Primary Source Set Community: People and Places
-
Health clinic. Shafter migrant camp. Shafter, California -
Hair salon, Lowell Massachusetts -
Story reading time in the school library at the Elmer Avenue Elementary School. Schenectady, New York -
Library tent at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) mobile camp for migratory farm workers -
Mural, Mission District, San Francisco, California -
Suburban Resettlement Administration poster -
Rural wagon delivering mail, U.S.P.O -
Karen Button interview, 2022. Begin at 11:49, end at 14:40 -
A "donation box" outside the Lutesville Presbyterian Church in Marble Hill, Missouri -
Community Center Free - everybody welcome -
Trash collectors putting trash bags into a garbage truck -
Firehouse station number four. Washington, D.C. Firemen retrieving a small hose after extinguishing a blaze -
Beaumont, Texas. Mrs. Ruth Gallagher, a bus driver for the city transit company. Her husband works in the Pennsylvania shipyards -
New York, New York. Children's school victory gardens on First Avenue between Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Streets -
Meeting of the editorial staff of the school paper. Lakeview Project, Arkansas -
Chicago, Illinois. Ida B. Wells Housing Project. A meeting of the Cub Scouts in the community center -
Advisory committee hearing industry representatives proposals for new plants on reservation -
Bird's eye view of the city of Frankfort, the capital of Kentucky 1871
The resources in this primary source set are intended for classroom use. If your use will be beyond a single classroom, please review the copyright and fair use guidelines.
Teacher’s Guide
To help your students analyze these primary sources, get a graphic organizer and guides: Analysis Tool and Guides
Background
What is a community? What makes a community?
Forming and investigating questions about communities — what and where they are, how they form, and who participates in them — gives young learners an opportunity to engage in meaningful inquiry about a core aspect of civic life. Primary sources from the Library of Congress can help students identify, connect to, and expand on aspects of what makes communities function and thrive.
By observing the everyday people, places, and activities of different communities, students can reflect on the idea that they are part of and can participate in their own communities.
Communities are made in different places.
Communities exist across rural, urban, and suburban geographic areas. The physical features and resources of a place are part of what makes a community distinctive. The geography of a place also helps determine what the people in a community may need and want. As students examine sources in this set, encourage them to look for clues that might tell them more about the places represented in the set.
Communities are created by people, often coming together to achieve a goal or work toward a common purpose.
While communities may differ by geography or population, all communities provide services for the people who live there. Some services, like trash collection, firefighting, mail delivery, or healthcare address basic needs of a community. Other services like community centers, libraries, community gardens, or hair salons might be tailored to address certain wants of a community. Guide students in thinking about what wants and needs their community might have. What sources in the set show these kinds of services? What sources show something new or different?
Participating in a community helps to build community.
Whether it’s in a classroom or school project, a neighborhood event, a county fair, or a city-wide celebration, when people come together it can reinforce the bonds of a community. Local government, civic organizations, and school clubs all help people find ways to participate in and have a voice in shaping a community. Several sources in the set highlight community helpers and leaders: from school journalists to scout leaders to committee members in a local government hearing.
Suggestions for Teachers
- Invite students to examine sources in the set that show different geographic communities (urban, rural, suburban). Create and post a T chart to capture their ideas. Use students’ findings to discuss possible differences in a community’s needs, depending on where it is located. Close by asking students to reflect on common needs of a community, no matter its location.
- Use the sources in this set to explore wants, needs, and community services. Begin with a general discussion of wants and needs in students’ own lives. Use students’ responses to construct a definition of each concept. Then, work with students to apply these definitions to analyzing sources in the set. What items represent wants? What sources show needs? Then, share another item from the set that represents a service. Prompt students to think about what want or need is being addressed by the service shown in the source.
- Teachers could use this set to introduce community helpers. First, allow time for students to brainstorm the characteristics of a helper: What behaviors, traits, or qualities contribute to being helpful? Then invite students to share what they know about communities: What is a community? What communities are they a part of? Next, display some or all the items in the primary source set. Ask students to look for items that show helpers at work in a community. Encourage students to share an item they found and explain why they chose it.
- This set contains items that represent unique aspects of different communities. After students view the sources, prompt students to think about what makes their community unique: What does their community look like? Who is important and who does what? What is their favorite thing about their community? Invite students to create or draw an item that represents their idea. Teachers might display a gallery of student created sources to celebrate students’ ideas about community.
- Assign or encourage students to select an item that connects to one level of community (family, school, neighborhood, city or town). Offer some of the following prompts to help students examine their item: What do students notice? What do they think the item shows? What clues from the source tell them something about the level of community it represents? What questions do you have about the item? Finally, encourage students to think about their communities and brainstorm the leaders or helpers at each level.