Last updated: June 13, 2024
Article
Talking with the Past: Explorations in Source Analysis and Media Literacy
Have you ever wondered how professional researchers analyze and think critically about their sources?
Join us to learn how researchers engage with different kinds of primary source documents. Newspapers, oral history, and posters hold valuable information and inspire curiosity. These media literacy lessons focus on primary sources from the World War II home front.
Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) offers teaching tools and lesson plans to engage educators and learners through historic places. By examining and questioning readings, documents, maps, photographs, and by engaging in activities, students connect these locations to broad themes of American history.
Scroll for explainers on different sources or use the "On the Page" drop down menu.
Talking with the Past #1: Newspaper Article
Talking with the Past: Newspaper Article
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- 19 minutes, 16 seconds
Alison talks us through how to analyze a newspaper article as a primary source and pick out fact from opinion.
Alyssa Eveland [00:00:00] Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland and welcome to Talking with the Past Explorations in Source Analysis and Media Literacy, brought to you by the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education of the National Park Service. Learn from professional historians and others in the field about how they engage with different kinds of primary source documents to understand the information these sources provide us about the people and environments that created them. On the screen here, you will see the homepage for Teaching with Historic Places, a NPS program that provides resources to educators and curious learners to explore our shared history. Find us at nps.gov/teaching with historic places.
Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland I'm the Telling All American Stories Fellow with American Conservation Experience and the National Park Service.
Alison Russell [00:00:56] Hi, I'm Alison Russell, I'm a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a consulting historian with the Park Service and the National Council on Public History.
Alyssa Eveland [00:01:07] And today, we're going to be discussing how you use a newspaper article as a primary source.
Alison Russell [00:01:14] Yeah, I picked one that is in our teaching with Historic Places lessons. Specifically part of our series on World War two, Heritage Cities. So you can find this lesson under (H)our History Lesson, Japanese American Resettlement in Dayton, Ohio, if you want to see the other resources that go with it. So we're looking at the newspaper article as it appears in the lesson plan, which means that there's a kind of heading with the title at the top, and you can see it's reading number two. So you'll notice it's part of a source set, and it gives the title of the article. Below it, it tells us some basic sourcing information. It is from the Dayton Daily News, October 2nd, 1943, page eight. And then you get the body of the article. And then below it you can see that there's another reading from a Japanese-American child's perspective. So we know different types of sources will be compared. And then there are questions for the reading. This is clearly a resource view. This is not the way that it would appear in the newspaper itself, but it's giving you all the same information just compacted into one place. Like with a lot of written sources. The first thing we want to do is look for the author, the date and the publisher, or some combination of those pieces of information. They tell us kind of the first bit of information that we know about a source. So you can see at the top, even though this is a transcription of the source, it says it's from the Dayton Daily News and it's from October 2nd, 1943. And what's missing is an author. And so let's keep that in the back of our mind while we talk about newspaper sources more generally. But seeing that is from the Dayton Daily News lets me know that this is a newspaper source. And I want to think about newspapers as a particular type of communication.
Alyssa Eveland [00:03:10] So in addition to this being a resource view, you also have a couple of annotations on here. There is a pink arrow pointing to the top line that gives us the name of the newspaper and the date it was published. It connects to a box that says, what do we know about the source? What is its purpose and perspective of the newspaper? In the second paragraph, the last sentence is underlined in blue. In the third paragraph, there is a portion of the first sentence underlined in green, and next to it there is a green box that says. How do word choice, sources and organization show the newspaper's perspective? And it also says, how do they show different attitudes and events of the time? Then a portion of the last sentence in the third paragraph is underlined, also in blue. When you look down under questions for reading two, you can see a portion of the first question is underlined also in pink, just like that top arrow.
Alison Russell [00:04:09] So there's no author. Usually we like to say like, oh, it's from this person. And so we want to think about their perspective or their bias when a newspaper article is unattributed, when there's no listed author, it could come from one of two sources. It could come from a wire, a news wire, like the Associated Press. These are companies that basically report news stories and then sell those kind of short news stories all over the country to be reprinted in local papers. I would say this is unlikely, because usually, even then, there will be a further attribution, like you'll see a little AP news for Associated Press if the news, article is from there.
Alyssa Eveland [00:04:50] And that still happens today. Like you'll see a lot of news, different news sources having the same article published. And that's what's happening.
