Primary Sources Online: Baltimore 20th Century History by Laura Bell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Primary Sources Online: Baltimore 20th Century History by Laura Bell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Learning about primary sources in an archives where students can see and examine materials is a unique opportunity. This exercise aims to provide a similar level of hands-on active learning while students attend a synchronous class online.
This text is intended to help students understand how to use primary sources and how to research at the University of Baltimore Special Collections & Archives in order to explore potential research topics regarding 20th century social history, arts history, cultural history, and more, in Baltimore, Maryland. The class activity is designed to be completed synchronously in an online learning environment using video conference tools such as Zoom in order to provide students with a collaborative group based experience.
Faculty and instructors of a variety of classes can use this exercise and adapt it as needed in order to help familiarize students with research in the archives. Those that may find it particularly useful include undergraduate interdisciplinary studies (IDIS), history, communications, and design courses. Upper division courses that include archival research projects may also find this exercise to be a useful way to introduce students to research in the archives.
If this sounds like the activity for you and your class, then read on!
This primary source online activity was created by drawing on a variety of existing primary source activity lesson plans. Specifically, this exercise uses questions based on the Library of Congress’ Primary Source Analysis Tool in order to help students engage with and analyze primary sources. The way this activity uses the tool is based on the methodology Blake Spitz used when adapting the LOC tool for their exercise as described in their 2021 article. The format of the exercise is also drawn from Kopp’s class exercise “Start to Finish: Learning the Primary Source Research Process in 50 Minutes.” These resources can be used to further alter this exercise for a variety of classes.
Utilizing unique 20th century Baltimore history records from the UBalt Special Collections & Archives will allow students to learn about a variety of local history, social history, and community history topics.
Learning Objectives
This exercise is primarily intended for online undergraduate students, but the exercise could also be applicable to graduate students new to using archives. It can be adapted for in-person classes.
The exercise can be used broadly as a tool to help students learn to use The University of Baltimore Special Collections & Archives and to help students understand and use primary sources. This exercise is relevant to University of Baltimore students in interdisciplinary studies, history courses, and communications or design courses. It is also applicable to any instructor or student interested in learning to use the archives for research on Baltimore history.
Distribute the resources for archival research below to students before class and ask them to explore them thoroughly and bring questions to class. When you send students the resources consider also including question prompts.
These are tools students will use during class; additionally, they will help students when using the archives in the future. Students should iteratively explore the resources before, during, and after class on their own. The entire class time should not be devoted to reviewing the tools.
In order to prepare for the exercise, the instructor should examine the collection finding aids for the items in the exercise; consider answering the exercise questions for each item to better assist students during the class activity. A demonstration of the activity is included in this document.
Instructors should also plan to have any necessary online course virtual meeting tools (Zoom or other online synchronous learning tools, etc.) in place before beginning the class. Instructors should plan for students to work online either individually or in online break-out room groups.
Class Time:
Approximately 60 minutes
Instructor (to students): Begin the activity with a brief review of the Resources for Archival Research in the previous section of this text. Students should have explored these tools that provide an introduction to archives before class. Most of us have likely been to a library, but many people have not have visited an archive and the Resources for Archival Research will provide necessary background information.
Archives house unique materials that document the lives and activities of individuals, groups, and organizations. These items include primary sources, or materials created at the time of the original event being researched. Primary sources were created by people with experience of the time, topic, or event. Working with primary sources can help us gain a fuller understanding of history through the experiences of people who lived it.
* Remember that secondary sources are items like textbooks or scholarly articles that provide valuable analysis and interpretation of data or other primary sources.
In this activity everyone will have a chance to explore primary sources from 20th century Baltimore history and consider how to use them in order to form research questions. While we can’t use physical items as we would in-person, we hope you will enjoy playing detective and examining the digital surrogates of items in the archives.
Before class, students should explore the Research Using the Archives LibGuide. Address any questions students have about the first few sections of this guide and review as necessary.
If students don’t offer questions, then highlight the Introduction to Primary Sources and Archives page and Finding Archival Collections at UBalt Special Collections & Archives. Encourage students to revisit to this guide during the exercise.
Divide students into small groups to collaboratively work with one of the digital collection items. Direct students to the online activity (found in next section/Chapter 4), which will provide them with the digital item and the link to the finding aid. Ask that they look at both to complete the questions. Students can use these resources and those provided before class. They can also use the internet and other knowledge.
Students will answer questions adapted from the Library of Congress’ Primary Source Analysis Tool.
The class returns from small group work to review the worksheets and their answers together. Then students return to work in small groups to identify a specific research topic related to their object and brainstorm other resources to use for a possible research project. Students should use the objects, finding aids, and the LibGuide to assist them with this brainstorming process.
