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Family Photography and American History
History 260 (Spring 2019)


Sarah McNair Vosmeier

VOSM@hanover.edu

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Quick Links
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    Course Description
    This course concerns the snapshots and studio portraits that are part of ordinary Americans' everyday lives -- the photos on your phone and the ones your relatives keep in desk drawers or shoeboxes or photo albums.  We will be working with photos both as historians (especially in class discussions and lectures) and archivists (especially in workshops).
    Historians make historical arguments based on primary sources, including photographs.  Like written documents, photographs tell us about the people associated with them as well as the society in which they were created.  Photographs also prompt us to consider the history of technology.
    For every primary source a historian studies, other people have acted to insure its survival. Professional archivists maintain the physical conditions that prevent primary sources from deteriorating, and they facilitate our finding and using them.  In everyday life, certain family members take on similar responsibilities -- acting as"family archivists” when they keep photos and other memorabilia and when they share the family stories that go with them.


Calculating Final Grades
                  8%    Digital Family Archives Guide
                12%    Teaching Presentation
                12%    Photo Analysis
                16%    Cataloging Project

                20%    Midterm
                20%    Final Exam

                12%    Preparation and Participation


Nota Bene
Our class time provides an opportunity, rare in modern life, to focus for an extended time on a single task and conversation.  Please do not multitask -- to avoid distraction for others and temptation for ourselves, we will not use laptops, cell phones, etc. during lectures and discussions.  Thus you will need to bring assigned texts to class in paper form.  You will need a laptop and smartphone for workshops.

The archives reading room at the Duggan Library is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 to 5:00 -- you'll need to plan accordingly for assignments using archival material.

Late papers will be penalized, and in-class assignments cannot be made up.  If you have an emergency and want to request an exception to this rule, contact me before the due date.

Items needed for this class:
•    Hacker's Rules for Writers
•    Excel and Powerpoint (available to download from Office 365).
•    Assigned readings are available online or on reserve.  You will need to print them out for notetaking and class discussion.









About Projects, Exams, Preparation, and Participation:

Drawing on the skills used by historians:
    For the Photo Analysis, students focus on two photographs from the Duggan Archives or from their own family.  Based on close analysis of those photos, they will make a historical argument either in the form of a paper (1000-1500 words) or an oral presentation (6-10 minutes). Note that"must report” seniors will be required to write a paper.
    The Midterm and Final will be blue-book exams that include essay questions and identifications focused on history and historical analysis.

Drawing on the skills used by archivists and"family archivists”:
    For the Teaching Presentation, you will teach your classmates how to estimate the date of a photo based on the clothing people in it are wearing, with each student responsible for a different period in American history.
    For the Digital Family Archives Guide, you will outline procedures for managing your most cherished digital images -- so that they will still be accessible and useful decades from now.    For the Cataloging Project, you will identify and describe photos from the Duggan Library collection.  This project combines the work of professional archivists and of historians.


Preparation and Participation:
    We will all enjoy our time together more and find our work more rewarding if everyone
prepares and participates fully. People who excel in this aspect of the class read carefully and come to class with effective reading notes; they make useful comments in class or ask helpful questions; and they complete assignments included in this portion of the grade adequately and on time.  
    Occasional brief assignments -- such as marginalia checks or study guide contributions -- allow you to demonstrate careful preparation for discussion, and they also facilitate our common endeavors.
    Also included in this portion of your grade are brief assignments related to digital photos and digital archives.

Assignments
 

Week One
Apr. 29, 2019 (Mon)
Lecture: Introductions and definitions.
Workshop: Becoming a family archivist and using the college archives.

Apr. 30, 2019 (Tue)
Lecture: Daguerreotypes.
Discussion: Vosmeier,"On Marginalia,” 2016 (online); Hanover College History Department,"Style Sheet for Chicago Manual Footnotes” (online); Hacker,"Citing Sources; Avoiding Plagiarism,” and"Integrating Sources” (chapters 54, 55); Madison Courier ads, 1852 (online).
Workshop: Daguerreotypes.

May 1, 2019 (Wed)
Lecture: Ambrotypes.
Discussion: Oestreicher,"From Artisan to Consumer,” 1981 (online -- click on "PDF Full Text" to the left and print out). 
Workshop: Ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, and further research.

