Comments for US History II

Comment on Constitutions Day; Start of Unit 3 by Chelsey Peso

Chelsey Peso — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:17:24 +0000

Reading this article was very informative. America was extremely resistant with allowing women to have equal rights, especially voting rights. Eventually, this all changed. We, as America, do not like to fall behind in respect to all other countries, so besides the many other reasons, we had to accept women suffrage in order to remain in the top few countries. Woman’s suffrage was pushed for very strongly, and it took a lot, but it finally was accepted, and now women are viewed as equal.

Comment on Constitutions Day; Start of Unit 3 by Danielle Paige

Danielle Paige — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:48:16 +0000

This article is an interesting portrayal of American resistance and eventual submission to change. It seems to me that the United States, especially in the west, began to “need” rather than want women’s suffrage and so went to great lengths to achieve that. Also, I think that slowly women’s suffrage took over the United States because of foreign competition. This article mentions New Zealand as being a leading country in Women’s suffrafe, and so in America’s fashion, we could not trail too far behind. Although, I do think that the enventual success of Women’s suffrage is very important in my life because it marks one of the reasons why I am sitting here writing this comment right now.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Rich Hay

Rich Hay — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:11:52 +0000

What did you learn about your city?

We were able to learn many things about New York City when this picture was taken back in 1896. For instance both motorized vehicles and horses are present on the city street. A tall ornate streetlight shows signs of progress towards a modern world. Light traffic at the intersection suggests maybe the picture was taken during a low in the day. The building at the intersection contains a liquor store on the ground floor, another suggestion leisure was a part of city dwellers lives at the time. We also learned that the turn-of-the-century New York City already contained tall buildings, as this building has at least six stories, before being cut off by the image’s cropping. Also at first glance I thought the streets are paved, but upon closer examination of not quite sure. Although the street looks very clean, I would suspect an unpaved road would be quite dusty. Overall though I get the impression New York New York was already a thriving city at the time this photograph was taken.

What did you learn about the sources that historians can use to study the 19th century city?

Pictures can yield a window to the past for us to interpret later. The still image however is just that, still, a movie has the potential to provide much more information. A movie captures people’s movements and actions within the city. Pictures however focus on one instant in time and allow us to focus on subjects that at first may not be obvious.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by ENEIDA SANCHEZ

ENEIDA SANCHEZ — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:21:16 +0000

This images were taken by Jacob Riis a newspapermen and photographer. Utilize this images to introduce to Middle and Upper class American to the living conditions of the new inmigrants. The photographs show the poverty, sadness of many of the newcomers. As I read on the book the gap between rich and the poor people was evident.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Rich Hay

Rich Hay — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:20:37 +0000

Photo- 8

New York City.

Shows progress between old and new at a typical New York city intersection. In the foreground is a large double Decker shuttle bus. Horses are also present in the background as a street light. There is also a large six (at least) building in the background.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Brianna Stoney

Brianna Stoney — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:20:36 +0000

My 19th century city was New York, specifically Central Park was my focus. I learned that, unlike today’s culture, concerts were quiet calm and proper… odd to think about. There was also an extreme male presence in society; I did not see one woman at this concert. I also noticed a wide range of social classes based on the clothing of the men as well as the hats they were wearing. Some men wore a formal top-hat-like hat, while others wore a simple, plain straw-like hat. Because of the immense amount of people (it looks like at least 2,000), I concluded that, with my prior knowledge to the time period, that urbanization was at its best. There was a lot of information to soak in with looking at just one mere photo.
The photo that I looked at was taken by Charles Downing Lay, who was nominated the Landscaper Architect for the City of New York. It was interesting that although he most likely took these photos for the sake of admiring his architecture, it actually has provided historians with an immense amount of information to further learn about society during this time. Actually seeing the interaction between people in society and the way culture curbed the way people acted provided great insight.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Jimimah Ntori

Jimimah Ntori — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:20:25 +0000

1. what did you learn about your city that you researched?

New York was a booming city. From the docks we see beautiful buildings, many skyscrapers (which for that time has amazing heights) and we see just the how the cities grow in that period. Though we don’t get to see the in-depth look at exactly what is going on in New York, we are able to see the beauty of the city from a distance, which is how an incoming immigrant would have been able to see it.

2. what did you learn about how your source used is a helpful historical source?
From viewing the video, I can conclude that a video definitely gives you more insight into the time period you are looking to study. Historians can see precisely what goes on in that time period and how people carried themselves. That is especially true for a video like that, where the director can not strategically place people and/or things to fit his vision but he is in fact recording just one still movement and everything that we as the viewer see’s is actually what is going on.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Drew Frigon

Drew Frigon — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:19:21 +0000

What did you learn about your 19th century city? Sources we can use to study it?

The photograph that i reviewed was from a pageant in Galveston, Texas called the “Third International Pageant of Pulchritude and Ninth Annual Bathing Girl Revue” that took place over the course of 3 days (June3,4,5,) in 1928.

It was interesting to learn that during this time frame women were partaking in pageantry that was not only revealing, but began to establish a system of competition based on “beauty”. We were able to see how the female body became “sexualized” and became a system in which it could receive rank to award its level of beauty.

The photography used to document this appeared to be a wonderful primary source document in terms of accuracy.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Chelsey Peso

Chelsey Peso — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:19:15 +0000

I learned by watching the first video on my link, which was 13, that Chicago was extremely cramped. It was not only packed with cars and trolleys, but also with hundreds of people trying to shop. Thomas Edison was behind the camera. His shop created a few important devices in early film making, including the kinetograph and the kinetoscope. Camera men in Chicago could ride the train for free because the conductors thought this was free PR. Being able to see video clips of the streets of Chicago creates much more of an impact than just simply stating that Chicago was crowded.

Comment on Workshop 1: Rise of the City by Brittnie Guertin

Brittnie Guertin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:19:12 +0000

I learned that Chicago was very dense and there was a lot of commotion going on in the streets. There was a horse just standing in the street surrounded by people as if it was just another building in the way, I found that interesting because now a days if I horse was in the street people wouldn’t know what to do. I also learned that around the time that the video was created, the first gas powered car was invented, although there were not many cars in the short film, however there was a trolley that rolled by for a brief moment. I also witnessed that the city was very dense which made it an easy breeding ground for disease. A film is a useful historical source because it shows how actual living people functioned during the day and unlike in a photograph, a film can show a million photos in under a minute. If a photo is worth a thousand words, then I believe a short film is worth ten times that.