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What Has Happened in the White House?
Introduction
Introduce the following scenario. Tell students to imagine that a previously unknown cache of images, documents, and photographs has just been discovered during some minor repairs of the White House. Because the documents were carefully wrapped and stored in the White House, we suspect that each image is related to an important or interesting event in American history that affected the White House in some way.
Guiding Question:
How has the White House been touched by the great events of our nation's history?
Learning Objective
After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to:
- Create a chronology of important events that have occurred at or directly affected the White House.
Student Activity:
Divide the class into small groups. Assign one or more of the following images
to each group. Distribute the document “Researching the Archival Images of the
White House” on page 1 of
the PDF file (see Preparing
to Teach This Lesson, in the curriculum unit overview, for download instructions).
Give students the opportunity to scrutinize the assigned image, and suggest
ways they can find out more about it. Information about every President is available
on the EDSITEment resource American
President. Another relevant online source is the History
Timeline on the White House
Historical Association website, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website
Explore DC. The key words and
questions provided below should also be helpful. Each group is responsible for
filling out the document, sharing what they discovered with the class, and creating
a brief caption for the image. (NOTE: All images are available via the EDSITEment
resources American Memory or Digital
Classroom unless otherwise specified.
Image #1: Adams
Letter ordering relocation to Washington, D.C. (May 15, 1800) / Adams
Letter: Small Image and Information
- Key Words: John Adams, White House
- Questions: When does Adams's letter say government officials should move
to their offices in Washington, D.C.? When did Adams move into the White House?
What event was going to happen soon after Adams moved in? Why was Adams's
stay in the White House so short?
Image #2: A
view of the President's house in the city of Washington after the conflagration
(August 24, 1814). Photograph
of Damage Still Visible from the Burning of the White House on the website
of the White House Historical Association,
a link from the EDSITEment resource Explore
DC
- Additional Resource: The
War of 1812
- Key Words: James Madison, Dolley Madison, August 24, 1814
- Questions: What is a conflagration? Who burnt the White House? In what war?
What happened to the White House as a result? What did Dolley Madison do?
What was the outcome of the war?
Image #3: President's
Levee, or all Creation going to the White House, Washington (Inauguration
Day, March 4, 1829) / Small
Image and Brief Background
- Key Words: Inauguration, March 4, 1829
- Questions: Who became President on March 4, 1829? What happened at the after-inauguration
gathering at the White House? Why did this President, in particular, open
the White House to the public?
Image #4: Indian
Delegation at White House (1858)
- Key Words: Indian(s), Native Americans
- Questions: What had been some policies of the U.S. government toward the
Native Americans since Andrew Jackson became President? When did the Third
Seminole War end? Why was that war important to relations between Native Americans
and the U.S. government?
- Additional Resources: Indian
Removal on the EDSITEment resource Africans
in America; Chronology
of U.S. Military Actions and Wars on PBS's American Experience, a link
from American Memory
Image #5: General
view of the city from the south toward the Treasury Building and the White House.
Cows are grazing (circa 1863)
- Key Words: 1863
- Questions: What important event was happening in this country in 1863? What's
surprising about the view of the White House in the photograph?
Image #6: Women
suffragists picketing in front of the White House (February 1917)
- Key Words: suffragist, President Woodrow Wilson
- Questions: What's a suffragist? What goal did a suffragist seek? What amendment
to the Constitution addressed the concerns of the suffragists? When was it
ratified?
Image #7: Fireside
Chat (1935)
- Key Words: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, fireside chat
- Questions: What is a fireside chat? Why did Roosevelt choose to speak to
Americans in fireside chats? What problem that had begun in 1929 was America
still facing in 1935?
Image # 8: Check
Presented to President Roosevelt (1942)
- Key Words: President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Questions: What war was the U.S. fighting in 1942? When did it start? Why
would Roosevelt be presented with a check? Why would citizens of Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii, be particularly interested in raising money for the war effort
Image #9: Photograph
of Harry S. Truman taking the oath of office as President of the United States
in the Cabinet Room of the White House, following the death of President Roosevelt
(April 12, 1945)
- Key Words: President Harry Truman, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Questions: Why did Harry Truman have to be sworn in as President? What was
unusual about the term of office of the man who preceded him? What war was
the U.S. fighting in 1945? When did the war end?
Image #10: Photograph
of reporters rushing excitedly through the White House with news of the Japanese
surrender (August 14, 1945)
- Key Words: Surrender, August 14, 1945
- Questions: What war ended on August 14, 1945? Who was President at that
time?
Image #11: Signing
Cuba Quarantine (Cuban Blockade) Proclamation. President Kennedy. White House,
Oval Office (October 23, 1962)
- Key Words: President John F. Kennedy, Cuban Blockade
- Questions: What is a blockade? Why did the U.S. blockade Cuba? What was
the outcome
Image #12: Lyndon
Johnson Signing 1964 Civil Rights Act in East Room of White House (1964)
- Key Words: President Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Questions: What does "Civil Rights" mean? What did the Civil Rights Act
of 1964 say?
- Additional Resource: Congress
and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Image #13: Anwar
Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin at the Camp David Accords Signing Ceremony
(September 17, 1978)
- Key Words: President Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Camp David
Accords
- Questions: What country did Anwar Sadat lead? What country did Menachem
Begin lead? What did the Camp David Accords accomplish?
Assessment
Each group, together or individually, should be able to answer the questions
that relate to the group's assigned image.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
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