At the end of Step 3, the class comes together again to discuss search strategies for both primary and secondary resources; review resources available through the archives; and answer any questions.
At the End of Class Student Will:
After class the group will have created a list of search strategies based on their object(s) and have a better understanding of using archives for future projects. The instructor will then be able to set up assignments using the archives outside of class and ask students to contact the UBalt Special Collections & Archives for assistance. The instructor could also choose to use this exercise as an introduction on which to build a larger project for the class, but that would be separate from this exercise.
This exercise includes pre-selected digitized items from archival collections at UBalt Special Collections & Archives and is intended to be completed as a group exercise for students learning online. Alternatively, this exercise could be explained and set up for students to complete online individually and/or asynchronously if necessary. However, learning in small groups and having the opportunity to explore the objects together with instructor feedback may provide a more engaging hands-on learning experience.
Bring any questions you have to discuss with the class!
Learning Objectives:
Step 1: Before class you were given a few resources to explore. Bring any questions you have about these resources to class to discuss with the instructor and your classmates. Today you’ll learn to investigate primary sources together—the more questions the better!
Step 2: Your instructor will introduce the Exploring Baltimore History Through Primary Sources activity and then separate everyone into up to five groups. Each group will have an item (a primary source). Use your item and the finding aid for its collection to answer the activity questions 1–3.
Step 3: The class will come together to describe and share what they learned about their primary sources. The class can discuss, ask questions about each item, and offer feedback for additional questions.
Step 4: Back in your small groups, you will answer question 4 and discuss research questions using the item. Also, begin to consider other sources you might use in such a research project.
Step 5: As a class you will discuss your research questions and search strategies; review resources in the archives and the library; and ask any lasting questions.
End of Class: Don’t forget! Download your answers so that you can turn them into your instructor for credit.
Group 1:
Group 2:
Group 3:
An interactive or media element has been excluded from this version of the text. You can view it online here: https://ubalt.pressbooks.pub/primarysourcesbaltimorehistory/?p=24
Group 4:
Group 5:
Resources Consulted in Preparing this Activity Include:
Bahde, Anne. Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises. (Book). Published 2014.
Kopp, Maggie (2014). Start to Finish: Learning the Primary Source Research Process in 50 Minutes. In Bahde, A., Smedberg, H., & Taormina, M. (Eds.) Using Primary Sources: Hands-On Instructional Exercises: Hands-On Instructional Exercises. (pp. `8-20). ABC-CLIO.
“Primary Source Analysis Tool,” Getting Started with Primary Sources, Library of Congress, accessed January 21, 2021, https://www.loc.gov/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/guides/
Barton, M., & The RBMS Instruction and Outreach Committee. (2019, May). A lesson plan template. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://tpscollective.org/guidelines-toolkit/toolkits-planning-with-the-guidelines-1/
Spitz, B. (2021, March). Structured Close Looking: Modifying a Primary Source Analysis Activity for Asynchronous & Synchronous Remote Teaching. Retrieved March, 2021, from https://tpscollective.org/notes-from-the-field/structured-close-looking-modifying-a-primary-source-analysis-activity-for-asynchronous-synchronous-remote-teaching/
SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on the Development of Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy (JTF-PSL). (2018, June). Guidelinesfor Primary Source Literacy. Retrieved from https://www2.archivists.org/sites/all/files/GuidelinesForPrimarySourceLiteracy-June2018.pdf
Center for Educational Innovation. (n.d.). Active Learning. Retrieved February, 2021, from https://cei.umn.edu/active-learning#:~:text=Active%20learning%20is%20any%20approach,of%20knowledge%20from%20an%20expert.
Additional Useful Resources Include:
Gormly, B., Seale, M., Alpert-Abrams, H., Gustavson, A., Kemp, A., Lindquist, T., & Logsdon, A. (2019). Teaching with Digital Primary Sources: Literacies, Finding and Evaluating, Citing, Ethics, and Existing Models. #DLFteach. https://doi.org/10.21428/65a6243c.6b419f2b.
Sara R. Haviland, “Civil Rights in Brooklyn: A Scaffolded Approach,” TeachArchives.org, accessed [2021, March], http://www.teacharchives.org/exercises/scaffolded/.
Cole, H. (2021, January 11). Teaching with Primary Sources: Online Instruction with Primary Sources. Retrieved February, 2021, from https://libguides.brown.edu/primarysources.
Duke University Libraries. (2020, August 26). Teaching Materiality Online with the Rubenstein Library. Retrieved February, 2021, from https://guides.library.duke.edu/materiality.