The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

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Go directly to the collection, The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collection.

Frontier Literature

Out where the West begins. Mrs. Ole Neste with her collection of old spinning wheels, Park River, N.D..		The collection is an excellent companion to several literary works on the West and the frontier, including essays by Frederick Jackson Turner, and novels by Willa Cather. Viewing the collection's primary sources while reading such works helps to illuminate and expand the meaning of both. For example, students can read Turner's account of the evolution of the West as the frontier line moved across the country, and fit the collection's images into that chronology. They can also relate images of farm technology to Turner's announcement of the close of the frontier, and with it the	A Gentleman of the "Old West" : scout, Indian fighter, hunter, trapper.
		"distinguishing feature of American life." Similarly, the importance of a German-American music teacher to Cather's protagonist, Thea, in The Song of The Lark takes on more authenticity and meaning when students concurrently view images that evidence the impact of immigrants upon the settlement of the Plains and its culture.

Symbolic Hero

By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, what had been buffalo range and Native American hunting ground in the Northern Great Plains had been turned into huge cattle ranches. The location of Theodore Roosevelt's celebrated ranch in North Dakota and the literary tradition he helped spark of rough riding cowboys are important legacies of this region. Students can search Theodore Roosevelt for images that provide evidence of this ranch and facilitate a discussion of the American symbol of the hardy frontiersman. Why would a president of Roosevelt's era want to identify himself with this image? How did Americans at this time identify a hero? To what extent is the symbol of the frontiersman based on reality and to what extent is it based on myth? To what extent is any given literary portrayal of frontier cowboys realistic or mythologized? Students may also want to see the Special Presentation of "Ranching" from the "North Dakota Historical Overview" or the Collection Connection for Theodore Roosevelt: His Life and Times on Film.

Teddy Roosevelt's bed inside the Roosevelt cabin

Rural America

Pioneer log cabin erected by Justin E. Tilton, Hand County Wessington, South Dakota

Another related theme recurring in American literature involves the impact of the land and the isolation of rural life on the American character. Students reading literature with this theme may better understand it by viewing images from this collection that bring home the harsh beauty and isolation of rural America. Students can contrast these images with those of modern rural America.

Classroom Historical Archive

What kinds of images and subjects does one include in a photographic historical archive? What does one leave out? In other words, what makes something historical? What does it mean to be "historical"? What is historical to you?

Students can better explore these questions by creating their own historical photographic archive documenting the time and place in which they live. Or, they can attempt to capture the "historical" through writing. A collection of short vignettes would allow them to create a multi-faceted historical record, much like a photographic archive.

Before the days of radio, television, and film, periodicals like the Saturday Evening Post held important informative and entertaining value. Students can search newspaper to find out if there were newspapers in frontier towns and, if so, what they were like. Ask them to consider what kind of a role newspapers were likely to have played in frontier communities, given what they know about life on the frontier. What would they expect to find in a frontier newspaper? Then, as a class or in groups, students can work together to make a frontier newspaper based on the collection's images. Boy with issue of Saturday Evening Post.

Creative Writing

The collection provides a multitude of images that can facilitate imaginative creative writing projects. Students can write a journal entry, taking on the persona of someone pictured in one or more photographs. Or, they can write a short story, examining a scene and imagining what occurred before and after the moment recorded. Though basing their projects in one photograph, students should inform their writing with relevant research of the collection.

Standing on his head to entertain the photographer : a reversal of the usual procedure.