Working with the Short-handled hoe: Organizing Farmworkers after World War II

Note: The online Activity for building a virtual exhibit, which parts of this lesson refer to, is no longer available. Students can still choose sources from the object pages, write their own annotations, and present them to the class.

Activity 3: Historical Analysis & Interpretation: The Short-handled Hoe: From "Object of Torture"* to Object of History

*During 1973 hearing before California Industrial Safety Board about health risks posed by long term use of a short-handled hoe one of the five physicians testifying referred to the tool as an "object of torture."

  1. Watch the introductory movie together as a class. [http://objectofhistory.org/objects/intro/shorthandledhoe]. Discuss the basic story of the farm workers and the use of the short-handled hoe.
  2. Visit the Virtual Object section in the Introduction. Ask students to remember the importance of closely examining material culture objects when using them as historical evidence. Provide them with a few minutes to use the Quicktime Virtual Reality version of the short-handled hoe.
  3. Allow students to spend time examining the sources in the Explore section of the short-handled hoe Object Lesson [http://objectofhistory.org/objects/explore/shorthandledhoe/]. Remind students that the Explore section contains primary and secondary sources, organized into three main categories:
    • The Object category containing sources related to the short-handled hoe as a piece of material culture.
    • The Object in History category containing sources related to the place of the short-handled hoe in the historical context of farm workers 1965 - 75 struggle for safer working conditions.
    • The Object in the Museum category containing information related to how NMAH acquired and displayed the short-handled hoe.
  4. Remind students that the video clips of the curators discussing the objects constitute the secondary sources on the site. All 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, the sourcing information, including author, title, and date of creation, is located at the bottom of the source. Instruct students to consider all of this information carefully as they work.
  6. The short-handled hoe, like many of the objects collected by the National Museum of American History, is an unremarkable object that became an important symbol of social change. Ask students to write a thesis statement explaining the short-handled hoe's "journey" from "object of torture" to "Object of History". Instruct students to include six of the featured sources in their answers.
  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 should type their thesis statement into the exhibit description textbox.
  8. Then, students should order the six items (1-6) they selected from the short-handled hoe materials and annotate each item, explaining how it supports the short-handled hoe's "journey" from "object of torture" to "Object of History". Students should also consider all of 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 and exhibit with a unique URL. Students should use the form provided to email the URL to you themselves and to their teacher. 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.