Neighborhoods Now and Then

Have you ever tried to sketch a map of your neighborhood? If you did, what would you include? What would your students include? What do you consider the center of your neighborhood? What bounds it?
David Sobel, in Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years, discusses a developmental approach to children's understandings of maps and geography. He argues that if children begin with what is closest to them, mapping their own world first, they will then better understand more distant maps of time and place.

Before introducing historic maps, consider having your students begin with what they know. Have them draw their own neighborhoods and narrate their own stories of place.

Beers Atlas maps are very detailed maps of New England counties and towns from the late nineteenth century. These maps include the names and locations of residents and businesses as well as the locations of schools, churches, and cemeteries. In addition to maps, the county atlases provide statistical information, engravings of important businesses, town histories, and biographies of prominent citizens. Many of these atlases can be found in local libraries and historical societies; they are rare and should be treated with care. Some can be found online at: www.davidrumsey.com. You can purchases Beers maps at www.old-maps.com.  

Print out a map of your town or, better yet, go to your local library and make a clean photocopy. Then enlarge the map and cut it apart along the school district lines to make a puzzle. Hand each small group of students a puzzle piece using the following procedure.

Hand out Beers Puzzle Pieces

OBSERVE DETAILS

• Look in silence

• Find geographical features 1 by 1. 

•       Color river and water features blue; mountains green and make a key

• What cultural features can we find? Color schools red; churches yellow; railroads orange. Add to the key. 

ANALYZE THE PIECES

• What is at the center of the puzzle piece? Anything there? Lead them toward seeing that the centers of the neighborhoods usually have a school or church. Why is that?

• Choose a name/home. Trace a route to school.  Would a child need to go over/through major geographical features to get to school?

INTERPRETATION

• Put puzzle pieces together. What town is it?  Where is the school today? Where do students live? How would you trace route to school today?

• Look at businesses. What businesses are in this town? What sort of trading would be going on? Where’s the general store?

• How have neighborhoods changed?

• How does geography relate to settlement?

Here is another source for Beers maps of Vermont:http://middarchive.middlebury.edu/cdm/search/collection/vtmaps

Civil War Workshops for June and August

Telling Soldier Stories

Historical Inquiry and the Civil War

The Civil War is a crucial episode in American history. One hundred and fifty years later, the war still surrounds us. It is hiding in plain sight across Vermont in cemeteries, villages, parks, public art, and historic sites.

At these two-day workshops teachers will work through a Common Core short focused research project that begins with local cemeteries and then moves to online research and collaborative writing. 

Activities include:  *Close reading of informational text

 *Analyzing primary sources with students

  *Connecting primary sources to informational text

  *Exploring technologies that support student inquiry and writing

Teachers will also have the opportunity to connect their classroom work to service learning through a partnership with the Virginia Civil War Journey Through Hallowed Ground.  

           

Registration Fee:  $50

14 relicensure credits; 1 graduate credit through Castleton State College for $115.

June 26 & 27: St. Albans Historical Society, St. Albans

August 5 & 6: Brattleboro High School, Brattleboro

To Register, go to: http://www.learningcollaborative.org/course_registration 

Under course name, type: Flow of History Summer Workshop

Under location, enter St. Albans or Brattleboro

TAKE NOTE: Limited to 15 participants, first come/first served.

Registration Deadline: March 15, 2013

Questions? Email Susan Leuchter: flow@learningcollaborative.org

Village Life Lesson: From Farm to Factory

Overview: The sheep boom created new work for women and girls. On the farm women and girls had many new chores to help process wool and prepare it for market. Jobs in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and other cities provided girls with new opportunities away from home.

Focusing Question

How did women’s work change with the sheep boom?

Topical Understandings

• The sheep boom spurred an increase in fulling mills (to wash wool), carding mills (to comb wool), and spinning mills in New England. These mills depended on rivers and streams for water power. 
• Farm women’s work became focused on processing wool. 
• Many farm girls left their homes to work in the new textile mills. 

Materials:

• Map and Worksheet: Vermont Textile Factories 1840—1849
• Diary excerpts from The Diaries of Sally and Pamela Brown and note-taking worksheet
• Letter Excerpts: AVermont girl goes to Lowell

Procedures:

1. As a class examine the Vermont Textile Factories map and use a Vermont state map to conclude that the factories were located on Vermont rivers and were water powered.

