This fall, Special Collections has hosted a number of fantastic class sessions from diverse disciplines, including English Literature, Journalism and Media Studies, History, Art, and Theatre. Our latest class session was an energetic group of undergrads in HIST 400: The Historian's Craft, taught by Professor Paula de Vos. These students are studying the complex topic of historiography, and used a visit to Special Collections to test what they have learned so far in class. Students got to know a primary source by answering a few questions about it (such as: What type of document is this? Who produced this document? When was the document produced? Why do you think it was produced? What research questions might the primary source help answer?). Then, choosing two options from a range of historiographical traditions/frameworks/approaches (such as gender history, political history, Marxist interpretation, cultural history, social history, economic history, legal history), students described how their source might be used and interpreted in each approach. We all had a great discussion to wrap up the class as students shared what they found. We hope to see these budding historians back in SCUA soon!
Documents included a monthly report from the Traveler's Aid Society in 1923; an anti-slavery treatise on flogging from 1835 found in the U. S. Civil War Collection; a report on Un-American Activities in California published in 1943; an underground newspaper from the local Chicano movement in the 1970s; a letter opposed to forced busing for school integration; postcards from the 1935-36 California-Pacific Exposition in Balboa Park; minutes of the Federated Trades and Labor Council; a health officer's report on local garbage disposal practices in 1900; and a logbook from a California stagecoach company in the nineteenth century.
Image: History class in SCUA, 2008
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