Objective: Students will

• study the provided primary source document and ask questions of it in order to better understand the state of the economy in pre-Revolutionary Boston.

Lesson Times:

If you attend the About Face exhibit at the Memorial Art Gallery, this lesson is suggested as a pre-visit activity.

Vocabulary:

currency - the money in circulation in any country.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should have begun study of colonial America, with some basic background in pre-Revolutionary Boston.

Materials:

1. Image

Image #23:

Nathaniel Hurd
American, 1729/30-1777
Table of Conversions
Engraving

American Antiquarian Society

2. Nathaniel Hurd's Table of Conversions (photocopy attached in teacher's kits)
3. What is this? worksheet (HTML or Word)

Lesson:

1. The students will break into groups of 4 or 5. Give each student a photocopy of Hurd's Table of Conversions and/or look at image #23.
2. Give each group a worksheet to complete. The worksheet asks questions directed towards clarifying the students' looking:

• What kinds of symbols or signs do you recognize? (letters? numbers? symbols?)
• Is there anything (letter, number, or symbol) on this source that you have never seen before?
• Can you identify what those might mean? Explain your answer.
• Do you have any idea when this was made? · Where do you think this was made?
• Have you ever seen anything like this before? Where? What was it?
• What do you think this was used for?

3. After the worksheet is done, discuss the different parts of the table together while you project Image #23 of the Table of Conversions. As a group try to come up with a few possible functions of this table.

Follow-up (Option #1):
After discussing the possible functions of the table, tell your students more about colonial Boston's economy. Tell them that the coins on the chart were the currencies of many countries. Tell them that Boston was an international harbor that traded with many countries in Europe and around the world. Ask them to apply the observations they've already come up with to this new information. Does this help determine the use for such a table?

Follow-up (Option #2):

Boston merchants imported items from many parts of the world. Merchants traded in many foreign currencies. Silver itself was shipped from foreign lands before it was fashioned into silverware and teapots by Boston silver smiths. Where were the silver mines? Who controlled the mining and sale of silver? How would the silver get to the port of Boston? What was the British mercantile policy toward trade with other countries?

Think about it:
Boston had over 40 wharves and was the busiest port in the colonies. The New England merchants who prospered the most off of these trade opportunities were the men who patronized John Singleton Copley. Many of these wealthy merchants were involved in the trade route that fueled slavery in America, known as the triangular trade.

• What are the moral implications of the activities of the New England merchants?
• How did their actions affect the lives of people in other colonies and other countries?
• Does this reflect upon John Singleton Copley at all?

Evaluation:
Students should be assessed on their ability to identify and discuss features of Hurd's Table of Conversions and their participation in using information about cultural context in order to better guess its function.

Summary:
Students will be given the Table of Conversions engraved by Nathaniel Hurd to observe and discuss. Based on their observations, the class will collaborate in coming up with the possible functions of this table. Information about Boston's international harbor and fluctuating economy will be joined with student observations in order to come to some conclusions about the economy in colonial Boston.

Additional Activity:

1. To see how inflation has changed the value of the dollar, refer to:
   www.eh.net/ehresources/howmuch/dollarq.php
2. To see how inflation has changed the value of English money, refer to:
   www.eh.net/ehresources/howmuch/poundq.php