Week Three: Digital Primary Sources
Each primary source that I evaluated reveals a little about the past of Washington DC. By analyzing these two documents I hoped not only to gain insight about the capital’s past, but also practice on how to analyze a primary source. The first source I analyzed was a newspaper from 1914. This newspaper was entitled the Washington Herald. I then sourced the paper by researching its history. I discovered that theWashington Herald was a daily newspaper that existed throughout the 1900’s. Also later this paper would become the Washington Post. After glancing over the document I realized in order to understand the paper fully I needed to research what was going on in the nation at the time. This paper specifically talks about problems between the United States and the bordering nation Mexico. Right in the center of the paper there is a large political cartoon depicting America’s current relations with Mexico. Also the main article of the day discusses the terrible conditions that existed in Mexico at this time. I contextualized the information with current events in 1914 and discovered that at this time Victoriano Huerta had become the President of Mexico during an internal Civil War. I also learned that Woodrow Wilson wanted Huerta to resign from the presidency, which added to the tense relations between the United States and Mexico. After learning this background information it was easier to make a closer reading of this document. Analyzing the cartoon again, I realized it depicts Uncle Sam (representing America) handing a child (depicting Mexico) soap and a basin for water each labeled ammunition and fire arms respectively. Uncle Sam is telling the boy to “clean himself up.” The main article then goes on to explain how terrible the conditions were in Mexico. There is fighting for the presidency and Huerta is just barely holding on to power. The story discusses how Huerta barricaded himself in his palace with machine guns all around. After analyzing this source I learned a lot about the conditions between Mexico and the United States at the time and what was the US was willing to do to stop the fighting in Mexico, thus securing America’s safety.
The second source that I focused on was a photograph taken of several suffragettes each holding a sign with different states’ names written on them. Also a banner is shown being held by a women that states that the women marched from New York to Washington DC in 1913. I began once again by sourcing this document; however for the photograph there was less research to do. Although it is unclear which original newspaper this photograph was taken from I was able to discover it is part of the Bain Collection. I researched the Bain Collection and discovered it was a series of photos dating from the 1800’s and 1900’s. Each was collected by the photographer George Grantham Bain from newspapers across the nation, and eventually donated to the Library of Congress. I next contextualized the information by researching the history of this particular march made in the capital. I learned this march was down Pennsylvania Avenue and was scheduled for the same day as Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Its goal was to bring awareness to the nation about the needed amendment which would give women the right to vote. The march was organized by Alice Paul and the National American Women Suffrage Association. After learning this information and then looking closer at the document I made the discovery that each state written on a sign was a state in which women already posses the right to vote. This one document shed light on the state of the country at the time. It was a struggle for women to gain their right to vote. It required an act of courage such as protesting during a president’s inauguration.
From these sources I learned about the rich past the District of Colombia possess. As our nation’s capital it has been witness to many protests and marches over the years. As the center of our government it has been the focus of much political turmoil and interest since its creation.
After analyzing both documents I realized that it was harder to work with a photograph than a newspaper. Exact sources for the document were unavailable. This meant you only have the image in front of you to decipher the exact time, date and context of the photo. This would be an even harder task if the picture was unclear or had no source information at all. The newspaper is a better primary source to use because it tells you all of the national and local events that were occurring at this particular time. It also provides the exact time and place of its publication. Providing the exact publication date makes it easy to discover all of the background information about the events documented in the paper’s articles.