QUESTION:
I wonder just who E. C. Morris was. Were his children as successful and he appears to have been? What church was he minister of? Is the church still in existence?
It may be useful to ask the same questions a newspaper reporter would use: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Some specific questions can include:
• Who created this primary source?
• When was it created?
• Where does your eye go first?
• What do you see that you didn't expect?
• What powerful words and ideas are expressed?
• What feelings and thoughts does the primary source trigger in you?
• What questions does it raise?
• What was happening during this time period?
• What was the creator's purpose in making this primary source?
• What does the creator do to get his or her point across?
• What was this primary source's audience?
• What biases or stereotypes do you see?
• Does it challenge your assumptions about the past?
• What primary or secondary sources support or contradict your conclusions?