A Guide to Methods and Observation in History | Page 2

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 archæological 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) Encyclopædic articles, e.g., "Waterloo" in Encyclopædia Britannica;
Cyclopedias of History; Paul Monroe's Cyclopædia 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.
QUERIES
1. How can primary source material be employed by teachers of history
in the elementary and high school?
2. To what extent ought it to be employed?
3. Would the course of history offered, the year in which it is taught,
and the character of the school and its pupils, affect the answer? If so,
how?

4. What place in the high school has such a book as Hill's Liberty
Documents?
5. To what extent do the observations made by you coincide with your
views respecting the use of primary source material?
6. Make a list of ten or more "source materials" you personally could
use in your teaching of history. Why would you select the "material"
you have?
1. How can the quasi-primary source material be used in elementary
schools and high schools?
2. What phases of such material do you plan to use?
3. What is the basis for your selection?
4. Could every high school teacher of history make effective use of the
material you mention?
5. What deduction follows from your answer?
6. What have been your observations respecting the employment of
material of this kind? Would such material lend itself to use in every
recitation period?
1. Should more than one textbook be used in a given course in history?
Why?
2. Does the grade in which the subject is taught affect the answer?
3. How can the larger historical works, biographies, and compendiums
of history be used in the high school?
4. Is it practicable to have "special reports" from such sources made
daily?
5. Should the teacher expect all pupils to make frequent "special
reports"?

6. In how far is it feasible to supplement the textbook by means of
definite class-readings?
7. Should class-readings be assigned on a page basis, or on a topical
basis, or be left to individual selection and spontaneous effort?
8. Should exact references be given or should pupils be encouraged to
master the art of finding for themselves, within given limits, the
supplementary data sought?
9. Precisely how can a high school teacher make use of such a treatise
as Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws?
10. Make a list of at least twenty selections from historical novels,
historical dramas, poems, essays, and monographs that you, as a
teacher of history, could employ in the high school. What fact or event
would you attempt to illustrate by each of these