May 2, 2019 (Thu)
Lecture:  Wet plate photography, including cartes de visite and tintypes. 
Discussion: Holmes,"My Hunt after ‘The Captain,'” 1862; Holmes,"Doings of the Sunbeam,” 1863 (excerpts online).
Workshop: Clothing research.

May 3, 2019 (Fri)
Teaching Presentations.
Workshop: Digital photographs.
    
Week Two
May 6, 2019 (Mon)
Lecture: Civil War photographs and photo analysis.
Discussion:  Smith,"When Seeing Makes Scents,” 2010 (online); Gallman,"Three Roads to Antietam,” 2015; Janney,"A Family in Camp,” 2015; Sheehan-Dean,"Looking at War,” 2015. (The articles by Gallman, Janney, and Sheehan-Dean are online;  you'll find them in the table of contents, under "Leaders," "Soldiers," and "Civilians.").

May 7, 2019 (Tue)
Digital Family Archives Guide due.
Lecture: College life.
Discussion: Finnegan,"What Is This a Picture Of?” 2006 (online -- click on "PDF Full Text" to the left and print out).
Workshop: Civil War photographs.

May 8, 2019 (Wed)
Lecture: Wet plate photography, including photo albums and cabinet cards.
Discussion: Motz,"Visual Autobiography,” 1989 (online -- click on "Download PDF" to the right and print out).
Workshop:  Photo albums.

May 9, 2019 (Thu)
Lecture: Lantern Slides, stereocards.
Discussion: Barber,"The Roots of Travel Cinema,” 1993 (online -- click on "PDF Full Text" to the left and print out).
Review.
Workshop: Lantern Slides, stereocards.

May 10, 2019 (Fri) - Meet in the Duggan Archives.
Workshop: Student portraits; research strategies. 

Week Three
May 13, 2019 (Mon)
Midterm Exam
Workshop: Oral history and photo research.

May 14, 2019 (Tue)
Lecture: Dry plate photography, including the gelatin silver process and cyanotypes.
Discussion: Local news (From the Nov. 17, 1900 Madison Courier, read "Burned at the Stake by a Mob" and "Lauer Bros."; for context, read Gray, "118 Years Ago," online). Anderson,"Richard S. Roberts,” 2015, (online -- click on "PDF Full Text" to the left and print out).

May 15, 2019 (Wed)
Lecture: Kodak and the Snapshot.
Discussion: Olivier,"George Eastman's Modern Stone-Age Family,” 2007 (online -- click on "Download PDF" to the right and print out).

May 16, 2019 (Thu)
Lecture: Mid-twentieth-century family photography, including Kodachrome and Polaroid. 
Discussion: Sandweiss,"The Day in Its Color,” 2007 (online -- click on "PDF Full Text" to the left and print out); How to Make Good Pictures, 1967 (pp. 45-59, 106-111, on reserve).

May 17, 2019 (Fri)
Lecture: Family photography in recent decades, including digital photography.
Workshop: Mid-twentieth-century photos.

Week Four
May 20, 2019 (Mon)
Lecture: Childhood in America.
Discussion: Gear,"Baby's Picture,” 1987 (online -- click on the blue "Download PDF" to the right and print out).

May 21, 2019 (Tue)
Lecture: Tourism in America.
Discussion: Greenwald,"On the History of Photography and Site/Sight Seeing at Yellowstone,” 2007 (online -- click on the blue "Download PDF" to the right and print out); Cavaliere,"Canada by Photograph,” 2016 (online).

May 22, 2019 (Wed)
Photo analysis (paper) due.
Lecture: Weddings in America.
Discussion: Penner,"A Vision of Love and Luxury,” 2004 (online -- click on "PDF Full Text" to the left and print out).
Review.
Note:"Must report” seniors will take the final exam in the afternoon and turn in the Cataloging Project by end of day.

May 23, 2019 (Thu)
Final Exam.
Workshop: Late twentieth-century photos.

May 24, 2019 (Fri)
Photo Analysis presentations.  
Cataloging Project due (end of day).
Workshop: Sharing everyday photos of student life.