Alison Russell [00:04:57] Absolutely right. And it does kind of standardize the news a little bit or take some of the local perspective away. And that brings a set of questions about national priorities, into consideration. But I think that likely this is the second option, which is a local paper, is just having general staff work on this. And they haven't attributed to a specific journalist either because several people worked on it, or they're indicating that it speaks for the view of the paper, that this isn't the work of of one single reporter, but of the kind of editorial perspective as a whole. The other thing we want to consider, particularly when there's no author, although this is a question we always ask of sources when we're thinking about the purpose and perspective, is who is the audience? And without an author, when it is a local paper like this, we can assume kind of the general community. So this is speaking to residents of Dayton, Ohio, again, compared to that, National News Service, which might be speaking to any American reader because they don't know what newspaper it's going to be reprinted in. So that gives us a little specificity when thinking about who they're talking to and who their audience might be. This also means that. The purpose when addressing that audience is likely to inform, right? We know of newspapers are a way to get the news, so they're trying to inform people on what's happening. But because this is speaking from the perspective of a newspaper and because it's to a specific community, there's also, I think, a little bit of persuasion going on. And that's something that I want to flag, because a lot of times when we look at a newspaper as historians, we're looking to find out what happened. And so there's often a preconceived notion that newspapers are objective or that they're only reporting the facts. And there are a lot of facts in this article, right? The very first line tells us something that we might not have known before, that 30 American born Japanese young persons will be guests of the Women's Women of the Church Federation of Dayton and Montgomery County. That is true, right? And that helps us think about things that happened. But newspapers also have a point of view. Their individual journalists, editors, editorial staffs, the owner of newspapers. They're making decisions in a couple of different ways about what is and isn't news, and how that news should be framed. And so when we think about newspapers, we still want to think about the perspective or bias, although we want to be careful with the word bias sometimes, not always a bad thing. Everyone has a bias.
Alyssa Eveland [00:07:42] Yeah.
Alison Russell [00:07:42] Of that newspaper.
Alyssa Eveland [00:07:44] In my its bias does not necessarily mean a negative bias, just means it's a point of view.
Alison Russell [00:07:49] Yes, exactly. And that's why I, I like to use the word perspective or I think Alyssa point of view is also a good way to put it. And we want to be mindful of that point of view because it influences what is and isn't in the article, but it doesn't mean we throw the whole article out as biased, which is sometimes.
Alyssa Eveland [00:08:08] We would have no history then.
Alison Russell [00:08:09] We have, I know would be really unfortunate. So this newspaper article, in addition to reporting facts, is also framing those facts in a particular way that's speaking to an audience and trying to influence that audience to a particular perspective. And many cities and towns, including Dayton, Ohio, have newspapers whose editorial board, the people making decisions, lean liberal or conservative. And a lot of times these cities like Dayton is one of these examples, will have a liberal newspaper and a conservative newspaper. So it's not to say, again, that aligns perfectly with the Democratic Party or the Republican Party as we currently know them. But you could see that there's maybe a little bit of a political agenda in these newspapers, even in these news stories. So even without doing any background research, I'm looking to see what how does this article feel about the political issues that it's reporting on? And you may think, like American born Japanese people are coming to Dayton, like what's political about that? And it's World War Two we're going to talk about that context in just a minute. I can see a generally positive view in some of the word choice about welcoming in outsiders, people who are not from Dayton, Ohio. So it says and underlined in blue like this church federation is taking them in hand. It's helping them. It talks about kind of welcoming these young people to Dayton, and that tells me that they maybe have a slightly more liberal perspective, that they're more open and welcoming. They're they're a little bit more progressive as a community oriented solution rather than one based on individualism or based on kind of these are our people we don't need to help anyone but our people, if that makes sense.
Alyssa Eveland [00:09:58] Yeah. And even then, it looks like in the later paragraph, also underlined in blue, it says most of them are graduates of American colleges. Like they're still trying to get that like, oh, but they're still part of us, they're still us.
Alison Russell [00:10:10] Yeah. And I think that's a really important thing to point out Alyssa, that there's both an effort to be welcoming to outsiders and an emphasis of Japanese Americans as American, and to not see them as outsiders, if that. I think that was a good thing to pick up on. The other thing I will do as a historian is sometimes when I'm working with an unfamiliar newspaper, I will do a quick internet search, because if I have this theory that it is a more liberal paper, I want to confirm it by looking at the background. And on further investigation, I can see that the Dayton Daily News was owned in the first half of the century. So before 1950, including 1943 by a man named James M Cox, who ran for president as a Democrat in 1920. Pay attention to the years when dealing with things like political parties, because values and ideals often change over time, and the Democratic Party of today is not the same as the Democratic Party of 50 or 100 years ago. You can go that extra step or you cannot. But it's good to be thorough, and a quick internet search can find that answer pretty quickly. Like I said, these word choices don't mean that this isn't an accurate account of what is happening. It just means that we're getting kind of one particular view of what's happening, or it's going to emphasize certain aspects of what's happening and maybe deemphasize or not mention other aspects.
Alyssa Eveland [00:11:40] Yeah. For example, with this one in particular, why is this article necessary in the first place? Why did they feel the need to publish this piece?
