QUICK DISCUSSION OF JOURNAL

WHAT DO HISTORIANS USE TO STUDY HISTORY?

MATTOX HOUSE: SOME BACKGROUND

Henry Ford of Ford Automobiles used his vast wealth to build a museum

Items at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village were ‘transplanted’ to Michigan for visitors

Part transportation museum part historical sites

MATTOX HOUSE

Representation of early 20th century rural southern house

Ford visits in 1934

THE PROBLEM!

In the 1980s museum officials want to redesign the exhibit but there were NO FLOORPLANS!

YOUR TASK

To answer this question: What was the floor plan of the Mattox house in the 1930s?

You have the following sources:

Five images of Mattox House (exterior only)

Interviews with Dr. Leslie Long, Bryan Co. Resident and Agricultural

Specialist E.J. Cutler, Ford Executive (accompanied Henry Ford

when he purchased the house) Charles Boles, Mattox Neighbor Carrie Mattox, Daughter Amos Mattox, Jr., Son (2 years older than Carrie)

EXAMINE THE EVIDENCE, FORMULATE A HYPOTHESIS, & DRAW CONCLUSIONS

Review the evidence (photos and interviews). USE GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

Decide how many rooms were in the house and their purposes. Suggestions: You may want to start with the number of bedrooms.

Decide where the rooms are as well as other features (e.g., halls, porches).

Make a tentative floor plan. Be prepared to explain how you made your choices by providing evidence from the documents to support your claims.

FrontBack

Arbor side Chimney side

SO, WHAT?

What did this activity teach you about history? History has multiple perspectivesMust consider the reliability and validity of sources

HOMEWORK

For tomorrow, bring in ANY primary source. Can be anything from the past…a speech, letter, diary, newspaper ads, etc

MUST BE WRITTEN AND NOT AN IMAGE

Some good websites (besides google):

The Valley of the Shadow

Digital History Reader

DocSouth

American Memory (from Library of Congress)

archives.gov

The Results

EXIT TICKET

Before you leave answer the following question:

What did you learn about history from the Mattox house activity?