Old picture postcards are primary source records of places. Postcards document the natural landscape as well as the built environment- buildings, gardens, parks, cemeteries, and tourist sites. Postcards also commemorate major events, popular humor, and many other aspects of daily life – transportation, entertainment, sports, work, religion, or advertising. Collectors and all types of historians … Continue reading Old Postcards: Messages about the Past
Your local library, historical society, or university archives is a treasure trove of primary sources from your community – letters, diaries, scrapbooks, photographs, local publications, and all sorts of other ephemera. In most cases, these local institutions are thrilled to work with teachers developing place-based lessons. The staff will know about local history and have … Continue reading Hotels in the Nineteenth Century: Place-based Primary Sources