Every Attic Tells A Story
So Does Every Basement, Every Purse, Every Backpack, and Every Suitcase
The Frick Art & Historical Center is rich with primary sources and objects which can help your
students interpret the past. One workshop, Every Attic Tells a Story, combines the hands-on use
of artifacts and primary sources with your students’ imagination. As the students tour Clayton,
they examine many of Clayton’s past records such as grocery receipts, menus, calendar entries,
and decorators’ receipts. Throughout the tour, they are encouraged to make connections with the
primary sources they are interpreting and the various rooms in the Clayton.
After the students have toured Clayton, they return to Lexington Education Center where
teamwork, critical thinking, deductive reasoning, and creativity abound. Students are divided
into small groups with each group receiving a distinctive container of objects. Students work
under the premise that they have moved into a 100-year-old home and upon inspecting the attic,
they discover a box filled with a variety of objects. Their challenge is to interpret the contents of
the box by imagining them in the hands of the previous occupants:








How many families previously lived in the house?
Who were these people and when did they live there?
Why did they move out?
Where are they now?
Where did they live before they lived in this house?
Were there any deaths?
What were their occupations and interests?
What kinds of celebrations took place in the house?
Each box contains approximately 10 objects such as photos, diaries, yearbooks, certificates,
grocery bills, hats, and various pieces of distinctive clothing such as a policeman’s shirt from
Akron, Ohio or a safari hat. Most objects have names, dates and/or places on them to help your
students put their story together.
After analyzing their objects, students are given time to create a final product of their choice and
to present the story of their house to the rest of the class. Some suggested projects include a time
line, short play, poem, letter, newspaper article or even a song. The only limitation is their
imagination.
Whether or not you are able to visit Clayton, you can easily adapt the concepts of this workshop
to your own classroom. Suggestions for classroom projects are attached. If you have any
questions about the project please feel free to call Laura Ainsley, Assistant Curator of Education,
Adult Programs at 412- 342-4060 or e-mail lainsley@thefrickpittsburgh.org
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department
7227 Reynolds Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
412-371-0600
education@TheFrickPittsburgh.org
www.TheFrickPittsburgh.org
Every Attic Tells A Story
So Does Every Basement, Every Purse, Every Backpack, and Every Suitcase
This is a small group activity which should be done over the course of several class periods in
order to insure that students have ample time to develop a final project.
Curriculum Area:
History, Language Arts, Reading, Writing
Grades:
4 – 12
Objectives:
Students will be introduced to the types of materials which are considered
primary sources.
Students will use critical thinking, deductive reasoning and teamwork to
interpret a collection of primary sources.
Students will interpret a variety of objects to enhance their visual literacy
and to demonstrate that visual literacy entails more than merely looking.
Students will practice visual literacy skills of observing, judging, and
theorizing.
Students will create a project interpreting the lives of the people who
owned the contents of a specific container.
Materials:
Containers of a variety of primary sources and artifacts from the past.
The teacher may choose to have one single container that all groups will
interpret or provide each group with a different container. Search in your
basement, junk drawers and closets. You will be surprised at what you
find. Flea markets and Thrift Stores are also excellent sources of
inexpensive items. Suggestions for each container are included but be
creative and let your imagination take hold when filling the containers.
Suggestions include:
1. A container that was found in the attic of a house and includes a variety of objects that are
old and used as opposed to contemporary or new.
 Photographs, especially those which have names, dates and places on the back
 Yearbooks, especially those that which have hand written sentiments inside
 Books which have been written in, such as Merry Christmas, 1954 Love, Pops
 Clothing such as hats, a fancy dress, gloves, soccer shoes or an old fur stole
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department




Items which may have been souvenirs such as a T-shirt, a snow globe, or anything that
has the name of a place on it
Old postcards, letters, valentines
Pet items
Items related to childhood
2. A purse which was left on a bus (Thrift Stores are great resources for inexpensive purses and
wallets):
 A ticket stub
 Photographs
 Identification badges
 Travel sized toothpaste
 Pet collar
 Pen with a hotel’s name on it
 Notepad with grocery list included
 Baby wipes
 Pacifier
 Fancy gloves/child’s mittens/garden gloves
 An old CD
 Map
3. A piece of luggage left at the airport:
 Several T-shirts with distinctive phrases or locations on them (I Brake for Dinosaurs, I
Left My Heart in San Francisco, Garth Brooks, etc.)
 Toiletry items
 Map of distant city or state
 Any tourist’s guidebook such as Frommer’s Guide to Paris
 Photos
 Baby blanket or toy
 Variety of pens from different hotels
 Any items which can be interpreted as souvenirs
 Variety of postcards from different locations
Procedure:
1. Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students/group.
2. Use a sample object to interpret with the entire class. Introduce the idea that this item was
found in your attic. Pass it around the room so that all students have the opportunity to
examine it closely. Complete the worksheet on this object with the entire class. Then
brainstorm with your students to answer these questions
 Why was the object was left in the attic?
 Who owned it?
 Why wasn’t it thrown away?
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department





