Jim Peppler Collection Teaching and Learning Resources
The digitized images and accompanying detailed metadata created by the individuals at the Alabama Department of Archives and History lend themselves to use in teaching at all educational levels. This section is composed of activities or discussion prompts that can be used to teach or learn about the Jim Peppler Southern Courier Collection. Specific sections include activities that are focused on fostering information, primary source, and data literacy by analyzing the photographs in conjunction with the Southern Courier newspaper, analysis of metadata used to describe the images, and research and writing activities.
Data Analysis Activity
This activity uses the data visualizations found on the “Places”, “Subjects”, and “People” tabs of this website as well as the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s collection of digitized images to encourage inquiry in students when using digital primary sources.
View a printable version of this activity.
Core concepts:
Data – The information we are examining. In this instance, our data is the photographs taken by Jim Peppler.
Metadata – Data about data. In this case, the metadata that we are examining are the words used to describe the photographs.
Data Visualization – A visual representation of data, or in our case, metadata.
Information Literary – As defined by the Association of College & Research Libraries, information literacy is, “set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning.”
Activity:
Have students examine the “Introduction” page and any or all of the visualizations on the “Places”, “Subjects”, and “People” pages of this website. Encourage them to click on areas of interest within the visualizations to view relevant photographs or search for any individuals or words they do not recognize. If desired, break students into groups and assign them a particular page or visualization and ask them to become the “five minute expert” on their page or visualization—i.e., share with the rest of the class what their page or visualization is about. Ask students if they were surprised by any of the information they saw, or if there was information they expected to see that they did not. Where did the information for their page or visualization come from? Who do they think created the information? What resources do they think the individual used? Is this person or the Alabama Department of Archives and History a reputable and reliable provider of information?
Then, ask students what isn’t visible on the data visualizations or on the image descriptions. Some students may be inclined to say “the images” or “the visualizations” for the visualizations and images respectively, but encourage students to think about the information that may not have been known by the person describing the image or photographs that never made it into the Alabama Department of Archives and History as a result of editorial oversight or personal reasons. When we examine primary sources, we are only examining the resources that survived and were selected to be digitized in the present day. When we examine the information describing those photos, that resource is being further interpreted through another person’s lived experiences and area of expertise, which is often separated by decades of time since the original resource was created. Were there any materials not digitized? How would we know if so? Can you rely on the person who accumulated the data and created the data visualizations?
If desired, you can continue to zoom out from the subject further: does the Alabama Department of Archives and History present the digitized materials in a way that is accessible to individuals other than scholars? Do you prefer the visualizations or the rows of image icons when learning about this collection? Is there another method that you might want to engage with these materials? Ask students to discuss ways in which the definition of information literacy provided above is relevant for their consumption of information through data visualizations and other digital information resources. Are there ethical issues with sharing images of individuals who may still be alive and who may not have known their image would be shared outside of The Southern Courier?
Newspaper and Photograph Source Analysis and Research Activity
This set of activities uses the data visualizations found on the “Places”, “Subjects”, and “People” pages of this website, the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s collection of digitized images, and The Southern Courier newspaper archive to encourage inquiry and connections between visual and textual data.
Within the collection of 13,471 digitized photographs at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, 8,914 photos are linked directly to the relevant issue(s) of The Southern Courier. Of the 177 published issues of The Southern Courier, an incredible 103 have photos connected to them. These photos are dispersed in issues over the years 1965-1968 in the following way:
| Year | Frequency |
|---|---|
| 1965 | 15 |
| 1966 | 44 |
| 1967 | 34 |
| 1968 | 10 |
Have students use the Library of Congress’ Newspaper Analysis Tool to examine an issue of The Southern Courier. What news does the Courier focus on? From what perspective do the article writers write? Who do you think is reading the newspaper? Then, have students search for the title of the photo spread article in the issue they have chosen and look at the photographs in the Jim Peppler Southern Courier Collection critically using the Library of Congress’ Photograph Analysis Tool. To search for photographs taken for a particular article in the Alabama Department of Archives and History website, type in the name of the article enclosed in quotes, such as “King in B’ham Jail: ‘Small Price to Pay’”. Additional activities, such as examining photographs that did not make it into the newspaper and comparing them to the photographs that did, can help expose editorial decisions made the Courier staff. Why were certain photos chosen over others? Another approach is to examine how other newspapers used articles and photographs to cover the same events, or to research what else was occurring during that time period.
