What Presidential Portraits Reveal
What Presidential Portraits Reveal
Description:
This lesson is designed to help students recognize that portraits, whether paintings or photographs, can tell us more about people of the past than just what they looked like. Students first compare portraits of three Presidents of the United States to note how changes in style can reflect changing social attitudes, in this case changing American attitudes toward the Presidency. Next they examine portraits of Americans from the Revolutionary War era in order to learn how portraits can tell a person's story, both through details of the portrait itself and through evidence of why it was produced or (in some cases) how it has been altered. Finally, students consider how portraits can be manipulated to express a specific point of view, examining caricatures, monuments, and artworks that turn the representation of individuals into statements about what they stand for. To conclude the lesson, students gather portraits from their own homes and prepare a report explaining what these items might tell a future historian about life in our times.
Education Levels:
9, 10, 11, 12
Subject:
United States History, Sociology, Writing (composition), Process Skills, Visual Arts
Resource Type:
Lesson plan
Medium:
Text/HTML
Fee Status:
Free
Beneficiary:
Students
Online provider:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Learning Outcomes:
Learning Outcomes:
Broad Correlation
Broad Correlation
Broad Correlation
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