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History of Voting in the United States: Create a Virtual Exhibit

Activity 3: Create Your Own Exhibit: The 1898 Standard Voting Machine as a Symbol of Voter Reform and the Expansion and Contraction of Franchise

  1. Watch the introductory movie together as a class. http://objectofhistory.org/objects/intro/votingmachine/, then discuss the information presented in the film about the history of voting in the United States and the role of the 1898 Standard voting machine.
  2. Visit the Virtual Object section in the Introduction. Ask students to remember the importance of closely examining objects when using them as historical evidence. Provide them with a few minutes to use the Quicktime Virtual Reality version of the 1898 Standard voting machine.
  3. Allow students to spend time examining the sources in the Explore section of the 1898 Standard voting machine Object Lesson http://www.objectofhistory.org/objects/explore/votingmachine/. Remind students that the Explore section contains primary and secondary sources, organized into three main categories:
    1. The Object category contains sources related to the 1898 Standard voting machine as a piece of material culture.
    2. The Object in History category contains sources related to the place of the 1898 Standard voting machine within the context of the history of voting in United States history.
    3. The Object in the Museum category contains information related to how the National Museum of American History acquired and displayed 1898 Standard voting machine.
  4. Remind students that the video clips of the curators discussing the objects constitute the secondary sources on the site. All the other materials are primary sources.
  5. Remind students that each primary source is accompanied by supporting information that is essential to critical historical thinking. First, at the top of the source, is an annotation that provides contextual information. Second, at the bottom of the same, is the sourcing information, including author, title, and date of creation. Instruct students to consider all of this information carefully as they work.
  6. Ask students to write a thesis sentence that illuminates or expands on the following statement. The 1898 Standard voting machine is an important symbol of voter reform and the expansion and contraction of voting rights.
  7. Instruct students to go to the activity section of the site, where they can curate their own virtual exhibit. They should give their exhibit a title and type their thesis statement into the exhibit description textbox.
  8. Then, students should order the six items (1-6) they selected from the 1898 Standard voting machine materials and annotate each item, explaining how each one supports their thesis statement. Students should also consider the additional contextual information that they may have at their disposal (class readings, lectures, etc.) when they write these annotations.
  9. When students have completed annotating their materials, they should click the "Submit your virtual exhibit" button. The system will create an exhibit with a unique URL. Students should use the form provided to email the URL to you and themselves. They may also want to bookmark the page in their browsers.
  10. Finally, students should present their virtual exhibits and discuss them with the class.