World War I SilhouettesSoldier and Civilian Letters

Preserving Our Nation Liberty FellowshipAIHE

June 2012Nancy Taylor

Florida Standards• SS.912.A.1. Use research and

inquiry skills to analyze American history using primary and secondary sources.

• SS.912.A.1.2 Utilize a variety of primary and secondary sources to identify author, historical significance, audience, and authenticity to understand a historical period.

• SS.912.A.1.3 Utilize timelines to identify the time sequence of historical data.

• SS.912.A.4.5 Examine causes, course, and consequences of United States involvement in World War I.

Letters, memoirs, and journals can take us into the thoughts, hearts, and heads of people of the past.

When we allow students to interact with primary sources especially those written by the everyday people of the times we allow them to touch the past with human emotion and discover the realities of the time.

Student Directions• In pairs read and analyze your primary source. • Choose five to eight concepts or things from the source that

tell something about the person who wrote it and his or her experiences in World War I. These may include thoughts, visions, ideas, emotions, motivations, actions.

• Create an image to represent each. You may use drawings, photos, and clip-art.

• Use these images to fill the inside of your WWI silhouette. You may use words but do so sparingly! Use elements of design and color.

• Place a small number by each image in the silhouette.

On a separate sheet of paper place (at the top):

• the name of your person • the date the source was written • location where it was written • the audience for whom it was written

Below number the sheet to correspond with the numbers on your images. By each number write an explanation of the image and how it is related to the person. Use a small excerpt from the source (this could be just a two or three word phrase.) Write in full sentences.

Prepare to share your silhouette with other participants.

BibliographyInternetAmerican Experience War Letters (opening power point photograph)http://www.kpbs.org/news/2011/may/26/american-experience-war-letters/

Carleton College Winter of the World (photos slide 5 – postcard slide4)http://apps.carleton.edu/events/wwi/exhibition/photos/http://apps.carleton.edu/events/wwi/exhibition/postcards/?image_id=445941

Archives Ontariohttp://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-line-exhibits/dan-hill/family.aspx

“The Doughboy Center,” Library of Congress Veterans History Project, 1998. (outstanding source for letters, diaries and photographs.)

http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/biograph.htm U.S. Postal Museum (photo slide 4)http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/symposium2008/index.html

Book Percoco, James, Divided We Stand, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 2001. (historical heads lesson)

Schomp, Virginia, Letters from the Battlefront-World War I, Benchmark Books, New York, 2004. George, Linda S., Letters from the Homefront-World War I, Benchmark Books, New York, 2002.

(These two outstanding middle school reading level source books contain letters, documents and photographs. They were the main source for this lesson.)

Letters and Memoirs• Ernest Cowper to Elbert Hubbard II, March 12, 1916.• The Selected Writings of Elbert Hubbard: The Roycrofters, 1928. William H. Wise & Co., 1928. • Lester Hensler to his parents. Carroll, Andrew, ed. War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence form American

Wars. New York, Scribner, 2001.

• Floyd Gibbons narrative. Gibbons, Floyd, “And They Thought We Wouldn’t Fight!” George H. Doran, New York, 1918.

• Bainbridge to his mother, July 18, 1918, Kansas Historical Society Collection

• “Mademoiselle Miss” letter, October 8, 1915. “Mademoiselle Miss” : Letters from and American Girl Serving with the Rank of Lieutenant in a French Army Hospital at t he Front, W.A. Butterfield, Boston, 1916.

• Lambert Wood to his parents, July 14, 1918. Wilmot, Mrs. Frank, Oregon Boys in the War, Glass & Prudhomme Co., Portland, Oregon, 1918.

• Sylvester Butler to his mother, November 10, 1918. “The Doughboy Center” Library of Congress Veterans History Project, 1998.

• George S. Patton to his father, September 20, 1918. George S. Patton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.