Discovering America's Cultural History - Process

The Process

1. Each student will be randomly assigned a decade between the 1920's and the 1990's.

2. Use the websites provided to learn about the cultural contributions made to America during your assigned decade. (cultural contributions may include the following: art, architecture, film, music, television, radio, sports, fashion, fads, theatre, and books/literature)

3. Identify how the examples reflected the time period being studied.

4. Identify how the time period influenced the work and/or lives of the artists and/or cultural icons.

5. Analyze your findings and create an article for the Lawrence Times explaining what you have learned about the cultural contributions your assigned decade had on America.

6. Replicate a chosen piece of art originally created during your assigned decade OR create an original piece of art based upon a style created or popularized during your assigned decade.

* Don't forget to refer frequently to the evaluation rubric for assistance!

Websites Organized By Decade

1920's:

American Cultural History: 1920 – 1929
Architecture of the 1920's
Fashion Links: 1920’s
Fashion
Radiolovers.com – (mainly from the 1940’s)
Radio in the 1920’s
The Golden Age of Sports – 1920’s
Music, Art and Culture of the 1920’s
Art, Film and Stage of the 1920’s
Film History of the 1920’s
Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events: 1920 – 1929
Literature, Music, Art, Architecture and more: 1920’s
A History of Jazz Before 1930
Brief Timeline of American Literature, Music, and Movies1900-1929
The Invention of the American Vacation: The Automobile, 1914-1932
The Cowboy as Entertainer in the 1920s
The Chicago Radio Show of 1924
Visions of Women in 1920's Advertising
Flapper Culture & the Jazz Age
The Roaring Twenties
The Complete 1920's
The Roaring 20's and Great Depression
The Model-T Ford
Flapper Fashion

1930's:

American Cultural History: 1930 - 1939
Art History – 20th Century Art
Radiolovers.com – (mainly from the 1940’s)
Fashion
Architecture
Film
Literature
Art and architecture
Radio
Oral Histories from the 1930’s
Great Depression Recipes
America in the 1930’s
California Folk Music from the 1930’s
The New Yorker Magazine in the 1930s
Breadlines to Chorus Lines: Hollywood Musicals of the 1930s
Crime Pays: The Hollywood Gangster from 1930 to 1938
New Deal, New Media: Political Film and Radio in the 1930s.
Manufacturing Memory: American Popular Music in the 1930s
"WE DOIN' ALRIGHT:" THE SOUTH IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Photographing the Representative American: Margaret Borke-White in the Depression
The Visitor in Your Living Room: Radio Advertising in the 1930s.
The Roaring 20's and Great Depression
Songs of the Great Depression
Radio: Mercury Theatre on the Air
The New Deal Stage
Slang in the Great Depression

1940's:

American Cultural History: 1940 - 1949
Art History – 20th Century Art
Radiolovers.com
Fashion
Architecture
African American Cultural Expressions of the 1940’s
The American Nightmare: Film Noir and the PostWar Era

1950's:

American Cultural History: 1950 - 1959
Art History – 20th Century Art
Radiolovers.com – (mainly from the 1940’s)
Fashion
Architecture
Television
Music
Fads
The Fifties
Apple Pie and Paranoia: Atomic Anxiety and American Ideals in the Works of Robert A. Heinlein (late 1940’s – 1950’s)
Nuclear Bombs and Popular Culture (late 1940’s – 1950’s)
UnAmerican Activities: The Blacklist and U.S. Culture in the 1950s

1960's:

American Cultural History: 1960 - 1969
Art History – 20th Century Art
Fashion
Architecture
Man on the Moon: Remembering the First Steps (1969)
1960’s Advertisements
The Chicano Movement of the 1960s
The Rise and Fall of Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party
Psychedelic Sixties

1970's:

American Cultural History: 1970 - 1979
Art History – 20th Century Art
Fashion
Architecture
Star Wars: The Toy.
In the 70's
Lisa's Nostalgia Cafe - The 1970's

1980's:

American Cultural History: 1980 - 1989
Art History – 20th Century Art
Fashion
Architecture
The Breakfast Club Generation
The Dukes of Hazard
In the 80's
The Politics and Pop Culture of the 1980s

1990's:

