Historical Source Lesson: Art
| ALL GRADES
For the Educator: Use this historical source lesson with the sample analysis page (as a handout or overhead) to illustrate where to find and how to use art and crafts. Download full-page sample analysis Image as jpg |
Relevant Standards: Artwork can help students learn about the past and interpret what they find. Any art project can be adapted to fit the Michigan Content Standards and Benchmarks for various curricula. Asking students to talk or write thoughtfully about their artwork can help meet these standards.
What is art?
Art is any creative visual representation or product. It can be a painting, drawing, sculpture, print, or craft, like basketry, needlework, and weaving. While researching the Fruit Belt, we found postcards, needlepoint, pastels, and commercial/graphic artwork on can labels. We use art and crafts like these to help us understand how people in the past related to the Fruit Belt, and how people today relate to the past.
Where can you find it?
Art can be found everywhere. Michigan Fruit Canneries donated several pieces of commercial artwork to our project. Private donors, libraries, and museums also offered artwork for our use. Other sources for art and crafts include churches, schools, antique stores, and archives.
How do you interpret it?
Analyzing artwork and crafts can be quite challenging. Often times, historians use these to illustrate particular cultures of the past—rather than as a source of information. In either case, here are some steps that might help you think about art and its relationship to the past.
Look over the artwork/craft. What is the media (what is it made from)? Does it represent a person, thing, or shape? What colors are used? How does this piece make you feel? What do you think the artist was thinking/feeling when they made it? Why do you think this was made? Does the art have a function (i.e. what can you use it for)? What does it communicate?
Answering questions like these can help you understand how people related to the past through creativity and art. You can use artwork and crafts to describe people’s culture, emotional responses, and lifestyles.
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