Doing the Decades:
Group Investigations in Twentieth Century U. S. History

Historic Mural/Museum Exhibition Requirements

Content:

1. Answer all investigative questions about group themes in the final presentation.

2. Use a minimum of 10 secondary and 15 primary sources in each individual's research. The 15 primary sources must be represented in the final presentation, along with documentation of a sampling of the secondary sources.

3. Use a minimum of 10 American Memory primary sources in the final presentation.

4. Hand in a complete works cited list for each individual's section of the presentation on the day of the final presentation.

5. Sources gathered from electronic media (Internet, CD-ROMs, online databases, computer software, videotape, audiotape).  For Internet sources (photos, maps, audio recordings, documents, movies), use How to Cite Electronic Sources, Learning Page, Library of Congress.

6. Content must represent accurate information from the time period of your investigation.

7. In designing your mural/exhibit, keep in mind that your artistic representations of the main themes do not need to highlight minute details. Rather, the artistic work should illustrate cases that are representative of larger themes, and the unity of each panel, as well as the overall work, should evoke overarching patterns that the group believes are evident in the period 1890-1941 for the six themes studied.

8. A museum exhibit guide should accompany the exhibit/mural and contain a detailed interpretation of the mural panels, with sources cited in that text.  The creative process of how the larger historical themes are represented in the artistic rendering should be described, and the key symbols, events, figures, and settings should be explained with reference made to the six themes you have researched.

Design:

1. A pencil sketch of each mural will be helpful in planning out the final version.  Submit this for peer review, along with a one page summary of what you intend the final mural to display.

2. Look at murals from the 1930s done by artists who were funded by the New Deal.  Many of these portrayed U. S. history, such as the famous mural at the Roosevelt, New Jersey Elementary School done by Ben Shahn.  That can be viewed on the Internet at Electronic New Jersey at http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njh/. Click on Jersey Homesteads, then the mural link. Study the mural before you get much further into the project.  Also, look at Diego Rivera's work. This famous Mexican muralist worked in both Mexico and the USA, and the historic themes he portrays are both powerful and evocative of long historic patterns in Mexican and U.S. culture.

3. Keep in mind that how you design the mural in pencil on paper will be critical to your final rendering of the ideas in another medium. Think carefully about how the use of color, space, and perspective will convey particular messages about your subjects to the viewer.