Lesson Plan

Title: The Civil War

Creator: Leslie Balkany, Museum Educator, Ackland Art Museum

Subject: Social Studies

Course: American History

Grade Level: 11^th grade

Unit Plan: This lesson is designed to have students consider how Americans of the 19^th century chose to present themselves to other Americans and to the world at large by means of visual images that would have been widely seen at the time.

Standards:

NC SCOS COMPETENCY GOAL 3: Crisis, Civil War, and Reconstruction (1848-1877) - The learner will analyze the issues that led to the Civil War, the effects of the war, and the impact of Reconstruction on the nation.

Lesson Goals:

3.01 Trace the economic, social, and political events from the Mexican War to the outbreak of the Civil War.

3.02 Analyze and assess the causes of the Civil War.

3.03 Identify political and military turning points of the Civil War and assess their significance to the outcome of the conflict.

Differentiation: See “Culminating Activities” below

Duration: one or more 50-minute blocks, depending on how much detail students pursue.

• 50 minutes: introduce the lesson with preliminary questions (see “Preparation,” below)

• 50 minutes: research

• 50 minutes: presentations

Teacher Materials:

• Access to relevant online images of works in the Ackland collection (see Attachment 1)

• Questions for students to consider about the images

• Additional notes about some of the artists and photographers and/or their work (see Attachment 2)

• Website links that will provide additional information about artists and/or images (see Relevant Websites, below)

Student Materials:

• Access to relevant online images of works in the Ackland collection (see Attachment 1)

• Questions to consider about the images

• Website links that will provide additional information about artists and/or images (see Relevant Websites, below)

• Website links to other American artists of the period to expand understanding

Preparation: To introduce the importance of these images, have students consider:

· Some key events that shaped 19th century America (i.e. the Civil War, which tore the country apart; or the railroad, which unified the country; or the growth of cities; the impact of photography [introduced in 1839] on recording events, etc.). Explain that this lesson will focus primarily on the Civil War: its causes, some significant moments, and the war’s aftermath

· How Americans learned about these situations and events (i.e. who were the image makers of the time?)

◦ newspapers

◦ magazines

◦ prints

◦ books

◦ other?

Procedures:

Identify the selected prints and photos as images made to send a message to viewers.

· Have students work individually or select a partner with whom they will look at one work carefully.

· They should consider what this image says (what the artist wanted viewers to know) about the time and place, and how the artist said it.

◦ What does this image say about America in the 19^th century?

◦ What do you think is important to the people in this image? What makes you think so?

◦ Who would have seen this image at the time?

- Where/how would they have seen it? (Was it published? Was it the only one made? Etc.)

- What do you think was important for them? What makes you think so?

◦ Do you think this image is based more on fact or interpretation?

- Why?

◦ What do you think is important for people viewing this image in the 20^th- and 21^st-century?

◦ (Bonus question) Can you think of a piece of literature or an author you might pair with this work?

- How do they relate to each other?

Culminating Activities: Have students share their observations and opinions.

• Students will all access a particular image online while the individual or pair responsible for that image shares their findings with the whole class. Class members can view each image in a PowerPoint presentation.

• After all presentations, students will consider what they’ve learned about the Civil War, as a result of this activity, that they didn’t know before. They will express that new knowledge in some kind of written form (essay, poem, drawing, song, story)

Assessment:

• Quality of presentations and written project as determined by a rubric written by the classroom teacher

Technology Integration:

Computers with internet access

PowerPoint

Relevant Websites:

• Mathew B. Brady: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwbrady.html

• Alexander Gardner: http://www.getty.edu/art/collections/bio/a2055-1.html

• Winslow Homer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer

• Clare Veronica Hope Leighton: http://libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/ga/unseenhands/printers/Leighton.html

• Additional Civil War images are available through the Library of Congress online: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query

• Helpful links from Fordham University’s Internet Modern History Sourcebook, containing primary resources related to:

◦ the conflict over slavery

◦ the Civil War

◦ reconstruction

◦ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook27.html

Key Focusing Questions: See “Preparation” and “Procedure” above

File Attachments:

• Images in the Ackland collection

• Notes about some of the artists/photographers and/or works under discussion

This lesson plan and its distribution were made possible by a grant from the Wyeth Foundation, the William Hayes Ackland Trust,
and the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Attachment 1

Images

	Homer, Winslow American, 1836-1910 **A Pass Time. Cavalry Rest, from "Campaign Sketches," 1863 lithograph Gift of W. P. Jacocks 58.2.55**
	Homer, Winslow American, 1836-1910 **Foraging, from “Campaign Sketches” lithograph Gift of W. P. Jacocks 58.2.32**
	Homer, Winslow American, 1836-1910 *Our Jolly Cook* , from “Campaign Sketches,” 1863 lithograph Gift of W. P. Jacocks 58.2.56
	Brady, Mathew B. American, 1823-1896 **Slaves of General Drayton, Georgia, 1864 silver bromide print Ackland Fund 73.5.1**
	Gardner, Alexander American, born in Scotland, 1821-1882 *Dunker Church, Antietam , September 16th, 1862* albumen print Ackland Fund 75.19.9
	Evans, John William after Gaul, G. WIlliam American, 1855-1943 *Burying Soldiers* wood engraving Burton Emmett Collection 58.1.1498
	Evans, John W. after Kelly, James Edward (American, 1855-1938) American, 1855-1943 **Civil War Soldiers Drinking Water, 1874 wood engraving Burton Emmett Collection 58.1.1538**
	Curry, John S. American, 1897-1946 **John Brown, 1930 lithograph Gift of W. P. Jacocks 58.2.267**
	Leighton, Clare Veronica Hope American, born in Britain, 1899-1990 *Cotton* wood engraving Transferred from the library collection 58.17.6
	Leighton, Clare Veronica Hope American, born in Britain, 1899-1990 *Tobacco and Tobacco Worm* wood engraving Transferred from the library collection 58.17.45 and 15.17.35

Attachment 2

Notes

· The Jolly Cook, Pass Time, and Foraging, were part of an 1863 portfolio of 6 lithographs, called Campaign Sketches, that Winslow Homer hoped to sell for $1.50 the set. It was not a success. Ask students why people might not have wanted to purchase these.

· Mathew Brady’s Slaves of General Drayton, 1864, is not a photo of an all-black regiment. The figures are enslaved Africans and African Americans, about to be freed by the Union army. The man in uniform may be the owner of this Georgia plantation, but his uniform and swarthy skin might lead 21st-century viewers to a different conclusion. This is actually one of the few Civil War photos to deal directly with the issue of slavery.

· Alexander Gardner’s Dunker Church, September 16, 1862 is a photographic “document” of the battle at Antietam.

Both Brady’s and Gardner’s photographs are posed. Together with Homer’s prints, one sees very different views of the war. What role do you think each image would have had in communicating information about the war?

Who do you think was the intended audience for each of these images?

All of the artists cited were from the northern states.
Consider Clare Leighton’s and John Steuart Curry’s images, which were done in the 20^th century.

What messages do they send to viewers during the 1930s and later about American history/life in the mid-19^th century?
What /messages/lessons do they contain for viewers during the 1930s and later?