Alison Russell [00:11:48] Yeah. And that brings us to how newspaper articles like this, even though they tell us a distinct perspective about this newspaper, also tell us a lot about what is happening at the time period. And that's what makes them so valuable to us as historians. So I'm a historian of World War two, I'm researching what's happened in the World War Two era, that includes 1943, this article stands out to me because of Japanese incarceration and Executive Order 9066. As soon as Japanese Americans are mentioned, I'm thinking about that climate. And so, just as a quick review, this is when President Roosevelt and the US government, suspecting, but not proving that Japanese Americans were collaborating with the Japanese Empire, ordered the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans, some born in the U.S., some not born in the U.S., but all living legally in the United States, were living on the West Coast and in Hawaii to, incarceration camps. Dayton, Ohio, is too far east to be impacted by that. So the generally a West Coast phenomenon. But, distrust and racism of Japanese Americans and people of Japanese descent is a national problem. And so you can see in what's underlined in green that they acknowledge that their source. Doctor Kemper McComb says that they are making every possible effort to keep the Japanese American young people from being conspicuous, which means standing out and to avoid unpleasantness in their relations with other Americans. And so he's referring to he's acknowledging this kind of national attitude about Japanese Americans. You mentioned earlier, Alyssa, right this effort to say they're graduates of American colleges. This is another point where the newspaper, in choosing this quote from Kemper McComb emphasizes the Americanness of these Japanese American young people right. Keep them from unpleasant relations with other Americans. They are Americans. They're coming into a place with other Americans. They're all American together. But it also downplays that harassment right. It doesn't mention that the families of some of these young people might be incarcerated. It doesn't mention that stores were looted, that homes were burned right like that there is some real threats of violence in the United States. It just calls it unpleasantness and that kind of papers over, some of the more extreme racism and xenophobia that the United States is experiencing.
Alyssa Eveland [00:14:28] Yeah, these young people are coming here because they were forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast. I know you read a lot about this, that people who lived in California. And they were sent to a lot of times deserts like really nasty, inhospitable places. And now they're being sent somewhere new again, this time without their families. Like.
Alison Russell [00:14:51] Right. And it raises questions, right. Always question what the newspaper is, including and excluding. Doctor McComb is emphasizing that they are graduates of colleges and some have PhDs. Are they in Dayton, Ohio, to do something specific? Is it just out of the kindness of Dayton-ians hearts that these young people have been welcomed, or are they there to provide support to a scientific or engineering research project that might help the war effort, and that you could do a little more research on. In this case, you might look at other parts of the lesson. So the emphasizing their level of college education both shows a respectability that's apparent to anyone reading the article, right? Persuading them, readers, that these young people are safe and, should be welcome to the community. But it's also maybe pointing towards the reason that these particular people of Japanese descent are in Dayton, as opposed to in incarceration camps where a lot of their friends and family might be. I think those are the kind of three things that I, I would first look at, right. Like, what do we know about the source? How does that point to the purpose and perspective of even a newspaper? Right. And again, pushing back against that assumption of objectivity and only reporting the facts, and then go delving into the article to kind of find what that perspective is, and then finally going to how does that show us something about the historical time period? That's that's the steps that I take, and that's the steps that I recommend you take when you are analyzing a newspaper.
Alyssa Eveland [00:16:31] I think that's very helpful. And you can go as deep with these things as you want, if you were really interested in it. You can dig really far down and find a lot of interesting stuff. For example, we could probably talk for several minutes about why this news article was on page eight of the newspaper instead of the first page.
Alison Russell [00:16:48] Alyssa, I am so glad you brought that up. That was on my list of things to talk about with newspapers. They will often place stories in order of their perceived importance. Again, someone is making choices about what is and isn't important and what is and isn't included. So I don't know the exact size of the Dayton Daily News, but I'm guessing not more than 16 pages, including the sports page that's. On the slightly longer side for a local paper, but this is a bigger city and a pretty established paper. So this is buried in the middle, right? If this were a huge news story that was affecting the lives of every Dayton-ian, it might be on the front if this was something that the paper really cared about every Daytonian welcoming these Japanese Americans into the community. It might be on the first or second page, but it's on page eight. So it's something they wanted to note and a stance they want to take, but it's not the most important thing on their agenda. And during World War Two, that's understandable. The first couple of pages would likely be filled with news of the war, both abroad and anything that related to families and citizens who would be directly impacted by the war in Dayton.
Alyssa Eveland [00:18:03] Especially as Dayton is a production hub.
Alison Russell [00:18:07] And I will say as you're building these skills, you'll see some questions we always ask of sources. So I just wanted to draw your attention to in this lesson, what is the purpose of this article being published? We used all these clues to try to figure that out right. Do they want people to be welcoming? How important is it? But you can use those questions as guides and then start to ask them yourself, right? Always ask about purpose. Always ask about perspective.
Alyssa Eveland [00:18:33] Yeah, you can get a lot more out of these newspaper sources than just what they tell you.
Alison Russell [00:18:39] Yes, absolutely. Any any historical source, but newspapers are sometimes masquerading as something more straightforward.
Alyssa Eveland [00:18:48] Absolutely. Thank you, Alison, for taking us through that newspaper. Remember, the process that Alison went through with this particular document can be used with any other source of its kind for other episodes of talking with the past, where we walk through other kinds of primary sources, and for pre-written lesson plans that use them. Check out nps.gov/teaching with Historic Places. Thank you for listening.
Talking with the Past #2: Oral History
Talking with the Past: Oral History
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Sarah talks us through how to analyze an interview as a primary source.
Alyssa Eveland [01:00:00] Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland and welcome to Talking with the Past Explorations in Source Analysis and Media Literacy, brought to you by the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education of the National Park Service. Learn from professional historians and others in the field about how they engage with different kinds of primary source documents to understand the information these sources provide us about the people and environments that created them. On the screen here, you will see the home page for Teaching with Historic Places, a NPS program that provides resources to educators and curious learners to explore our shared history. Find us at nps.gov/teaching with historic places.
Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland, I am the Telling All American Stories Fellow with the American Conservation Experience and the National Park Service.
Sarah Lane [01:00:58] Hi, I'm Sarah Lane, and I'm a consulting educator that supports the development of lesson plans for the National Park Service and the National Council on Public History.
Alyssa Eveland [01:01:08] Right, and what do you have for us here today?
Sarah Lane [01:01:11] S, so we'll be taking a look at a source within a World War Two Heritage City lesson series on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This lesson that I have up right now is specifically on women's contributions to the home front. You can find this lesson within our history lessons and within the World War two Heritage Study lessons. So we'll go ahead and get started with one of the sources in the lesson.
Alyssa Eveland [01:01:39] This first image is a resource view of the interview as you would see it in the lesson plan. We have some context for the interview in the top paragraph, boxed in blue. Below that is some background on the interviewee. Marcella Irene Martin boxed in orange. Then it goes into a transcript of the interview.
Sarah Lane [01:01:58] First, let's take a look at what's on this slide. This is an oral history interview. And it's an interview of a WAC recruiter, Marcella Irene Martin. And that stands for Women's Army Corps. And we're first going to consider the context of this interview. So when you're taking a look at an oral history or an interview, you want to examine the interviews context, the interviewee background, and interview accuracy. So first consider the context of when and where the interview took place. Was the interview conducted for a specific reason, such as documenting personal experiences, promoting a particular viewpoint, or gathering information for research. This can really impact the type of interview questions and as a result, the responses that the interviewee shares. Also, make sure to consider how long ago were these experiences that are being discussed. So, for example, this interview is part of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. This is a well-known collection of oral histories and volunteers help interview and record. So keep in mind they're not always professional interviewers, they are volunteers and so you can sometimes see that in the interview questioning techniques. And the purpose of this is to record veterans’ histories, to share with others. And the interviewees perspectives and thinking has probably developed since the experiences described in the interview might not be as clear anymore due to the passing of time. So you see, this interview was collected in May of 2015 so several years have passed since then and she's 91 years old when this was taken place. So that's kind of that context part that is above or a part of the background information. And now we're seeing the background information highlighted here with some questions that you can think about in terms of analyzing the background. So you'll want to check for the background of the person being interviewed. You want to make sure to consider any potential biases or perspectives of the interviewee, and make sure that you think about how they might have a viewpoint or viewpoint or bias that's based on their personal experiences, beliefs, or affiliations. And it is important to consider how this bias might influence their account of events. So, as we already said, Martin was in the Women's Army Corps and she also served as a recruiter. So given her service, she may have a more positive view of military service and its opportunities for women. She could also maybe have insights into women's rights and the role of women in the military from a firsthand perspective. As she served as a recruiter, she may share based on her views on the importance of recruitment efforts and serving. But all that to say, it's also possible that not all of her experiences were positive. So we have to keep in mind that her personal opinions and experiences can't be used to define everyone's experiences as women in the service during World War Two. So interviews will provide that one-person perspective and not capture the full complexity of an event or a time period or information on a topic.
Alyssa Eveland [01:05:42] Now we are still in a resource view and we are looking at two separate sections of the interview. One on the left has a portion box, two in green with a few key sentences that we will go over later underlined as well. On the right-hand side none of the interview is highlighted in particular, but it is a larger section of just Martin talking without any interruptions from the interviewer.
Sarah Lane [01:06:05] The next part to focus on, in this interview, for example, is kind of taking a look at some of the content that's in this interview. And I selected this part where the interviewee is describing about the pollution in Pittsburgh and how that may or may not have impacted her recruitment efforts. And so that's where I want to point out that as you're reading an interview, always be checking for the accuracy of information, check if there are any inconsistencies or contradictions or if there's claims that are made. Be sure to follow up with other sources before accepting these as facts. For example, the interviewer here implies conversationally, that only one of every ten girls recruited passed the physical exams, and we do not know for certain that this is exact data. So keep in mind that sometimes interviewers can impose their thought process or beliefs on questions, and then it can taint how the interviewee responds. And Martin and the interviewer here are discussing that the reason many girls didn't pass their physical was perhaps due to the pollution in Pittsburgh. There is enough information from this source and the images in the lesson to show that Pittsburgh was polluted along with other data, but we can't be certain of the degree of pollution or how much it really did impact the recruitment based on this singular source. All right. Our last little bit that we'll focus on here is a part where the interviewee is describing a story that she's reflecting on. A story about her going door to door, doing recruiting and some of their strategies to do so. And I used this part or this story to share one last tip about listening or reading interviews. And I say to enjoy them, because interviews are a unique way to really experience unique stories from other times, and step in the shoes of people who experienced events and lived in these time periods firsthand. Some of these things, like strategies or stories, might not always be something that we would see or recommend today, but it does provide important insights and you also might get to experience unique vocabulary, dialects, cultural references. Always also make sure to examine the tone of the interview when thinking about the content being described. You might get to experience funny memories or serious reflections. I recommend visualizing details as you hear or read them and really be thoughtful around how this source provides insights that other sources may not be able to provide.
Alyssa Eveland [01:09:07] Oral histories are a fun way to engage with the past. Sort of like how reading journals or letters might. But you don't have to deal with how that cursive handwriting or the way we write spell things.
