One common research task is finding sources that can help determine the age of a building. Maps, deed research, and newspapers can all be helpful be helpful in finding this date. Sources can be used to determine:
- an exact date—dedicated on April 1, 1910
- a date range—erected between 1905 and 1915
- a benchmark date—erected by 1915 or erected before 1915
The age of a building or other historic places can also be expressed in relationship to other events, places or people. For example, a building erected in…
- 1969 is from the same year as the first moon landing
- 1921 is from the same year Mayor William Donald Schaefer was born
- 1895 is from same year Frederick Douglass died
Events can also be used to explain where sources fit into a broader sequence of evenets. For example, a building erected in 1910 was built…
- after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904
- around the same time as the race riots following Jack Johnson’s boxing match
- before World War One began in 1914
This activity comes in two parts:
- finding and evaluating sources
- placing sources in the context of local events
Find sources using the Baltimore Heritage directory of Digital Sources for Local History Research.
Note: It may be helpful to have a tip sheet or suggestions for working with Google Books, ProQuest Historical Newspapers or other common database search tools.
This activity uses Google Sheets and Timeline JS.
- Select a place that you are interested in learning more about. It can be a building, park, monument or something else but this activity is written assuming that you picked a building.
- Locate three sources that you think will help you to determine the age of the building. For example, you could find a map, a city directory, and a newspaper advertisement.
- Write a brief description of what each source tells you about the age of the building. Ask yourself:
- Do you trust what your source is telling you? If not, why not?
- How many sources do you need to determine a benchmark date? A date range? An exact date?
- Add your sources to the research challenge spreadsheet timeline. Make sure to add a link to an image of your source in the “Media” column of the spreadsheet.
- Take a look at the timeline to explore your sources and sources contributed by other learners.
- Using the age of the building find three events from Baltimore or Maryland history that took place before, around the same time, and after the date of construction. Wikipedia’s List of years is helpful in identifying these events.
- After you pick a few events that interest you ask yourself... Why did you select the events that you did? How do they help you understand or explain the sources you found in part one of the activity?
- Add the date, titles and short descriptions for your selected events to the research challenge timeline in Google Sheets.
- Take a look at the timeline to explore your sources and the events contributed by other learners.