A Guide to Methods and Observation in History Studies in High School Observation

1. Which of the above mentioned aspects should receive the chief emphasis in the elementary school? In the high school?

2. Would the constituency of the schools affect the answer?

3. Would the year in which the course is offered in the high school affect the answer?

4. Can you name other factors that would affect the answer?

5. Precisely what phases of history would be included under each of the above aspects?

6. Do the aspects mentioned exhaust the categories?

7. So far as you have observed, are the practices in the high school, respecting the aspects of history to be taught, in accord with your ideals and theories?

III. Source Material for History.

1. Primary Source Material.

(a) Monuments, inscriptions, buildings, tablets, columns, coins, tools and utensils, tapestries, pottery, implements, and all archaeological and antiquarian material.

(b) Legal documents, e.g., statute books, charters, petitions, declarations, decrees, orders, court records, proclamations, treaties.

(c) Literary forms, e.g., manuscripts, notes, books, diaries, letters, paper money, newspapers.

(d) Narrative material, e.g., biographies, chronicles, memoirs, and accounts of customs, superstitions, ceremonials, etc.

2. Quasi-Primary Source Material, or the Auxiliary Sources of History.

(a) Historical geography, involving a consideration of the "origin, meaning, distribution, and changes of geographical names."

(b) Ethnology and sociology.

(c) Geology, paleontology, and physical geography.

(d) Paleography, or the science of ancient writings.

(e) Diplomatics, or treatises on official documents.

(f) Epigraphy, or the science of inscriptions.

(g) Numismatics, or the study of coins.

(h) Languages.

3. Secondary Authorities.

(a) Textbooks.

(b) Large historical works, e.g., Parkman's, Bancroft's, McMaster's, Fiske's.

(c) Biographies of historical personages, e.g., The Life of Cavour; The True George Washington; Bismarck.

(d) Compendiums of History, e.g., Green's Short History of the English People.

(e) Special treatises of historical epochs, e.g., Thwaites' The Colonies; Wilson's Division and Reunion.

(f) Encyclopaedic articles, e.g., "Waterloo" in Encyclopaedia Britannica; Cyclopedias of History; Paul Monroe's Cyclopaedia of Education.

(g) Dictionaries of historical names and references, e.g., Low's Dictionary of English History or Larned's History for Ready Reference, 6 vols.

(h) Philosophical, legal, and constitutional treatises bearing on history, e.g., Bryce's American Commonwealth; Ostrogorski's Democracy and The Party System; Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws.

(i) Historical novels, e.g., Hugo's Les Miserables; historical dramas, e.g., Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice; historical poems, e.g., Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish; historical essays and monographs, e.g., articles in the Historical Review and other contemporary magazines.

(j) Writings on local history, e.g., Cooley's History of Michigan; Putnam's Primary and Secondary Education in Michigan; Michigan Pioneer Collection Articles.