Activity One: Valentine Observations and Inferences

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Patrick Hamilton
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1 Activity One: Valentine Observations and Inferences Take some time to simply observe Image One carefully at least one quiet minute. Using the Valentine from Image One, students should work individually or in teams to begin to make observations and predictions. This may also be a whole-class activity, of course, with Image One projected onto a screen or distributed amongst individuals or pods. Students should use the Student Observation Form and Student Observation Form Sample Responses as a template for inquiry. It s important to begin gathering details before students make blanket statements like, It looks like an old valentine! Encourage the students to avoid generalities and follow the Student Observation Form. Though some students with more experience or who are keenly perceptive might be able to figure out very quickly the image is a vintage valentine, breaking down the inferential process is very important. The purpose of this activity is to gather details which will eventually support and validate an inference a key process for critical thinking that can be applied to almost any situation. Don t confirm or deny any inferences just yet... that comes later after more exploration.

2 Image One Image enlarged to show details. Original image approximately 4.5 x 6.5.

3 Student Observation Form Name List details you see. Look carefully. What first catches your eye? What words do you see? What do you see that you can t explain? What purpose do you think this might have been made for? Why?

4 Activity Four: Going Deeper Let s take a look at the back of the vintage valentine to go deeper into historical thinking. Now that the back is in view, it makes it fairly obvious the valentine is a postcard, so let s just make that a given. Note: Students who do not move beyond activity three may still find it interesting to see the back of the postcard and have the teacher lead them through some of the details. *The postcard s postmark took some investigation because it is not clearly legible, and indeed, it is a hypothesis based on historical and geographical evidence. Teachers may want to lead their students through the process of forming the postmark hypothesis as a model for historical investigation they will follow as they go deeper. See The Postmark Hypothesis, A Sample Historical Inquiry into Primary Sources below. First, we ll start again with our observation form.

5 Image Two Back of Postcard Image enlarged to show detail. Original image approximately 4.5 x 6.5.

6 Student Observation Form 2 Name List details you see. Look carefully. What first catches your eye? What words do you see? Translate the cursive script. What do you see that you can t explain? What hypothesis can you make about the sender and receiver of this valentine postcard? Be prepared to explain your thinking.

The Postmark Hypothesis A Sample Historical Inquiry into Primary Sources The postmark s year on the vintage Valentine is not clear even with a magnifying glass. Is it 1903, 1913, 1908, or 1918?

A keyword net search for Whitney Company reveals that the Whitney Made cards from Worcester, Mass were popular from about 1900 to 1920.

8 The Postmark Hypothesis A Sample Historical Inquiry into Primary Sources The postmark s year on the vintage Valentine is not clear even with a magnifying glass. Is it 1903, 1913, 1908, or 1918? Enhancing the image appears to reveal the year as Is there anything to support this? This postcard comes from the Whitney Company. A keyword net search for Whitney Company reveals that the Whitney Made cards from Worcester, Mass were popular from about 1900 to This doesn t help us with the date of our Valentine, but it does confirm the proper date range of our possibilities. We know we re in the right couple of decades. Another website concerning vintage postcards yields these tidbits: Before 1907 writing was not permitted on the address side of a postcard. Postcards with a back side divided into a message and an address area first appeared in March of From 1915 to 1930, most postcards had a white border around the image on the front. We can now rule out 1903 as a postmark date because postcards did not have a divided back until The back was used for addresses only, and the front sides had a small, white area for writing. These pre-1907 postcards looked like this:

9 The white border years don t help the investigation. It s hard to tell if our valentine has a white border, since the background of the image is white. The white border we see could simply be a part of the design. Noting the one cent stamp on the 1907 postcard sample above, there may be another possible avenue. Our valentine postcard shows a two cent stamp. When did postage rates change? Let go back to the web with a keyword search for when did postcard postage rates change? We discover this: cent cents (to help the WWI war effort) cent cents This is a fantastic clue for our hypothesis. In 1917, the postcard stamp was raised from one to two cents to generate income to support WWI. This effectively rules out 1908 and 1913 as possible dates. We are left with Postcard stamps were returned to one cent in 1919 and remained one cent until This is further confirmation for our 1918 hypothesis. Now that we ve nailed down the date, it s time to try to figure out where our card was posted. For the city, we can read only Napo and a straight line that could be an uppercase B, D, E, F, H, I, K, L, M, N, P, or R. For the state, we can read only NE. NAPO could be anywhere! Let s narrow this down using the state possibilities. Only three states begin with NE. They are New York, New Jersey, and Nebraska. New York and New Jersey would be abbreviated NY and NJ respectively. If they were spelled out in their entirety, much more print would show on the postmark. We can rule both New York and New Jersey as unlikely. Nebraska, however, may be abbreviated NEB. This is a definite possibility. Are there any cities in Nebraska which begin NAPO? Let s hit the web for a list of Nebraska cities and towns. Yes, there is, in fact, only one Nebraska town beginning with NAPO. It is a very small town named NAPONEE with the second N being one of our possible next letters. This is looking like a good hypothesis! Was there a post office in Naponee in 1918? Fortunately, genealogy is a very popular pastime for web users. A genealogy citation on the web reveals that Naponee had a post office beginning in Any further confirmation? Let s think about this. The postcard is mailed to a hospital in Denver, Colorado. Would it be more likely a person would be in a hospital in Denver for whatever reason from Nebraska, New Jersey, or New York? Nebraska seems the most likely. While we do not have definitive proof for the postmark, our logic and investigation (all using the magic of the worldwide web, by the way) leads us to our hypothesis. Web References The US50 State of Nebraska Cities accessed 12/2012

10 NEGen Web Naponee, Nebraska Post Office History accessed 12/ Vintage Whitney Postcards A Brief History: ebay Guides accessed 12/ Tips for Determining When a U.S. Postcard was Published accessed 12/2012

11 Activity Four Continued Our visual analysis and sample historical hypothesis complete, let s turn the historical thinking over to the students. All the necessary supporting details for a hypothesis are either supplied or are available online. Here is the task: Using the primary source postcard and online resources you might discover, form a hypothesis that answers this question: Was the valentine sent from a male to a female?

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