Students will

• view two unknown historical objects and try to identify their function by looking at and asking questions of their appearance and function.
• use critical thinking skills to view a number of images and objects together in order to make educated assumptions about community, urban planning, and home construction in colonial Boston.

Lesson Times:

If you attend the About Face exhibit in the Memorial Art Gallery, this lesson consists of suggested pre-visit, visit, and post-visit activity.

Vocabulary:

community - all of the people living in a particular district, city, etc.

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

1. Images

Image 13:

Possibly Henry Dawkins.
American
Certificate of the Hand-in-Hand Fire Company, 1753 (detail)
Engraving

I.N. Phelps Stokes Collection
Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
The New York Public Library,
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

Image #14

J. Fenno
American
Fire Bucket, 1799
Leather

Courtesy of the Bostonian Society/Old State House

Image #15

Exterior photo of Paul Revere's home in Boston, MA

Courtesy of the Paul Revere Memorial Association

Image #16

Paul Revere after Christian Remick
Landing of the Troops in Boston Harbor, 1770
Engraving

Boston Athenæum

Image #17

Interior photo of the kitchen in Paul Revere House

Courtesy of the Paul Revere Memorial Association

Image #18

John Neagle
American
Pat Lyon at the Forge, 1826-1827
Oil on canvas

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

2. Firefighting and Community in Colonial Boston worksheet (html or Word)

3. Internet access for students interested in checking out relevant website (optional)

Lesson:

1. Look at images of firefighting equipment (#13 & #14) at the same time.
2. Ask each student, in turn, to describe the object with a few words. For example, "This looks like wood," "It was supposed to hold water," "It is old," etc. Write each response on the blackboard/overhead transparency.\
3. Continue around the room, any time a student cannot add to the list, they are disqualified. The game continues until the last person is disqualified.
4. After the objects have been described as fully as possible, ask students to guess how the objects were used. Then they will write a paragraph explaining their reasons for believing that the objects worked in a particular way. These can be shared with the rest of the class.
5. When the students come to the Memorial Art Gallery, the objects will be explained and put in their proper context.

Follow-up:
The goal of this exercise is to get the students thinking about community in colonial Boston. After the Gallery visit, break the class into groups of 3-4 students each. Look at the firefighting objects (images # 13-14) and review the students' experience at the gallery. Next, look at images # 15-18 and then give each group the Firefighting and Community in Colonial Boston worksheet. Go through each image with the following questions on the worksheet:

• What were homes in colonial Boston made of?
• How was the city organized?
• What kind of fire risks did they have?
• What do these images tell you about the kind of technology they had in colonial Boston?
• What do you think it was like to live there?
• How were their homes, daily existences, communities, and responsibilities different than ours are today?
• What kinds of bonds or relationships were forged between people living so close together?

Give the students eight to ten minutes to brainstorm and fill in the worksheet, continue flipping through the slides so students can refer to the images appropriate to the questions they are answering. The students can share their work with the rest of the class.

Think about it:
What other fire hazards would there have been in a colonial city or town? If you were the mayor of the city of Boston during the colonial era, what would you do to make sure there was protection against fire hazards, clean water to drink, a proper sewage system, police presence, street lights, etc.? What else would you be responsible for?

Evaluation:
Students will be assessed on their participation in the pre-visit looking exercise, and their ability to synthesize the visual materials given to them in order to come to conclusions about life in colonial Boston.

Summary:
Students will be examining slides of two objects from colonial Boston in order to make a hypothesis on their functions based on the way they look. After their visit to the Memorial Art Gallery, students will be given a number of visual images to study and will be asked to come up with some conclusions about life experiences in colonial Boston.

Relevant website:

www.pbs.org/williamsburg/backdraft/index.html
"Backdraft: The Fire Engine in the Colonial Community"

*Much of this site is limited to members, but the 'Background', 'Timeline', and 'Glossary' pages provide available, pertinent resources.

theweboftime.com
"American History from the Web of Time"

*a magazine of American history, archaeology, and museum exhibits for kids

www.archaeology.org/online/features/boston/index.html
"Colonial Boston Unearthed"

*Discusses archaeological findings from 'The Big Dig'. The contents of a colonial privy are used to make a hypothesis about the occupation of a woman who lived and worked in her house.

www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/game/
"Road to Revolution: A Revolutionary Game"