Civil War era Presidential Elections

In this season of elections and how the current presidential primary and the upcoming presidential election I thought it would be interesting to share a website on Civil War era elections.

Harper's Weekly has created a website for researching historical elections from 1860 to 1912. According to the website, the Presidential Elections page features political cartoons from several different digital resource centers such as Harper's Weekly, the Library of Congress and Vanity Fair. The website also "provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era's major issues, and other valuable information."

Let's take a moment to explore the 1860 election between Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell. First, each election contains four sections: Overview, Cartoons, Biographies and Events. From here you can learn about the events leading up to to the 1860 election, how the Democratic party split, the Union Constitution Convention, the Republican Convention and the Campaign.

One of the greatest part of this site for teachers are the political cartoons. Let's look at one and see how you can use it in your classroom.


The above image shows Abe Lincoln as a rail-splitter and is intended to appeal to the average voter. Before giving your students the full description of the cartoon, ask them to tell you what they see, what do they think is going on in the cartoon, what does the little child represent and why are the words "Democratic Party" listed on the rail?

You can then follow up by reading them the complete description: "In order to appeal to average voters, Republicans emphasized the poor, hardworking origin of their candidate through the myth of Abraham Lincoln as a rail-splitter. This cartoon in the Wide-Awake Pictorial plays on that image by joking that the last rail he split is th Democratic Party in 1860, which divided into the Northern and Southern Factions."

Then, have your students think about presidential campaign ads or commercials they have seen recently. Do any of those ads try to appeal to the average voter by making the candidate look like every hardworking American? I think so and can name a few but let me know what your students come up with as you review these cartoons.

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.

--------------------------------------------------------
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.

Lincoln Museum Podcast

Eric Langhorst is an 8th Grade History teacher from Illinois and is the host of the Speaking of History podcast.

Eric recently made a trip to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and recorded a podcast of his thoughts on the museum.

You can view pictures from his trip and listen to his podcast on the visit on his Speaking of History Blog.

He also recorded a podcast about some of the historic locations in Springfield, Illinois related to Abraham Lincoln that you can listen to HERE.

Be sure to check out all of the links Eric has included in his show notes. I'll try to cover some of them in upcoming blog posts.

Until next time...

Two Quick Links

I came across the following two links and thought I would share:

The Historic New York Times website now has copies of the newspapers from 1860-1865 online for your viewing pleasure. They also have a short video on the newspapers for you to watch.

The next one is from the HarpWeek website and has over 400 political cartoons on the Lincoln presidency. Check out the Abraham Lincoln Cartoons and let me know what you think.

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>