Sarah Lane [01:09:20] Right. And I think about, too, how we just love storytelling and story reading as just learners in general. And oral histories are a great way to bring together our love for stories and also learning history.
Alyssa Eveland [01:09:35] It's a way to humanize the past in a way that often gets lost when you're focusing on these big events.
Sarah Lane [01:09:41] Yes.
Alyssa Eveland [01:09:42] Thank you so much.
Sarah Lane [01:09:43] Yes. Thank you for joining us.
Alyssa Eveland [01:09:47] Thank you, Sarah, for talking us through that source. Remember, the process that she used to go through this particular document can be used with any other of its kind. For other episodes of Talking with the Past, where we walk through other kinds of primary sources, and for pre-written lesson plans that use them. Check out nps.gov. Teaching with Historic places. Thank you for listening.
Talking with the Past #3: Visual Analysis WWII Poster
Talking with the Past: Visual Analysis WWII Poster
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Marjorie provides a guide for conducting visual analysis on posters as primary sources.
Alyssa Eveland [00:00:00] Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland and welcome to Talking with the Past Explorations in Source Analysis and Media Literacy, brought to you by the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education of the National Park Service. Learn from professional historians and others in the field about how they engage with different kinds of primary source documents to understand the information these sources provide us about the people and environments that created them. On the screen here, you will see the home page for Teaching with Historic Places, a NPS program that provides resources to educators and curious learners to explore our shared history. Find us at nps.gov/teaching with historic places.
Alyssa Eveland [00:00:48] Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland and I am the Telling All American Stories Fellow with the American Conservation Experience and the National Park Service. And today I am here with Marjorie.
Marjorie Antonio [00:00:58] Hi everybody, my name is Marjorie Antonio I am an American Conservation Experience intern at the National Park Service. I work here with Alyssa, and it's really exciting to present this resource for you.
Alyssa Eveland [00:01:11] So what do you have for us here today?
Marjorie Antonio [00:01:14] So in this segment we will learn a little bit more about World War Two wartime posters, as well as methods in viewing and analyzing these posters as primary sources. This is part of a series on visual culture and analysis for historical thinking. In other words, what does art, advertisements, posters, and other visual materials tell us about history? Let's get right into it.
Marjorie Antonio [00:01:38] Here's a little bit of context before we start. As weapons of mass destruction volleyed in Europe and in the Pacific. The World War Two home front was a site of another aspect of war, one of persuasion and public opinion, or in other words, propaganda. Without the American public approval and willing involvement in supporting various industries of war from rationing, military enlistment, building and manufacturing defense weaponry to buying war bonds, victory may slip from the Allied powers hands as a method of swaying public opinion. The U.S. government designed a propaganda campaign that supported the war's aims and recruited the nation's, scholars, artists, and filmmakers to achieve their goals. As part of this effort, government sponsored and citizen made World War two posters were created and distributed across the home front. Looking at these posters as primary resources you can view and analyze the imagery and language that were used to garner support.
Marjorie Antonio [00:02:40] This is a little bit of context, but now you're thinking what does propaganda have anything to do with posters? So first let's define it. So sometimes a World War Two posters are also referred to as war propaganda posters. What is propaganda? According to the War Education War Department Educational Manual, also called EM-2 propaganda materials such as art writings, language, and conversations, in which its main purpose is to spread the word about a particular topic or issue, kind of like the word propagate. In the context of World War Two propaganda is in in quotes, an instrument for maintaining unity and goodwill among allies banded together in a common effort end quote. The posters have a specific political purpose and were distributed to try to reach as many people as possible.
Marjorie Antonio [00:03:36] So let's take a look at this poster entitled United We Win by Lieberman and distributed by the War Manpower Commission and the Office of War Information.
Alyssa Eveland [00:03:47] Those of you who are only listening. The poster is pretty straightforward. The top half is an American flag, and there are two men photographed in black and white, doing some kind of manufacturing work. Beneath them are the words United we win in large white print. This poster likely would have been at least 26 by 20in in size, but it could have been larger as well.
Marjorie Antonio [00:04:11] And as we view this image keep in mind a few different things and take a moment to answer these for yourself or with a group. First to where or what are your eyes immediately drawn to? Who are the subjects in the image? Is there any language or messages? Are there any elements that have symbolic meaning? Is there a signature or credit? Who created or distributed this image? What is its medium? Is it a painting, poster flier, etc.? And through this line of questioning, you are practicing visual analysis. The method of viewing an image to derive meaning. Here, the visual elements and representations are evidence to finding meaning of an image. If you're familiar with close readings, with texts or in English class this is a similar concept of close reading but with images, photographs, posters and other types of visual material. Ultimately visual analysis is an even more powerful tool if you use to view an image or material within its historical context. Let's start.
