How Do We Find Out About 19th Century People?

PRO Ref: Source 1 - COPY 1/382, Source 2 - RG 12/844

Photographs have immediate visual impact and natural curiosity leads everyone to think ‘Who were these people? What were they called?’ The exercise aims to give pupils the opportunity to use 2 historical sources to answer these basic questions.

Photographs

As well a the examining the contents of the photograph children can be directed to think about the problems associated with this type of historical source. The camera does lie in several ways. Children need to be encouraged to find out why a photograph was taken, the circumstances and if the contents are misleading in any way.

Census Records

If the children are using census material for the first time, it will be helpful to let them become familiar with the layout and the sort of information it contains. They can be given the following questions.

• How many people are in the house?
• Who is the head of house?
• Are the people all from one family?
• How many children are there?
• What are the children’s names?
• How old are the children?
• How old are they?
• Where were the people born?

Work with census records can be extended further by creating an activity where the children compare a middle-class household with working-class one. Types of occupation can be discussed (especially those that no longer exist today), and numbers of people living at the same house, servants, working class women, family size, and working children. A number of further enquiries can be made when census sheets for streets or parts of a local area are used. For example:

• What sort of work was done by most people who lived in this area?
• Were these people mainly poor or wealthy?
• Did most of these people grow up here or did they move in from somewhere else?

Living in Victorian Britain? KS 2

How did life change in our locality in Victorian Times? KS 2