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A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project of the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries

Activity One: Introducing The Prospectus, A Woman of the Century, and the A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project Site

Description

This activity introduces the Prospectus for A Woman of the Century (1893), A Woman of the Century (1893), and the A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project site.

Duration

One day

Objectives

  • To introduce A Woman of the Century - the prospectus
  • To  teach students to "source the source"
  • To set the sources in their proper chronological order and to help students understand why that ordering is important
  • To promote critical thinking of the book as object
  • To promote critical thinking about the audiences
  • To introduce the women included and some of the contributors
  • To promote critical thinking about the nineteenth-century subjects and contributors
  • To teach students to recognize the role of causality
  • To introduce A Woman of the Century - the electronic version
  • To introduce the Crowdsourcing Project site

Materials

Adams, Oscar Fay, 1855-1919 A Dictionary of American Authors. Fifth Edition. Revised and Enlarged. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1905.

A Woman of the Century

Introductory Screencast - A Woman of the Century:  A Crowdsourcing Project of the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries.

Lesson Plan Text

A Woman of the Century is a biographical dictionary that was edited by Frances E. Willard and Mary Livermore, two very active and prominent women.  It was published by Buffalo publisher Charles Wells Moulton in 1893.   

Please consider the following questions and respond to them in a blog post.

Prospectus Title Page.jpg

1.  Prospectus and Description of A Woman of the Century. 

Examine this Prospectus and answer the following questions

  • What is this object?

  • What do you think it is for?

  • What have you learned about the book which is being promoted?

  • What does the Prospectus tell you about the book's production?  Are these terms familiar to you?  If not, brainstorm how you could learn about them.

  • What did you learn about the way that the book was being sold?  What does that tell us about the marketing for the book?

  • Look at the binding and pricing options.  What do you make of these different options?  What do they tell you about the book's intended audiences and the role that the book as object played in the lives of the indended audiences?Who do you believe the intended audience for this book was?  Why?  How do you believe the intended audience influenced the book's contents?

  • What does it tell us about the publisher and editor of book that it is promoting?

  • Look at the Index of Biographies.  What does it tell us about the women who will be included in the book?  How many of these names are familiar? Of the 1470 women, list ten that you  recognize and explain how you first learned about her.

  • How many women in the 'Partial List of Contributors" are included in the Index of Biographies?  Were any women not included?  If so, who?  

  • Why do you believe this "Partial List of Contributors" was included in the Prospectus?
Dictionary of American Authors title page.jpg
  • Consult Oscar Fay,Adams's  A Dictionary of American Authors to ltry to learn more about the contributors who are listed.  What have you  learned about them?  After having researched these individuals, do you have a better idea about why they were used in a prospectus in 1893?
A Woman of the Century tp (2).jpg

2.  A Woman of the Century

  • We are working with the digital version of the book.  What do you lose by not seeing the book as object?  Do you believe that it matters whether it is possible to see the book as object?  Why and/or why not?

  • The book's title page notes that it was created by Willard, Livermore, and "A Corps of Able Contributors."  How do you think these contributors were recruited?  While the Prospectus named some of the contributors, the book itself does not.  What questions do you have about the book's creation?

  • Skim through the book to get a sense of the way that it is set up.  

  • How easy do you think the print version of the book was to handle and navigate.  In your opinion, is there anything missing from the book?

  • How easy is the electronic version of the book to navigate??  Explain your response.

  • How easy is it to find similarities and differences between people and to understand connections between people?

3.  A Woman of the Century Project

Watch the introductory screencast for A Woman of the Century:  A Crowdsourcing Project of the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries.  You will become part of the Twenty-First Century team, adding item records which will enrich the experience of other users.  After watching the screencase, please answer the following questions:

  • What aspect of participating do you believe will be the most challenging?

  • What aspect of participating excites you the most?

  • What aspect of the project do you believe gives the most added value to studying A Woman of the Century and American Women's History?
Activity One: Introducing The Prospectus, A Woman of the Century, and the A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project Site