When was it used?
Is there anything significant about the object that tells you about its former owner?
Where is the owner now?
When did the owner use it?
Did the owner live in the house or did the object get there some other way?
3. Distribute one container of objects to each group of students.
4. Distribute one worksheet for each object in the container to each group.
5. Instruct students to closely inspect and analyze each object in their container and to complete
one worksheet for each object. It is suggested that this step be completed as a group activity
and that students thoroughly analyze and interpret one object before moving on to the next.
6. After students have completed a worksheet for each object, they can begin to piece their story
together.
7. Students should brainstorm about the house’s previous occupants and their relationship to the
objects in the container.
8. Students should then decide on a group project which will tell the story of their house, the
objects found in the attic and the people who owned or kept the objects. Suggestions for a
final project include:
 Timeline
 Short story
 Short performance
 Newspaper article
 Journal or diary entry
 Letter to a loved one
 Song
 Poem
9. As a final project, each group will discuss the objects in their container and present their
interpretation of these items to the class.
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department
Academic State Standards
Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening
1.1.8 G
Demonstrate after reading understanding and interpretation of both fiction and nonfiction
text, including public documents.
 Make, and support with evidence, assertions about texts.
 Compare and contrast texts using themes, settings, characters and ideas.
 Make extensions to related ideas, topics or information.
 Describe the context of a document.
 Analyze the positions, arguments and evidence in public documents
1.2.8 A
Read and understand essential content of informational texts and documents in all
academic areas.
 Differentiate fact from opinion utilizing resources that go beyond traditional text (e.g.,
newspapers, magazines and periodicals) to electronic media.
 Distinguish between essential and nonessential information across texts and going beyond
texts to a variety of media; identify bias and propaganda where present.
 Draw inferences based on a variety of information sources.
 Evaluate text organization and content to determine the author’s purpose and
effectiveness according to the author’s theses, accuracy and thoroughness.
1.4.8 B
Write multi-paragraph informational pieces (e.g., letters, descriptions, reports,
instructions, essays, articles, interviews).
 Include cause and effect.
 Develop a problem and solution when appropriate to the topic.
 Use relevant graphics (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, tables, illustrations, photographs).
 Use primary and secondary sources.
History
8.1.9
A. Analyze chronological thinking.
 Difference between past, present and future
 Sequential order of historical narrative
 Data presented in time lines
 Continuity and change
 Context for events
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department
B. Analyze and interpret historical sources.
 Literal meaning of historical passages
 Data in historical and contemporary maps, graphs, and tables
 Different historical perspectives
 Data from maps, graphs and tables
 Visual data presented in historical evidence
D. Analyze and interpret historical research.
 Historical event (time and place)
 Facts, folklore and fiction
 Historical questions
 Primary sources
 Secondary sources
 Conclusions (e.g., History Day projects, mock trials, speeches)
 Credibility of evidence
8.2.9
B. Identify and analyze primary documents, material artifacts and historic sites important
in Pennsylvania history from 1787 to 1914.
 Documents, Writings and Oral Traditions (e.g., Pennsylvania Constitutions of 1838 and
1874, The “Gettysburg Address”, The Pittsburgh Survey)
 Artifacts, Architecture and Historic Places (e.g., Gettysburg, Eckley Miners’ Village,
Drake’s Well)
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department
Every Attic Tells a Story
 Complete the following worksheet for each of the objects in your box.
 Be sure you work together as a group to complete each worksheet.
 If you are uncertain of an answer or are guessing at an answer indicate this by putting the
answer in parentheses.
Look At It
 What is it?
 What condition is it in? Record any damage or wear. How was the object damaged?
 What is written on it? (Names, dates, places, etc.)
 What adjective(s) best describe it?
Think About It
 What do you think it was originally used for?
 Who was the original owner?
 When was it made and/or used?
Imagine......
 How/where/why did the owner obtain it?
 Why did the owner stop using it?
 Why was it saved?
 How does it relate to other objects in your box?
Frick Art & Historical Center
Education Department