Using Artifacts to Foster Historical Inquiry

Author: Linda Farr Darling

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Other criteria to remember when selecting artifacts include the following. Artifacts should:

have the potential to excite children’s imagination and to personalize history;
not be too fragile for young children to handle;
not be dangerous or cause damage (for example, stain clothing); and
be easily displayed in a classroom (not too big or too small).

The highlighted text, “Using Artifacts to Support Historical Inquiry,” includes suggestions for other activities that support historical inquiry using artifacts as the entry point.

Although it is desirable, especially with younger children, to have physical objects to share with students, this is not always feasible—some objects are too big, impossible to find, or are otherwise unavailable. Photographs of artifacts can be useful substitutes for the “real” thing. Many museums have developed virtual collections of artifacts. For example, the Archives Society of Alberta has produced a virtual train station filled with artifacts from Canadian immigrant experiences (www.archivesalberta.org, click on “Letters from the Trunk”). Similarly, the McCord Museum of Canadian history, in partnership with seven museums, has produced “Keys to History” (www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/keys), a searchable database of nearly 110,000 images (dating from 1840–1945), of which 2,000 are fully documented.

The example of a slide presentation described in the highlighted text “Same or Different” illustrates how photographic representations of objects from ancient Roman times stimulated a grade 7 class’s historical inquiry into the differences between Roman and contemporary societies.

Using artifacts to support historical inquiry

Artifact study sheet. Develop a chart, such as the one illustrated on the next page, to accompany artifact investigation that students conduct either in groups, on their own at home (if interviewing family members), or in other settings, such as on a field trip to a museum. Emphasize that students are to offer reasons or evidence for their answers: What clues can we point to that suggest an answer?
Old Main Street treasure hunt. Most towns and cities have a neighbourhood that is full of antique shops, junk stores, second-hand clothing stores, pawnshops, auction houses, consignment stores, or thrift shops. These can be treasure troves for artifact collectors. Sometimes sources for historical artifacts are scattered throughout a wider geographical area. If it seems workable in your situation, consider a field trip for students and arrange for them to have a small amount of money to purchase an artifact or an old newspaper, catalogue, or calendar. If a field trip is not feasible, consider collecting artifacts in a treasure chest of your own. Among the items I have discovered on my own city’s Main Street include: biscuit tins, military uniform buttons, initialled handkerchiefs, roller-skate keys, eight-track cassettes, long-playing records, player piano music rolls, apple corers, meat grinders, embroidery hoops, decorative hair combs, stocking garters, hand-forged nails, and inkwells. Each of these offers an imaginative entry into studying how people lived in the past. “
Then and now” charts. Many important questions about societal change and continuity over time can be raised by inviting students to sort artifacts (or representations of objects) into “then” and “now” categories. Primary students can be introduced to Venn diagrams to represent tools, toys, and implements that have changed over the years between the childhoods of their parents, their grandparents, and their own lives. Students can draw pictures of objects that fit into the circle labelled “then” or the circle labelled “now.” Certain items may have stayed the same over time and would be placed in the space where the circles overlap. Varying diagrams might be devoted to different themes (for example, kitchen tools, games and toys, women’s clothing).
Artifact timelines. A good activity for building understanding of chronology is for young children to arrange artifacts in chronological sequence. Using investigative methods discussed in class, students find out as much as they can about objects brought from home or found in the teacher’s treasure chest. In small groups or as a whole class, students use the information gathered to decide where to place artifacts on a timeline. Beforehand, the teacher might write in significant dates, decades, historical periods, or personal time frames (for example, My grandma’s childhood, My parents’ teen years, When I was a baby). Using clothespins, hang drawings of the objects along a clothesline stretched across a corner of the classroom. Alternatively, arrange the actual objects on a windowsill or counter that has been organized into a timeline.
Invent the artifact’s story. Invite older elementary students to write their own stories from the point of view of particular artifacts. Based on the knowledge acquired about an artifact and their own abilities to judge the plausibility of various hypotheses, students write a story which explains the following: Who invented me? Why? Who made me? Where? Who has owned me? Where have I lived? Where have I travelled? What have I been used for? Have I been misused or neglected? Does anyone use me now? Has a newer invention taken my place?
- Who invented me? Why?
- Who made me? Where?
- Who has owned me?
- Where have I lived? Where have I travelled?
- What have I been used for? Have I been misused or
  neglected?
- Does anyone use me now? Has a newer invention
  taken my place?

Clues Conclusions

Where did it come
from?

Who made it?

How old is it?

Who used it?

For what purpose?

Is there a modern
counterpart?

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This article, written by Linda Farr Darling, explores the use of artifacts as valuable tools for fostering historical understanding in students. Darling explains that the effective use of artifacts requires careful selection and strategic questioning. Sample lessons focus on looking for clues, the use of evidence, and creating knowledge collaboratively.

Linda Farr Darling is an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies at the University of British Columbia where she teaches courses in social studies, philosophy of education, and curriculum theory. Her research interests are in the areas of young children’s moral understandings and the moral dimensions of teaching.

Published in: The Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Elementary Teachers, 2008

This article reproduced from Linda Farr Darling, “Using Artifacts to Foster Historical Inquiry,” in Roland Case and Penney Clark (eds.) The Canadian Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Teachers (Elementary Edition) (Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press, 2008), pp. 283–289. Reproduced with permission from Pacific Educational Press. Permission to reproduce is limited to individual teacher use only. Contact the publisher for permission to reproduce multiple copies.

Last updated: March 31, 2009 | (Revision History)
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Using Artifacts to Foster Historical Inquiry

Using artifacts to support historical inquiry

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