Analyzing Photographs and Prints

PRIMARY SOURCES

“We can learn from and about history by analyzing historic primary sources, like letters, photographs,

maps, drawings, sheet music, advertisements, recordings, and political cartoons.” (Library of

Congress)

Primary Sources and Secondary Sources

When writing history, historians ask themselves five W’s:• What happened?• When and where did it happen?• Who was involved?• Why did it happen?

To find answers, they look for primary sources. These sources are first-hand, or eyewitness, accounts of the event. They also seek out secondary sources, or second-hand records of what happened.

Primary Sources

DiariesNewspapersLettersDaily Personal RecordsFirst-hand Accounts

Secondary Sources

TextbooksInternetSecond-hand Accounts

Analyzing Photographs and Prints

As you view the following photographs, you will be completing an analysis to gain a better understanding of what life was like during the Dust Bowl. You will be making your analysis using a primary source: a photograph.

You will use the following analysis tool to complete the assignment.

OBSERVE REFLECT QUESTION

Describe what you see.

• What do you notice first?

• What people and objects are shown?

• How are they arranged?

• What is the physical setting?

Generate and test hypothesis about the

image.• Why do you think this image was made?

• What’s happening in the image?

• When do you think it was made?

Ask questions to lead to more observations.• What do you

wander about?

• Who?• What?• When?• Where?• Why?• How?

Describe what you see.

Generate and test hypothesis

about the image.

OBSERVE REFLECT QUESTION

Ask questions to lead to more observations.

Describe what you see.

Generate and test hypothesis

about the image.

OBSERVE REFLECT QUESTION

Ask questions to lead to more observations.

Describe what you see.

Generate and test hypothesis

about the image.

OBSERVE REFLECT QUESTION

Ask questions to lead to more observations.

Lucille Burroughs

• Lucille Burroughs was the daughter of a sharecropper in Oklahoma.

• Her image was used by Karen Hesse for the cover of Out of the Dust to represent Billie Jo.

"Out of the Dust: Visions of Dust Bowl HistoryStudent Resources." Preparation. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Aug. 2014.

Citations