Marjorie Antonio [00:05:21] For example, in this work the first thing I see is the American flag. At least that's where my eyes are drawn to because of colors. It's definitely different from the black and white or the monochrome of the bottom half of the image. I. I see the red and honestly, that's where my eyes are drawn to. And since I am based in U.S. history I know that's the American flag behind the two figures, I already know that the flag is a symbol of patriotism and national identity. Which represents loyalty to the United States. And then I see the two workers the first is the top, because it's jutting right into the flag, like, oh, what are they doing? So kind of trying to figure out what this situation is. So I see I go with the image person on the right-hand side, and I look at his eyes and try to see what he's looking at. So if you follow his line of sight, he's looking at this object that looks like it's metal and he looks like he is doing work. Or he is dealing with this type of image with it looks like a drill and hunched over as well. The person on the left is also working on the same plate. And then I recognize that the two men are of different races with the black American on the left and the white American on the right. And that that makes me think about what are the conditions in which they're working together. I found that really interesting because during World War two, America is still a segregated society. Segregation means the practice of separating housing, education and other services between people of color and white Americans. This also meant that jobs were also segregated based on tasks or where they worked. Within this context, it is significant that two people are working together and what looks like an instrument or manufacturing object for the war effort.
Marjorie Antonio [00:07:18] So after the flag and after the images, my eyes are drawn to the text United We Win that are in all caps and in all bold. Here I question what are the times in which like I really want to type in all caps or make the text darker or more bold when communicating with others? And think about it yourselves as well. It often means we're trying to bring attention to something or emphasize a really important point. Here the artist who made this poster really wants us, the viewer to understand that united we win. With language we should also try to analyze not just how it looks on an image, but the connotations of the word connotations or the meanings that we place on words. Whether that be as individuals or society as a whole. For example, what does the word win mean to you? What feelings or ideas as it remind you of win. Is also related to the word winner or the phrase I won. Win means victory or positive success. In most cases, win also means the end result like win or lose. So I am now I see the flag to the people in the title or the message, the big bold text. And then I'm trying to see is there any other text on the poster? Let's look closely. And don't be afraid to zoom in to see all sides and details of the object at hand.
Alyssa Eveland [00:08:49] One of the benefits of digital media is you can zoom in like that.
Marjorie Antonio [00:08:53] Yeah. So I see like a little bit of here and then wow, this is very crisp source. So I see, the text on the left-hand side under. The big bold United it says OWI photo by Lieberman. I guess that's the person who created this, like the artist, that it is a photo. And then on the very, very bottom, in the smallest print it says OWI poster number 38. So when you number something it typically means that it's part of a series or this is how we identify an object. In the small text, it says additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries. Office of War Information Washington, DC. U.S. Government Printing Office 1943 O-506015. It's kind of like we're into you know the eye doctor's office trying to see if I'm really far away. But yeah. So what does this text, say to us as people who are analyzing a source? So we get a few different departments here, the Office of War Information. So I guess that's the OWI that they're talking about over here. And it also tells us that they had a division of public inquiries, like they had a whole office dedicated to people asking. Questions or inquiring. About this particular source. And also tells us that there are additional copies. Meaning that this is not the only poster or the only image that they have circulating around, and it gives instructions to the person was viewing this image if they would want more. And at the very bottom, it gives us some really important information as well. The date in which it was made, in 1943, and how it was distributed, through the US. Government Printing Office. As well as another number series of numbers that might be a clue to how we can identify this object. Here you can see the War Manpower Commission is listed at the bottom of the poster. With a quick search, you can find out that the War Manpower Commission was a World War two agency of the US government, particularly their responsibilities listed from like labor, industry and the armed forces, but it no longer exists today. You can find this poster at the National Archives and Records Administration website, also called NARA or the National Archives. And there are online exhibitions, where you can view and learn more about this particular poster United We Win! As well as being able to look and download the poster for your own viewing.
Marjorie Antonio [00:11:44] Back to the question what does this poster tells us about history? After like employing, a really fun way of viewing things through the method of visual analysis we learn a lot from this poster that might look really simple from the outside, right? It is not just a poster on an image that we see, but it also has a lot of different meanings that we can get out just by our first glance of an image. So in the context of the War of War two Homefront one interpretation of this poster is as follows only through working together, we, as in the United States, will win World War Two. We can use visual analysis to find the evidence to support this conclusion. The American flag that hangs brightly in the background reinforces the allegiance to the United States and national identity, loyalty, and support. The workers reflect the war effort. The black and white Americans working together to show a collaboration and unity to come together, despite racial differences towards winning the war. The language is also purposeful and commanding. It really wants you to remember it. It is simple as well, clear and concise in three words. The medium of this image is a poster. As we learned earlier, we can grab more copies from the Office of the the War. Department. And this the method of the poster is that you can have multiple copies of it. There's not just one painting, for instance. So it can be rapidly shared and be posted on sides of buildings or workplaces throughout the World War Two Homefront. Overall, this visual image reflects the overall messaging that they aim to convey. And these are just some examples of what you can consider as you view images and other visual materials. So take a moment and reflect upon the exercise of visual analysis, visual analysis and viewing other images art and film. And with historical context, one can use it to investigate and find stories behind the picture. Thank you everybody, and we'll catch you next time.
Alyssa Eveland [00:13:57] All right, thank you so much. Thank you, Marjorie, for talking us through that source. Remember, the process that Marjorie used to go through this particular document can be used with any other document of its kind. For other episodes of Talking with the Past, where we walk through other kinds of primary sources, and for pre-written lesson plans that use them. Check out nps.gov/teaching with Historic Places. Thank you for listening.
