002), children as young as seven and eight years old are capable of thinking historically.

Good luck and have fun exploring those photos.

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References:

Friedman, A. (2005, May). Using digital primary sources to teach world history and
world geography: Practices, promises, and provisions. Journal for the Association of History and Computing, 8, Retrieved October 2005, from http://mcel.pacificu.edu/jahc/JAHCVIII1/articles/friedman.htm#037

VanSledright, B. (2002). In search of America's past. New York, NY: Teacher's College
Press

Wineburg, S. (2001). Historical thinking and other unnatural acts. Philadelphia, PA:
Temple University Press.

So many statistics....So little time

According to John Busey's "These Honored Dead: The Union Casualties at Gettysburg", the following is a list of the number of soldiers killed during the Battle of Gettysburg.

Army Of the Potomac :

New York	978
Pennsylvania	745
Massachusetts	200
Michigan	200
US Regulars	182
Ohio	139
Maine	119
Wisconsin	105
Indiana	96
New Jersey	80
New Hampshire	67
Vermont	58
Minnesota	50
Connecticut	45
Maryland	29
Delaware	21
Rhode Island	14
West Virginia	11
Illinois	9
Total	3,148

Army of Northern Virginia:

North Carolina	1452
Virginia	1012
Georgia	774
Mississippi	393
South Carolina	295
Alabama	254
Louisiana	141
Texas	111
Florida	80
Maryland	65
Tennessee	55
Arkansas	41
Total	4,673

Total number killed: 7,821

Based on these figures, you can easily have your students working on some math concepts. Have your students answer questions such as:

• What is the average number of soldiers killed for both the North and the South?
• What percentage of the total number of soldiers killed were from Ohio?
• What percentage of those killed were from the South?
• How many more soldiers were killed from North Carolina versus Pennsylvania?

Or, how about some critical thinking skills...

• Why do you think New York and North Carolina had the highest number of soldiers killed?
• During what day of the battle do you think Minnesota lost the greatest number of soldiers and why?
  

Until next time. From just north of Gettysburg...

Gettysburg Cyclorama

The Gettysburg Cyclorama, officially known as the "Battle of Gettysburg" Cyclorama, is a 360 degree circular painting that depicts Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863. According to the Gettysburg National Military Park, it's one of the last remaining cycloramas in the United States.

The Gettysburg Cyclorama was created by the French artist Paul Philippoteaux. Starting in 1882, Philippoteaux spent several weeks sketching the battlefield in order to accurately depict the climatic charge. Philippoteaux also had the opportunity to interview several veterans of the battle in order to obtain their thoughts on how the battle transpired.

Over the next 18 months, Philippoteaux and his assistants created the massive work and finally the "Cyclorama of the Battle of Gettysburg" opened in Chicago in 1883. He then went on to paint a second version to be shown in Boston in 1884 again to tremendous acclaim. This Boston version of the painting would eventually come to reside in Gettysburg in 1913. The National Park Service in Gettysburg purchased the painting and placed it in the visitor in 1962. The Gettysburg Cyclorama is 359 feet long, 27 feet high and weighs an estimated 3 tons.

Currently the Gettysburg Cyclorama is undergoing restoration and will be moved to the new visitor center in 2008.

Thanks to the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation, you can download hi-res TIFF images of the painting and restoration project. These hi-res images allow you to zoom in and see parts of the painting in great detail, including some of the damage and the on-going restoration.

Ideas for the classroom:
Have your students think about if they were Philippoteaux in Gettysburg in 1882, what types of questions would you ask, what would you be sketching, what would you be looking for?

What would be some of issues related to creating a painting of this size?

Have your students view a portion of the painting and have them sketch a section.

These are just a couple of ideas. What ideas do you have for integrating this into your classroom?

Until next time...
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References:
Heiser, J. (2005, Dec). The gettysburg cyclorama. Retrieved July 17, 2007, from Gettysburg National Military Park Web site: http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettcyclo.htm

The Gettysburg Address

“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” This simple sentence was spoken on November 19, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln when he gave the now famous Gettysburg Address and it reminds us of how important it is that we take every opportunity to teach our students about the American Civil War. So, as we approach the 143^rd anniversary marking the day of this famous speech, let’s see how we can use technology to learn more about these famous words. There are five known copies of the Gettysburg Address. There is the Nicolay and Hay versions currently held at the Library of Congress, the Edward Everett copy located at the Illinois State Historical Library, the Bancroft version is housed at Cornell University and finally the Bliss copy is on display in the Lincoln Room of the White House (Library of Congress, 2005).

Lincoln was invited to provide “a few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of the new Soldier’s National Cemetery by Gettysburg attorney David Wills (Wills, 1992). In all, some 3,500 Union soldiers would be transferred from shallow graves on the battlefield to this new cemetery by Samuel Weaver (Heiser, 2001). You can read Mr. Wills invitation to President Lincoln on the Library of Congress website.

But President Lincoln was not the featured speaker of the ceremony. That honor belonged to Edward Everett one of the best known orators of the time. Mr. Everett spoke for over two hours and you can read his speech online thanks to the Douglas Archives of American Public Address.

The following photographs were taken during the dedication ceremony and perhaps during the actual time of Lincoln’s speech (Frassanito, 1975). The detailed of the photograph was researched by Josephine Cobb and shows the President among the many people on the platform (Frassanito, 1975).

You can listen to an eyewitness account of the speech by William V. Rathvon. Mr Rathvon was nine years old as he watched President Lincoln’s speech. This recording was found by Quest for Sound curator Jay Allison is is located at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1045619

And what would be any discussion about the Gettysburg Address without actually hearing those famous words. There are several MP3 files available of the Address being read by famous individuals, but my personal favorite is the one done by Jeff Daniels who played Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the movies Gettysburg and Gods and Generals.

The Gettysburg Address
November 19, 1863

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate;we can not consecrate;we can not hallow;this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

References:

Heiser, J (2001, May). Soldier's national cemetary at gettysburg. Retrieved November 13, 2006, from Gettysburg National Military Park Web http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gncem.htm

Frassanito, W. J. (1975). Gettysburg: A journey in time. New York: Macmillan.

Library of Congress, (2005). The Gettysburg Address. Retrieved November 13, 2006, from Library of Congress Web site: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/Wills, G (1992). Lincoln at gettysburg: The words that remade america. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Photo Credits:

Lincoln’s Speech, “The Gettysburg Address.” The Library of Congress. November 13, 2006 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/gaphot.html>