Setting the Scene

Essential Question? What is history, and how do we study it?

The only thing new in the world is the

history you don’t know.

- Harry S. Truman

This painting by artist C.A. Seward depicts Wichita in 1869. Seward depicts Wichita in 1869. Seward painted it in 1920. How is Wichita shown in the painting? How do you think this image might be inaccurate, if the artist painted it nearly 50 years later?

Setting the Scene

Key Ideas

● Historians study primary and secondary sources to learn about the past.

● Historical thinkers ask questions and draw conclusions.

Key Terms

artifacts bias historical inquiry historiography oral history perspective primary source secondary source

Do you notice the word “story” in history? History is the story of the past. It has a plot that can be exciting, surprising, and sad. History is filled with interesting characters, including heroes and villains. History helps us understand where we come from. By studying history, we can learn more about why things are the way they are now. Over hundreds of thousands of years, humans have interacted with each other. They have fought wars, made peace, formed governments, and created amazing new tools and machines. In this class we will be learning about the history of Kansas. We will examine how the history of how people have moved, changed, and interacted with each other around the state. But first, we need to know how people study history.

Historians Are Detectives People who study history are called historians. The main goal of a historian is to understand the past by looking at evidence. In many ways, historians are like detectives. Both try and figure out what happened in the past and why it happened. Historians use two kinds of evidence to learn about history, to try to resolve conflicting historical accounts and to understand the cause-and-effect relationships. These are known as primary sources and secondary sources. Using these two kinds of sources, historians piece together the story of the past.

1

Primary Sources Primary sources are firsthand (eyewitness) accounts or original objects and documents from the past. Primary sources were made, used, or written by people at the time an event happened. Diaries, letters, photographs, paintings, maps, interviews, tools, and newspapers are all examples of primary sources. Artifacts Artifacts are objects people made or used in the past. A bone tool is one example of an artifact. By studying it, you might be able to learn something about the lives and cultures of the people who once used it. Photographs Photographs are also primary sources. Photographs show people, places, objects, and events frozen in time. Studying photographs can help you learn about a certain place, time, or culture. Documents Documents also reveal clues about the past. A document can be a letter, a newspaper, or any other written record. Newspapers and magazines can be great primary sources because they recorded events when they happened. Letters, journals, and diaries are primary sources, too. They tell about people, places, and events from the past. They also often include a person’s thoughts about an events and its meaning. Oral History Oral history is spoken history that one person tells to another. Sometimes this type of history is later written down. Other times it is saved as an audio or video recording. What might a historian learn from listening to a person’s story rather than just reading it?

To study early civilizations, historians use artifacts, like this bison bone tool. What do you think this might have been used for?

This photography show Halfway Park, in Kinsley, Kansas. Kinsley is the halfway point between New York and San Francisco. Notice the train the background. Why might someone take this photograph?

2

Depending on what they record, painting and films can either be primary sources or secondary sources. What are some examples of both?

Secondary Sources A textbook is an example of a secondary source. Another example is a newspaper article written today about something that happened a long time ago. A secondary source is a secondhand account. It is a summary of an event based on the study of one or more primary sources. Art Paintings, sculptures, and other art, including music, can be both primary and secondary sources. Portraits, such as the Mona Lisa, are primary sources be because they record a person as he or she appeared in life. But paintings are also secondary sources. They can be painted many years after an event occurred or after a person lived. In this way, they retell the past. Different Perspectives Part of the work of a historian is spotting possible bias in a source. Bias is a one-sided point of view. It means having a strong opinion about ideas, people, and events. Bias does not take into account other views. Bias can unfairly influence a person’s views about others. Bias is usually negative. It is different from perspective. Having perspective means understanding events and people based on the ideas and values of the time period being studied. For example, historians need to understand that Native American histories would provide different viewpoints on forced relocation than government documents. Ideally, historians look at events from many perspectives and then draw their own conclusion.

