Historiography:
The Study of History
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• What is history?
• Why is it important to study American
history?
History vs. Historiography
• History- Interpretation
of past events
• Historiography- Study
of history
• But how does one
learn about and study
history?
Sources of Historical
Information
• Objects:
Artifacts,
Architecture,
Human Remains
• Text Sources:
Primary,
Secondary, and
Tertiary
Artifacts
• Any object that was created during a
certain time period.
• Ex) tools, clothing, pottery, buildings,
bones, weapons, jewelry, technology, art,
etc.
What are the pros and cons of
using artifacts to learn about
history?
Artifacts:
Pros and Cons
• Fill in the missing
pieces left by primary
sources
• Can tell us about
societies without a
written language or
with little surviving
primary sources
• Can prove primary
sources true or false
• Often difficult to tell
exactly what an
artifact is and how
common it was
• Can be difficult to
determine which
civilization the artifact
belongs to if many
lived in the same area
simultaneously
Example of a Historical Mistake
Corrected by Artifacts:
• Until recently, historians
assumed that Greek and
Roman statues were pure
white to express simplicity,
elegance and purity
• But, when several sculptures
were discovered with eyes
painted in, chemical testing
revealed that both Greek and
Roman sculptures were
brightly painted, even gaudy.
The paint had simply worn
off over time.
Primary Sources
• Texts created during the historical period
that is being studied
What are the pros and cons of
using primary sources to learn
about history?
Primary Sources:
Pros and Cons
• Allow historians to
see straight into the
culture they are
studying
• Can be about a wide
variety of events,
issues, and ideas
• Reveal emotions,
thoughts, motivations,
and fears of people of
the past
• Can be difficult to
understand
• May not be accurate
or may be biased
• Ideas may vary
• Need many primary
sources to gain a
complete picture of an
event/person/era
Primary Source Example:
Quoted from Christopher Columbus, 1493
“…When the Admiral went to the Rio del
Oro, he saw three mermaids which rose
well out of the sea...they were not as
beautiful as they are painted though they
have something of a human face."
Did Columbus see mermaids?
Well, it’s sort of like a mermaid…
Primary Source Example: William
McKinley Obituaries, 1901
“His place is secure in his country’s history, and with the
martyred Lincoln, his memory is forever enshrined in the
hearts of the people.” –Virginia Gazette
“He is one of God’s noblemen. He is a clean man, and
honest man, and a great man.” – Gov. Chandler of
Georgia
• Why did some have such a high esteem for McKinley
after his death? Do these accounts give an accurate
picture of McKinley?
Other Primary Sources on
McKinley
“Now his death and the way in which he met it has shamed
those who called him weak, an oppressor and tyrant
abroad, a conspirator against rights and liberties at
home.” – Anonymous, Public Opinion, 1901
“He died at an hour that was friendly to his fame.” – Harry
Thurston Peck, 1906
“The future historian, if free from prejudice and plutocratic
influence, will stamp McKinley as the pliant tool of trusts
and monopolists.” – Anonymous, Mother Earth, 1907
Most people today don’t consider him
one of the greats…
Secondary Sources
• Secondary sources– Interpret primary
sources
– Written much after
the event/time
period
What are the pros and cons of
using secondary sources?
Secondary Sources:
Pros and Cons
• Can make primary
sources easier to
understand
• Often gather many
primary sources in
one place to give a
larger perspective
• Author’s point of
view and primary
sources used can
be biased
• Secondary sources
may be missing
valuable
information.
Secondary Source Examples: Differing
Views on Reconstruction
“A black skin means membership in a
race of men which has never of itself
succeeded in subjecting passion to
reason, has never, therefore, created
any civilization of any kind. To put
such a race of men in possession of a
state government in a system of
federal government is to trust them
with the development of political and
legal civilization upon the most
important subjects of human life, and
to do this in communities with a large
white population is simply to establish
barbarism in power over civilization.
- John W. Burgress, Professor of
Political Science and Constitutional
Law, Columbia University,
Reconstruction and the Constitution,
1902.
“The image of the black
Reconstruction politician as ignorant
and impoverished distorts the historical
record. The vast majority were literate,
having learned to read and write in
schools for free blacks, secretly as
slaves, in the Union army, or in
institutions established after the war to
educate freed people. Some attended
the new black universities-among
them, Howard, Lincoln, Shaw, and
Alcorn …”
- Eric Foner, Professor of American
History at Columbia University,
Forever Free: The Story Of
Emancipation And Reconstruction,
2005.
So how do we use sources to
understand history?
• Read all sources critically and skeptically
• Look out for bias
• Consider what the author thought happened and
compare it with other documents
• Beware of consensus- it does not always mean
truth
• Interpret each document for yourself
* Always use a variety of sources in order to
understand an event/person/era
Acronym for Analyzing Primary and
Secondary Sources:
• Always consider SOAPS:
– Speaker
– Occasion
– Audience
– Purpose
– Subject
Consider:
• What sources might you use to study life
in the late 1800s and early 1900s? Today?
Modern Sources
• NPR, “For Biographers, the Past is an
Open (Electronic) Book”
Historiography Activity: Effects of
the Great Chicago Fire (1871)
• Work in your group to analyze 1
secondary source, 1 primary text source,
and 1 primary visual source in attempt to
uncover the effects of the Great Chicago
Fire
• Be ready to explain to the class the effects
seen in each of your sources