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Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Gazette
December 29, 2006Volume 5, Issue 5
Primary Source of the Month

"D’Habit d’Imprimeur en Letters," by Gerard Valck, Holland,  ca. 1700.

D’Habit d’Imprimeur en Letters, by Gerard Valck, Holland, ca. 1700. From the collections of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.


CONTENTS

"Early American Newspapering"

Primary Source of the Month

Teaching Strategy

Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources

Teaching News

Quotation of the Month


The next
Electronic Field Trip is

Influenced By None EFT
Influenced By None
January 18, 2007



2006-2007 Teaching
Resources Catalog

2006-2007  Teaching Resources Catalog




PSCU Financial Services Logo

2006–2007 Electronic Field
Trip Scholarships



Kids Zone: History, Games & Fun
Games, activities, and resources about life in colonial America

TOP STORIES
"Early American Newspapering"
by James Breig

In seventeenth-century America, colonial governments had rather do without newspapers than brook their annoyance. In 1671, Governor William Berkeley of Virginia wrote: "I thank God, there are no free schools nor printing and I hope we shall not have, these hundred years, for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. God keep us from both." As the British government once told the governors of Massachusetts, "Great inconvenience may arise by the liberty of printing."

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Primary Source of the Month:
D’Habit d’Imprimeur en Letters, by Gerard Valck

This print, titled “Habit d’Imprimeur en Lettres,” was created by Dutch engraver by Gerard Valck (1651–1726). It is one of a series of witty, imaginative, detailed engravings portraying itinerant vendors, tradesmen, and professionals wearing the tools and products of their occupations.

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Teaching Strategy: Colonial Newspapers and Communication

Today, news and information is available in many forms, including the spoken word, handwritten documents, printed pieces, radio, television, and the Internet. Of these modern forms of communication, only the written word, handwritten documents, and printed pieces existed in the eighteenth century. In this lesson, students will learn how printers and newspapers provided readers with essential news and information in the 1700s.

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Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources for Your Classroom

Colonial Williamsburg offers a variety of quality instructional materials dealing with 18th-century life, including:

  • Maria's Story: 1773 (book)
  • Teacher Guide for the Young Americans Series Books
  • Earning a Living as a Tradesperson in Colonial America (lesson unit)
  • Teaching Literacy Through History (lesson unit)

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Teaching News

Are you familiar with the National History Day program? It is a history competition for students in grades six through twelve that engages students in the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students produce dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries and research papers based on research related to an annual theme. All projects are evaluated at local, state, and national competitions held each spring and early summer.

The 2006–2007 National History Day contest theme is "Triumph and Tragedy."

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Quotation of the Month

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

—Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Currie,
January 28, 1786


For more information about Colonial Williamsburg teaching resources, visit our Internet site at: http://www.history.org/teach

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