Talking with the Past #4: Source Analysis WWII Poster
Talking with the Past: Source Analysis WWII Poster
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Marjorie provides a guide for analyzing posters as primary sources.
Alyssa Eveland [00:00:00] Hello. My name is Alyssa Eveland and welcome to Talking with the Past Explorations in Source Analysis and Media Literacy, brought to you by the Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education of the National Park Service. Learn from professional historians and others in the field about how they engage with different kinds of primary source documents to understand the information these sources provide us about the people and environments that created them. On the screen here, you will see the home page for Teaching with Historic Places, a NPS program that provides resources to educators and curious learners to explore our shared history. Find us at nps.gov/teaching with historic places.
Alyssa Eveland [00:00:48] Hello, my name is Alyssa Eveland I am the Telling All Americans Stories Fellow with the American Conservation Experience and the National Park Service. And today I am here with Marjorie.
Marjorie Antonio [00:00:59] Hi. My name is Marjorie Justine Antonio, an American Conservation Experience intern at the National Park Service's Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education. And today, throughout this video, I will walk you through this presentation that explores how to look and analyze primary source documents. For this segment, we will talk about analyzing World War Two posters as primary sources. Another video takes us through visual analysis and ways of seeing. But in this one, we will take an investigative deep dive on what to do when you're presented with a historical source that has visual content like an illustration for a class assignment, research project, or exam. In this presentation, we will learn and discuss six elements we are looking for when conducting source analysis by using a wartime poster as an example.
So what are we looking for? There are a few ways to approach the situation, and by no means is there a correct method. Rather, the most important part is understanding the following. One: the meaning the information of the source is trying to convey. Two: the origin, who created the source? What kind and type of source is it? Three: perspective, what is the point of view of the source created from. Four: contexts, when was the source created? What important historical events happened during this time? Are there any overarching themes? Five: audience who is the intended audience of the source? Six: motive for what purposes was the source made? So I will walk you through now on how I would find this information. Let's take the source for example. Imagine that we were just given the image with a date and author like during the document and basic question in an exam or project.
Marjorie Antonio [00:02:51] So on the left of the side is the title, Victory Waits on Your Fingers with the credit or caption: Produced by the Royal Typewriter Company for the US Civil Service Commission, NARA, Still Picture Branch NWDNS-44-PA-2272. And on the right of the slide is a poster. Here we have a rectangular poster that is taller than it is wide, with bold black text at the top saying “victory waits on your fingers” and the “your” in this sentence is underlined for emphasis. Underneath the title, there is a blond woman saluting the viewer, wearing her hair in a short, curled, shoulder length bob with a red and blue bow tie on the left side of her head. She is wearing a short sleeved white collar button up shirt, and her left hand is hidden behind a black, sleek machine, presumably a, stenograph or a typewriter. Behind her is three even vertical stripes red, white and blue in that order. Underneath that machine is a red capitalized text with quotations “Keep ‘em flying, Miss USA.” Underneath that is a smaller black font still capitalized text with “Uncle Sam needs stenographers, get civil service information at your local post office.” Underneath that line is a slightly larger black text with “U.S. Civil Service Commission, Washington, DC.” So that concludes the visual description of the poster. Now let's talk a little bit about analysis.
Marjorie Antonio [00:04:34] Remember our six elements: meaning origin, perspective, context, audience, and purpose. Let's look at these points of analysis such as origin, perspective and audience. Who created the source and what type is it? What is the point of view of the source created from? And who is the intended audience? For these analyzes what first stands out to me is that the poster has text written in English, along with the textual cues of Miss USA and U.S. Civil Service Commission, Washington, DC. This indicates that we are looking at this poster as related to U.S. history, and that it was produced for an English-speaking audience. Not just U.S. history, but U.S. federal history, as this is referencing what looks to be a federal governmental agency. Next is origin. I have been referring to this source as a World War Two poster throughout this video. The type and kind of source means if it's a primary, secondary or tertiary source. From the given information that we received about the source, it is a primary source because it was created during the specific time period that we are studying. It also provides direct information about life during this period. A poster is a type of primary source if it was created in response or about a particular situation in the time period of study, like an event poster advertising an upcoming concert. While we haven't determined the specific date of the poster yet, as we are looking at World War Two posters, this is also the context of the source. Continuing on with the origin and perspective. At the very bottom of the poster there is a U.S. Civil Service Commission Washington, D.C., which indicates the credit for who produced this document. This is who created the source or the origin. I match this with the caption produced by the Royal Typewriter Company for the U.S. Service Commission. Royal Typewriter Company is highly likely to have produced this poster for the United States government. Since the Royal Typewriter Company makes typewriters and other machines, they have this perspective of creating a poster that not only talks about the U.S. government, but about their business as well. As a summary so far, here we are looking at a poster recruiting workers into the U.S. Civil Service. The above process answers origin and perspective of the source, and we have found clues about the context and audience of the poster itself. Next, let's expand upon these by asking about the meaning of the source.
