Gender Issues, Race Relations, and Pastimes

By Claire McCaffery Griffin
Published on 01/10/2009

The period at the turn of the 20th century (1890s-1900s) lends itself to an analysis of various aspects of material culture, and the American Memory collections provide some excellent artifacts to explore. This one-period activity is best done after the students have some familiarity with the social history of the period, as well as with these terms and concepts:
  • assimilation

  • vaudeville

  • increased leisure

  • urbanization

  • ragtime

  • Niagra Movement

  • yellow journalism

  • baseball
  • role of women

  • cycling

  • minstrelsy

  • Jim Crow
  • Joseph Pulitzer

  • immigration


To prepare for the lesson, I download and print (in color on glossy paper) five to six copies of artifacts and documents from the following collections. I’ve listed the ones I use, but you will probably choose those that have a particular relevance for your students.


I begin the lesson by dividing the class into five or six groups with students in each group having copies of the same document. I allow ten to fifteen minutes for groups to analyze and discuss the primary source, using such questions as: What is it? Who made it? When? Why? How does this document relate to what we’ve already learned? What does this document tell you about the people of the 1890s and early 1900s? What questions do you have about the document? I circulate while students discuss the documents, asking questions to help them see things in the documents that might not be immediately apparent.

Next, I do a jigsaw, regrouping students so that all members of each new group have examined different documents. Group members show their documents and share the insights and conclusions with the new group.

Finally, I bring the entire class back together for a debrief. As an assessment, I ask the students to write a one-page Learning Log reflecting upon what they learned regarding gender issues, race relations, and pastimes at the turn of the 20th century. If I’ve provided the right prompts, they come up with some great insights and conclusions.

Numerous possible extensions or additions to the lesson exist. For example, students who had the vaudeville script could perform an oral reading for the class, students could listen to a recording of one of the songs (I had no trouble finding a CD with Scott Joplin pieces), or, if you have a video hook-up to your computer, you could play a segment from the Motion Picture section of the vaudeville collection. My students particularly enjoy Kiss Me and Turkish Dance.

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