3

Historical Thinking As you learn about Kansas history, you will develop historical thinking skills. Historical thinking will help you to understand the past and think critically about issues in the present and future. When doing historical research, it is important to ask a lot of questions. Focus on the five Ws and an H - who, what, when, where, why, and how.

● Who was involved?

● What happened?

● When did it happen?

● Where did it happen?

● Why did it happen?

● How did the time period, person, or event influence other people or events?

It is also important to ask yourself some questions about the sources you study so that you can determine perspective and bias. Consider the following questions.

● Who created the source?

● What is the person’s background?

● Why was the source created?

● What might have influenced the person who created the source?

● Is the source factual, or does i reflect a person’s opinion?

● How does this source compare to other sources on the same topic?

This research or investigation of past events by asking these kinds of questions is known as historical inquiry. Drawing Conclusions Asking all these questions will help you develop your own conclusions about what happened and why. Drawing your own conclusions requires you to compare and contrast information and recognize cause and effect. You will also need to use your imagination to put yourself in the middle of a historic event and consider different viewpoints. As you develop these skills, you will find yourself using them as you read novels for English class, evaluate theories in science, or analyze numbers in math. These skills will help you be a critical and effective thinker. Studying Historiography Sometimes, historians draw different conclusions about the same event. Historiography is the study of the ways in which history is written and the changes of interpretations of events over time. For example, for a long time, historians differed in how they viewed the causes of the United State Civil War. Some felt the reason was rooted in slavery, while others felt the major cause was disputes over states’ rights and taxes. Over the past few decades, most historians have accepted slavery as the root cause of the Civil War. The study of how these opinions have changed is historiography. As you study history, you will encounter conflicting interpretations of events. Be sure to think about why these interpretations might differ, and what sources are being used to help understand these events.

4

Timelines

Each of the lessons that we cover will begin with a timeline. The dates in these timelines are the dates agreed upon by most scholars. Since ancient times, though, people have found ways to mark time. Different cultures have divided it up in different ways.

In Europe and North America, one main system was based on the birth of Jesus Christ. The letters AD are Latin for anno Domini, which means “in the year of our Lord.” This refers to the year that Christ was born. For Christians, that date mark the beginning of a new era. Everything that happened before that was labeled BC, or “before Christ.”

Today, it is common to use general terms for those eras. CR means “in the Common Era.” BCE means “before the Common Era.” This is the style of dates that we will use most often in this class. When you are researching, you may see AD instead of CE, but the date is the same.

You may also see dates that begin with a “c” or “ca.” These stand for the Latin word circa, which means “about” or “around.” Historians use circa when they are not sure of a specific date but believe it to be around a certain time.

We read a timeline from left to right, and sometimes from top to bottom. The first event is on the left side. The last event is on the right. In between, the time is divided into equal part. There might be a mark every five years, every 10 years, or every 50 years. What year does this timeline start? What year does it end?

5

The Journey Continues Now that you have some basic background on history, you are ready to take a closer look at the unique

history of our state. As you read about the state, use the skills you have learned. History does not lie in long lists of dates and facts. It emerges from active analysis. Kansas’s history tells of adventure, mystery, hardship, triumph, struggle, and tragedy. Put yourself into these stories as you read. Try and imagine what it was like to settle in an unknown land, or to be forced from your homeland to live in a new place. Think about how the people you read about differ from you. Think about how they are the same.

In a way, our land is like a huge stage on which all of our history has played. Although the characters and stories have changed over the years, the stage is much the same. How and why people first settled in Kansas, the difficulties they met and overcame, and what awaits us in the future are all part our journey!

Check Your Understanding Click here to complete digital form Know

1. What is a primary source?

2. What is perspective? What is bias?

3. What is historiography?

Analyze 4. Explain how asking who, what, where, when, why, and how help you when doing historical research. 5. What kind of source is an autobiography? How do you know? 6. How can you tell if a source has bias?

Synthesize 7. How is the information from a primary source different from that of a secondary source? 8. Which do you think are more helpful for historians, primary or secondary sources? Why? 9. Why should historian use multiple sources?

6