Education - School

The PBS website, School: The Story of American Public Education:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/publicschool/evolving_classroom/books.html

• I like how this website invites the reader to click on "Then & Now" categories regarding schools to see how they have evolved.
• Key topics from the Colonial era: books, discipline, furniture, heating, homework, lighting, school lunch and slate & slate pencils.
• Comparisons are brief but gives reader a feel of how schools originally were like.
• SCHOOL: The Story of American Public Education, is a dramatic four-part documentary series that chronicles the development of our nation’s public education system from the late 1770s to the 21st century. Meryl Streep was the narrator of this 2001 documentary.

Entertainment - Songs (Yankee Doodle Dandy)

Title of article: The American Origins of "Yankee Doodle"
Author(s): J. A. Leo Lemay
Source: The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 33, No. 3, (Jul., 1976), pp. 435-464 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

Article can be found in Jstor.

• 31 VERY informative pages regarding the origins of the song, Yankee Doodle Dandy.
• Author disputes claims that song was British in origin, however, believes that the British soldiers made fun of the Americans during the American Revolution by changing the song's words, depicting Americans as "cowards, yokels, naifs"...also making sexual jokes about them (p.461).
• Presents substantial evidence that song originated in the New England colonies in the 1740's and was later sung after battle victories during the Revolution.
• There is not one writer of the song but many contributors; Concord minuteman Edward Bangs and a Dr. Shuckburgh are among them.
• Song went through many different titles, versions and stanzas as poetry, folk song, and dance.
• Although the article is informative, I was hoping to find out what was meant by: "stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni." --- will do more research later to answer this.
• In the meantime, here's the url to listen to this catchy tune: http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/../midi/yankdood.mid
• Keywords: Yankee Doodle Dandy

Entertainment - Music

The music of The Star-Spangled Banner as we know it today is English in origin. Ralph Tomlinson, president of the Anacreontic Society, a London social club, wrote a poem in 1770 called To Anacreon in Heaven. A year later John Stafford Smith, an organist and composer set the poem to music.

Forty-three years later Francis Scott Key, a poet-lawyer, witnessed the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American forces during The Battle of Baltimore. One thousand dedicated Americans stopped the British advance on Baltimore, and on September 13, 1814 when he saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry "by the dawn's early light," Francis Scott Key changed the words of the original tune from England, replacing them with his own. He named it The Star-Spangled Banner.

To hear the original music of To Anacreon in Heaven, click on the link below:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/Anacreon.midi

The Star-Spangled Banner's music:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/StarSpangldBanner.mid

Can you hear the difference?

The above info can be found on website, Archiving Early America:
http://www.earlyamerica.com/music/star-spangled-banner.htm

Keywords used: early american music

Education - Library

American Colonist's Library: http://home.wi.rr.com/rickgardiner/primarysources.htm

• EXCELLENT list of primary documents of literature and documents...sermons...dictionary from 1755...colonial maps...Book of Common Prayer (1559)..."Of the Tobaco and His Great Vertues" (1577, by Nicolas Monardes) --- speaks of tobacco as a miraculous herb which kills/expels worms, cures colds, swellings, toothaches, etc!
• arranged in chronological order (500 B.C.-1800 A.D.)
• also includes drafts of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanacs and a juicy letter he wrote to a friend who doesn't want to get married, but is having "lustful" thoughts. Franklin advises friend to either get married or have affairs with older women (45 or above) so "there is no hazard of children"...and place a basket on her head or turn the light off! Scandalous!!
• keywords: colonial america education

Entertainment - Dances

Dances of Colonial America, by Kate Van Winkle Keller and Charles Cyril Hendrickson: http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Danctyps.htm#Main%20Dance%20Types

• list of 8 dances
• brief history of dances in Early America
• descriptions of dances include settings, origins, steps and movements
• mostly easy to read, however, names of steps/movements such as: allemande turns, coupé, battement, jeté, pirouette, pas de sissone, and pas tombé were not defined/described.

Communication - First Political Cartoon

• Archiving Early America: http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/firsts/cartoon/

This is the first political cartoon which appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754.

Intriguing facts about this cartoon & another political one as well as images of the Gazette and Massachusetts Centinel.

Family Life

The Claude Moore Colonial Farm At Turkey Run: http://www.1771.org/cd_recipes.htm

• list of 16 recipes from colonial times
• easy recipes for kids with recommended children's ages (grades) with each recipe
• Claude Moore is an actual farm in McLean, VA where visitors are welcomed to see how people from 1771 used to dress, talk, farm, etc. --- Let's take a field trip :)
• keywords: colonial america recipes