Marjorie Antonio [00:07:07] What does this poster mean? Let's look at the title again, victory waits on your fingers. Who is the underlined you're in this situation? What are some other clues to answer this question? The poster is directly addressing the viewer with the text on your fingers and keep on flying, Miss USA. What do we make of this blond woman? This may be the who to our question. American women, specifically unmarried American women as married women typically used the prefix Mrs.. So what are the creators of this poster trying to say to these American women? Underneath the women is a text that says Uncle Sam needs stenographers. Let's think about the word choice, Uncle Sam. What does this reference? This reminds me of the famous World War one recruiting poster which is on this slide.
Alyssa Eveland [00:08:06] On the left here we have the classic Uncle Sam poster from World War One, a white man with white hair in a blue blazer, white shirt, red bow tie and white top hat with a blue stripe and white stars on it points to the viewer. And beneath him in large black and red text reads “I want you for the U.S. Army” with the “you” slightly larger in size to emphasize it. Beneath that text in all black, it says nearest recruiting station.
Marjorie Antonio [00:08:33] So underneath the poster itself is a title and caption. It says, I want you for U.S. Army nearest recruiting station by James Montgomery Flag. There is a link underneath the title and caption to the source of this image. [Library of Congress pictures, item 96507165] On the right hand of the side is the same poster that we've been talking about, “victory waits on your fingers.” The change here is there is a red rectangular box that highlights the bottom of the poster, Uncle Sam needs stenographers. Red arrow pointing to meaning of the source, Uncle Sam, question mark. From the source the Uncle Sam figure is a personified figure of U.S. patriotism and the US government. However, this is a cultural reference during this time, so that's a way to find out a little bit of who Uncle Sam is.
So now I am returning to the stenographer poster. Let's analyze the word choice. Needs an Uncle Sam needs stenographers is an urgent verb. It is also in present tense. Uncle Sam needs this now. What are some acts that are related to needs? Caring for needs like nursing or needs meaning recruitment? I think it's about worker recruitment. Next, what is a stenographer? Using context clues since this poster illustrates a woman with a machine may mean the person typing is a stenographer. The quote Uncle Sam needs stenographer is clear if you know that Uncle Sam refers to the US government. However, keep it flying miss USA is interesting. They are recruiting workers. Not just any workers, but women workers. In summary, this poster is trying to say that the US, the United States needs American women to work as stenographers. And for what? Let's come back to the title. Victory waits on your fingers and keep them flying Miss USA. If you think about flying fingers with the title above, that may indicate women who know how to type fast need to work to achieve victory. When were some times that the U.S was fighting for something for the victory? During a war or some type of conflict. Context is what's left to be determined. Pretend that we don't necessarily know that this poster was being produced during World War Two. From all the evidence that we have, it is clear that is that this is a wartime job recruitment poster. But the time period is not specifically listed here. But we have a few clues. Uncle Sam is one, meaning that the personification of the United States is something that was popular during this time period, that a person reading it understands its meaning. The next clue is the woman figure in the poster. What decade or time period does her clothing, hairstyle, and artistic rendering lend to? World War Two era art and other U.S. war propaganda posters have a similar art style. We can also bring a knowledge of other popular art and images from the era to compare and situate an image. For example, this poster is similar to the well-known Rosie the Riveter poster. Both the Rosie poster and this one have similar messages to empower women to participate in the workforce and provide an important contribution to the war effort. So, thinking about how this poster is meant to recruit unmarried women to work as stenographers, how is this poster distributed or shared? Where would this be placed or plastered on the streets or windows? We have a clue here, get civil service information on your local post office. So this poster may be shared in cities and towns that get mail.
Marjorie Antonio [00:12:14] Now that we have a fuller idea of the meaning of this poster, the United States needs American women to work as stenographers to win World War Two. Come join the US Civil Service now. Not only does it serve as a recruitment poster, which is also the motive of the creation of the source, this poster illustrates the greater context and the life during this period. We are able to use the source analysis to make historical arguments and conclusions. One analysis or interpretation could be by recruiting woman workers into the US civil service women were working for the federal government. For unmarried women the emphasis was not to find a husband or taking care of children or running the home. During war women's hands were being used to type efficiently with the text, keep them flying, and are said to be incredibly important to securing the victory of the war. The source not only signals women's labor outside of the home, but also shows that the women working outside of the role of the mother or the wife, but as an important worker in her own right. While she was not on the frontlines, she has her own contribution to the war effort. As a source produced by a typewriter company and the United States government, this illustrates the type of profession that women can undertake. This is just one example of how source analysis can lead you to drawing historical conclusions based on the sources meaning, origin, perspective, contents, audience and motive. Thank you.
Alyssa Eveland [00:13:47] Thank you for sharing. Thank you, Marjorie, for talking us through that source. Remember, the process that Marjorie used to go through this particular document can be used with any other document of its kind. For other episodes of Talking with the Past, where we walk through other kinds of primary sources, and for pre-written lesson plans that use them. Check out nps.gov/teachingwithhistoricplaces. Thank you for listening.
This four-part series "Talking with the Past: Explorations in Source Analysis and Media Literacy" was produced and directed by Alyssa Eveland, an American Conservation Experience Fellow with the NPS Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education. Special thanks for individual episodes to Alison Russell, Sarah Lane, and Marjorie Justine Antonio.