Race and Membership in American History

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Tuesday, August 9

Connections

Spread the LOVE (word)!

Visit to “Race” exhibit

World CafeOur gallery visit will work in the following way:

1)Divide up into three groups.

2)Spend 10 minutes looking in one section.

3)A bell rings!

4)Spend 5 minutes writing a response to a key question (on a poster-sized post-it).

5)Rotate sections (you’ll do this three times)

6)Revisit your initial poster

7)Complete an exit slip.

Taking Stock

A look at the origins of race

Creating a Working DefinitionWhat is “race”?

Racial Literacy Quiz

Racial Literacy Quiz⦿Why is there so much

misinformation and in particular, categories of misinformation?

⦿What does it mean to navigate this conversation without adequate accurate information?

P. Camper

S. Morton

Challenging the “science”⦿ Frederick Douglass (p. 59)⦿ Race: the Power of an Illusion

(episode 1)

⦿Race: the Power of an Illusion, Episode 1

Reconsider your working definition⦿ “Race”⦿ Four corners for others’ definitions

Why did the idea become so well

accepted?

The beginnings of the eugenics movement

Evolution of an idea⦿Malthus⦿ Darwin⦿ Galton⦿ Davenport

Evolution of an idea⦿What does ___ say about nature or

human nature in particular?⦿What does ___ say or imply about

progress for a society?

As you share, look for how the ideas build and modify over time.

Walkers and TalkersCreate an image that conveys the main

ideas of your reading.Duplicate that image in small form.Make sure everybody in your group can speak to the images.Walkers will take the small image with them. Talkers will speak from the large image.

San Francisco Race Betterment PavillionPanama-Pacific Exposition (1915)

San Francisco Race Betterment PavillionPanama-Pacific Exposition (1915)

Eugenic Health Exhibit Kansas State Fair Topeka, Kansas (1927)

First Prize WinnerBest Baby Contest

Battle Creek, Michigan (1914)

Cover of Social Work

Pamphlet (1915)

Poster fromRace Betterment

FoundationBattle Creek, Michigan

(1920)

American Eugenics Society’s Flashing Light Exhibit

Sesquicentennial ExpositionPhiladelphia (1929)

This graphic appeared in a popular textbook, General Psychology, as late as 1961. It was published by Henry Garrett, Chairman of the Columbia UniversityDepartment of Psychology.

Revisiting the museum

OrCasting and

Collecting at a 100-year old

Anthropology museum

REPRESENTATION AND THE HISTORY OF

THE MUSEUM OF MAN

◼First building in Balboa Park for the 1915 Panama Exposition◼Original collections: objects from

“scientific” expeditions to Central and South America, SE USA

◼Displays of ethnographic objects, human remains, photography, and “folk” art

◼The ethics of provenance

THE MUSEUM’S HISTORY…

WORLD’S FAIRS: A PHENOMENON

St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904

WORLD’S FAIRS: A PHENOMENON

San Francisco World’s Fair, 1915

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

“PYGMY CANNIBALS”

HUMAN ZOOS

SAN DIEGO EXPOSITION 1915

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Physical Anthropology Exhibit, 1915

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

The fundamental features of the exhibits in this group are three series of thoroughly true-to-nature busts, showing by definite age-stages, from birth onward to the oldest persons that could be found, and in both sexes, the three principal races of this country, namely, the “thoroughbred” white American (for at least three generations in this continent on each parental side), the Indian, and the full-blooded American negro.

EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION

From the “Descriptive Catalog of the Section of Physical Anthropology,” Panama-California Exposition, 1915

No choice was made of the subjects beyond that due to the requirements of pedigree, age and good health. The whites and negroes were obtained with a few exceptions in Washington and vicinity, but their places of birth range over a large part of the eastern, southern and middle states; for the Indian the Sioux was chosen, a characteristic and in very large measure still a pure blood tribe, also one in which the determination of the ages of the subjects was feasible.

“FACING” OUR HISTORY

http://www.museumofman.org/collections/ethnographic-collections/

“A Changing America”

The Progressive Era

What is “The Progressive Era”?

What is progress?arWW

Some people define the word progress as “growth” or “movement” while others view it as a “step forward” or a “ladder reaching upward”.

-Do you agree? Why or why not?

Gallery Walk of Images• What image is being portrayed?• How is “progress” being defined?• What are the “untold stories”?

Choose one image• Describe what you see – avoid

interpretations or feelings at start• THEN, what story is told by this

image?• What information is given about

societal context of America during the Progressive Era?

• What does this image suggest about changes taking place in society? …about responses to those changes?

Defining movements of Progressive Era

• Immigration: 15 million from 1890-1914• Industrialization: changes where as well as how goods

are made, sparks dissonace between citizenship concerns and growing economic machine

• Urbanization: closer proximity, lack of infrastructure, shifting gender roles

• Emancipation: “Free” → equal participation

“Clash of Cultures”?• Production emphasized• Character• Scarcity• Religion• Past idealized• Local culture• Substance

• Consumption emphasized• Personality• Abundance• Science• Looked to the Future• Mass Culture• Image

StrategyGallery Walk

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/teaching-strategies/gallery-walk

Photographs for Gallery Walk are in separate slideshow

Readings● “Marvels of a Marvelous Age”–R&M, p. 92-94

● The End of the Frontier - R&M, p. 96-98

● “The Progress” and Poverty - R&M, p. 124-128

● “The Kind of World We Lived In” - R&M, p. 133-139

● Rumors and Fears - R&M, p.129-132

Lemon Grove Incident

Exit Cards