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- Boston Massacre (1770)
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- Washington Crossing (1851)
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- Stump Speaking (1854)
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- Emancipation (1863)
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- Men of Co. E (1865)
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- Golden Spike (1869)
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- American Progress (1872)
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- Suffrage parade (1912)
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- Migrant Mother (1936)
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- Atomic explosion (1945)
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- I Have A Dream (1963)
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- 9-11 Attack (2001)
Twelve Images That Have Defined America
- Paul Revere’s Boston Massacre (1770)
- Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)
- George Caleb Bingham’s Stump Speaking (1854)
- Thomas Nast’s Emancipation (1863/1865)
- William Morris Smith’s Men of Company E (1865)
- Andrew Russell’s Golden Spike (1869)
- John Gast’s American Progress (1872)
- AP’s Suffrage parade (1912)
- Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother (1936)
- Charles Levy’s atomic mushroom cloud (1945)
- Bob Adelman’s I Have A Dream speech (1963)
- Spencer Platt’s Twin Towers explosion (2001)
Questions to Consider
- What do you see?
- What don’t you see (i.e. what has been left out of the composition)?
- Who created the image?
- Who was the intended audience for the image?
- How does background information impact interpretation?
- How does our perspective differ from that of the original audience?
- Can you find any connections to earlier historic images?
- Can you identify any historic texts to pair with this image?
- Can you find any more modern images that resonate with this one?
- Can you re-mix or re-imagine this image for today’s era?
- How would you tweet this image, or caption it for a public exhibit?
- How would you use this image in an essay about the period?