American Cultural History: 1990 - 1999
Art History – 20th Century Art
Fashion
Architecture
New Americans: Art, Language, Food, Music
Hep, Hot and Headbanging: The Retro Rebirth of Swing.
The Simpsons in Myth and Reality.
Michael Jordan: The New American Hero.
Coffee Today: Manifestations of the Caffeination Fascination.
In the 90's

Websites Organized By Category

Radio:

Old Time Radio: The Golden Years
The History of Radio
Vintage Radio Script Library
Radio Advertising: 1922 – 1959

Television:

Television Advertising: A Brief History
Tooning in American Culture: Saturday Morning Cartoons and their Significance (1950’s – 1990’s)
Classic TV (1950's - 1990's)
Television History
Spaghetti Westerns (1960 - 1975)

Architecture:

Building Big: Bridges, Skyscrapers, Domes, Tunnels, and Dams
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America
Built in America: 1933 – present
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT: Designs for an American Landscape, 1922-1932
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy

Theatre:

Vaudeville and theatre (1900 – 1920)
Vaudeville!

Music and Dance:

The History of Dance
'Scuse me While I do the Boogalo': Dance Craze and the American Consciousness
American Popular Music (1900 – 1950)
The American Jazz scene (1938 – 1948)
Jazz throughout American history
Delta Blues Museum
Blues and Gospel (1938 – 1943)
Music from Historical Periods
Historic American Sheet Music
The Mississippi: The River of Song
Protest Music Throughout American History
The Leonard Bernstein Collection
Aaron Copland Collection
Duke Ellington
A Brief History of Hip Hop and Rap
Hip Hop History 101
The History of Rock 'n' Roll (1954 - 1963)
The History of Rock Music (1950's - 1990's)

Movies:

Film History (by decade)
Film photos and commentary (1920’s – 1950’s)
Film History Index
Silent Movies
History of Early Motion pictures
American Picture Palaces (movies – 1910’s – 1940’s)
Historical Coming of Age Films in American Culture
Silent Film Resources

Fashion:

Gallery of Fashions Index (1900’s – 1960’s)
America's Beauty Culture (1920’s-1950’s)
American Quilts
The Costume Gallery (organized by decade)
History of Fashion (1900 - 1990)
Christy's Fashion Pages (1900 - 1996)

Fads:

Bad Fads Museum
Crazy Fads (organized by decade)

Art:

The Art Institute of Chicago
American Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Metropolitan Museum of Art: American Paintings and Sculpture
National Gallery of Art
Saturday Evening Post Cover Art (1929 – 1941)
African American Visual Art and the Black Arts Movement (1960’s-1970’s)
Andy Warhol: A Pop Culture Response to Modernism (1960's-1980's)
New Deal Photo Gallery (1930's - 1940's)
Art History – 20th Century Art

Sports:

Jackie Robinson and Baseball Highlights (1900 – 1960’s)
Nike and the American Body. (1970’s – 1990’s)
Street Games

Literature:

Advertising:

History of Coca-Cola Advertising
Cigarettes and Art in Advertising
The Marlboro Man: The Making of an American Image. (late 1950’s – 1970’s)
Advertisements from 1915 – 1955

Miscellaneous:

20th Century American Culture - organized by decade
Web Generation - American Culture on the Web (1940's - 1990's)
The Authentic History Center: Primary Sources from American Popular Culture
American Cultural and Social History: Smithsonian Institute
Harlem Renaissance (1920's - 1930's)
Harlem: 1900-1940
Primary Sources in American Popular History organized by decade
The Wizard of Oz (book 1900; film 1939)
History of Musicals: Film, TV, and Stage
Route 66: The Main Stream of America (1910’s-1930’s)
America's Dream Girl: Toys as Popular Culture and the Barbie Phenomenon (1959+)
Barbie The Image of Us All. (1960’s-1990’s)
Superman in Identity Crisis: The Many Faces of the Man of Steel (1930’s – 1940’s)
John Ford, Gary Cooper and TuPac: Gangsta Rap and the Wild Wild West (1980’s – 1990’s)
Packaged Play: America's Monopoly Game
From WWII to Viet Nam: Images of War in the Media. (1940’s -1970’s)
The History of Toys and Games
The History of Radio City Music Hall
Origins of American animation 1900 to 1921
Library of Congress:
- collections organized by decade
- collections organized by category

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