SD State Library Lesson 7

I looked up Sitting Bull Autograph Card. I learned a few new things. I did not realize his real name was Tatanka Iyotake and that there were many other names he went by. I knew he was in the Wild West show, but did not know he was killed due to his beliefs on the ghost dance. I always thought he died in a showdown regarding Indian territory. My own search was on Ben Franklin. There is a wide assortment of articles ranging from the man, to his inventions, to organization that use that name. The search also pulled up biographies, letters written by Ben Franklin. There was correspondence with people who have the name Ben Franklin or a similar variation of the name. ArchiveGrid reminds me of other searches where you put in a keyword and everything that has that keyword pulls up. So you have to be careful on what you pick and choose--it may not have to do with "Ben Franklin" . Yet, most of the results come from Universities; some from the Smithsonian Institution and others from businesses. The resources you can get from ArchiveGrid can enrich research projects or can supplement topics you are teaching.

Camio is an interesting source. I typed in Paul Revere and pulled up several pictures of silver tableware. The items on the site were spoons, teapots, sugar bowls, creamers, goblets, tankards and sauceboats. This would be great trivia to share with students. Most only know him riding his horse shouting, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Now, you can share that his occupation was a silversmith.

When I searched for "Sioux", items associated with the Sioux Indians were present. The items included a scalp shirt (not sure if I want to know what it's made of), gauntlets, pipes, war clubs, beaded dress and painting of battle scenes. This would be a great visual for a unit on the Sioux. Students could choose a picture and explain how it was used and/or how it was made.

My favorite artist is Leonardo DaVinci so I typed this into Camio. I was a little disappointed on how little there was. Also, only a few pieces were done by DaVinci, the rest was done by close associates or followers of DaVinci. There was a piece that showed his painting techniques which I found interesting. I decided to type in another artist. This time I typed in Andy Warhol. This search pulled up several pages of his work: paintings and photographs. I think Camio would be a good comparison/contrast tool in the different types of art that exist. You could pick artists from two different eras and look at form, imagery, etc. Lastly, I played around with the slide show and webpage feature. This is a great resource to present to the classroom. I liked the compare feature. I would use it for the artist comparison I mentioned above. Pictures of art tell about history in a different way and I feel this would benefit learning immensely.