2. Provide students with the following two diary excerpts and note-taking worksheet.

The Diary of Sally Brown (born 1807) 1832 – 1838 Plymouth Notch, Vermont

June 1833 4. Tues. Worked about. A.M. Asa came down to attend the training*, brought Lephia and is to stay and  help Father shear sheep. In the evening finished knitting George’s stockings. 5. Wed. Worked about house. Tonight three men have come to shear the sheep Father is keeping for  Squire Walker. 6. Thurs. Worked about house. Susan found some ripe strawberries. The men finished shearing sheep. 7. Fri. Washed and did some other housework…Mother finished my gown. 8, Sat. Ironed and other housework. Marcia and I went to the old place for some green currents. 10, Mon. Helped milk morning and night. Did some chores and picked tag locks*. Father had given  lots of wool to me. Father has finished planting tiny potatoes. 11, Tues. Worked the same as yesterday. 12, Wed. Two Tin Peddlers stayed here tonight. 13, Thurs. Worked about house. Picked locks as I could get time. Mr. Pratt and Mr. Henry came  and bought Father’s wool. Two hundred and thirteen pounds. They gave fifty-three cents a pound.  He is to carry it to Woodstock Saturday or Monday. They were here to dinner… 14, Fri. Did some chores about house and finished picking tag locks except the dirtyest which I washed.  Last night was a heavy thunder shower. Today is some cloudy…

The Diary of Pamela Brown (born 1816) 1832 – 1838 Plymouth Notch, Vermont September 1836 Thur. Sept. 1st. Spun five skeins. Fri. 2nd. Spun some and went to the funeral. It was at Joseph Moore’s House. Mr. Davis preached. Sat. 3rd. After Mr. and Mrs. Jennison had gone I spun five skeins and worked on Marcia’s veil. Mon. 5th. Spun six skeins and began me a pair of stockings. Wed. 7th. Spun six skeins. Thurs. 8th. Spun two skeins and worked on my veil. Marcia and I went to the post office for a letter but found none. Friday. 9th. Spun six skeins. Silas and Rebbeca Brown and Mrs. Leland a girl Silas brought from Grafton took tea with us. Sun. 11th. I am twenty today. A rainy day. Mon. 12th. We had a housefull all day but they are all gone. Tues. 13th. Spun some stocking yarn to send to Michigan. Wed. 28th. The ground was white with snow this morning. Spun my days work and made Hannah’s’ work bag. I think it very handsome.

3.  Discuss their answers and summarize women’s work on a sheep farm. What sort of chores were they doing? Have students write a summary paragraph describing a woman’s typical day on the farm.
4. Provide students with the excerpts of Mary Paul’s letters. Ask them to take their own notes about work in a textile mill. Have students write a summary paragraph describing a woman’s typical day in a textile mill.
5. Create a 2-column chart comparing women’s work on the farm and women’s work in a textile mill.
6. Discuss as a class. Would they have left home to work in a textile mill? Why or why not?

Summer Institute in Lowell and Sturbridge

Join us for our Summer 2013 Institute in Lowell and Sturbridge!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Introductions at Old Sturbridge Village

Theme: The American Industrial Revolution unfolded incrementally, making it an evolution rather than a revolution

Events include historian lecture and dinner at Old Sturbridge Village.

           

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Comparing Farm and Factory Life – A Field Study at Old Sturbridge Village

Theme:  The rural villages and farms where most Americans lived and worked in the early 19^th century were in contrast to the city of Lowell with its great brick mills and boarding houses.

Events include: Touring Old Sturbridge Village with primary source analysis; hands-on craft opportunities; travel to Lowell and check-in to hotel; dinner on your own.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Power of Water

Theme:  Rushing water was the lifeblood of America’s early industrial revolution.  At a bend in the Merrimack River, bold men of vision captured this water power and built the most advanced power system in the world in its day.

Events include: Historian lectures, hands-on water power workshop, mill and canal tour, the power of simple machines. Dinner provided at a historic restaurant.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Market Volatility, Competition and Worker Responses to the New Industrial Order

Theme:  During the Industrial Revolution, control over the workplace generally shifted from the workers to owners.  Due to volatility of the textile market and competition, labor conditions worsened and the workers organized and fought back.

Events include: Labor history lecture, hands-on assembly line workshop, primary source workshop using Vermont mill girl materials.  Evening boardinghouse dinner and dinner theater, “Three Mill Girls.”

Friday, July 12, 2013

Immigration and Industrialization

Theme: In many ways the real story of the Industrial Revolution is the story of its impact on the people who tended the machines. Due to the ever increasing demand for workers, Lowell quickly became home to many immigrants.

Events include: Panel discussion with recent immigrants to Lowell and tour of immigrant neighborhoods.  Institute ends at 3:30 p.m.

Meals & Lodging:

• Breakfasts are on your own
• All lunches are provided
• One dinner is on your own
• Lodging is at the new Old Sturbridge Village lodges and the UMASS Lowell Inn and Conference Center and is provided at no additional fee.

Registration and Fees:

There is a $250 registration fee. Scholarships are available for schools without professional development funds. First priority will be to teachers who signed up for this year’s Flow of History programming.

Three graduate credits in Education will be available at for a fee of $345 (there will be additional work and an August meeting for those taking the institute for graduate credit). 

Deadline for Registration, March 1, 2013

To Register, go to: http://www.learningcollaborative.org/course_registration

Under course name, type: Flow of History Summer Institute

Under location, enter Lowell

Registration Deadline: March 1, 2013

Questions or for Scholarship Information? Email Susan Leuchter: flow@learningcollaborative.org