The Grandparent/Elder Project

Unit I: Through the Eyes of Contemporaries, 1900-1919

Lesson One: Newspapers, 1910-1919

The study of events through contemporary primary sources to learn about the decade 1910-1919 is an exercise that uses a March 13, 1913, edition of the New York Times (or other comparable periodical) and a current newspaper edition. The influence of time and place on history and the process of how history is written is the focus for this exercise.

Lesson Two: Search the Decade Sources

Students learn how to locate primary sources about San Francisco in the American Memory collections for 1900-1920. Note: If you are in another big city such as Chicago or New York, you may wish to substitute that city or a state for this lesson. Before making this change, be sure to do some preliminary searching using the substituted city or state name. For San Francisco, using the 1900-1920 time period provides very good results. For another city or state, it may be necessary to modify the decade selected for this lesson which teaches searching techniques in the American Memory collections. You may wish to check out the lesson, Doing the Decades, one of the Lesson Plans offered by the Learning Page.

Lesson Three: Presidents of the United States

Students use secondary sources to learn about the Presidents of the United States and World War I, providing additional background for the study of twentieth century history.