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Primary
Source of the Month
“Join, or Die,” by Benjamin
Franklin, Pennsylvania Gazette
(Philadelphia, PA), May 9, 1754. Courtesy,
Library of Congress.
CONTENTS
"Degrees of Latitude "
Primary
Source of the Month
Teaching
Strategy
Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources
Teaching News
Quotation of the Month
The
next
Electronic Field Trip is
Degrees of Latitude
November 16, 2006
2006-2007 Teaching
Resources Catalog
2006–2007 Electronic Field
Trip Scholarships
Games,
activities, and resources about life
in colonial America
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TOP STORIES
"Degrees of Latitude" by Margaret Pritchard
Maps tell the story of how Europeans took possession of the New World and exploited its bounty. From the outset, land and its location prefigured the economic success of every colonization enterprise. The obvious way to assert ownership over land and impose order on territories was by marking boundaries on charts and globes. The lines delineated royal claims based on discovery and exploration, the chartered possessions of companies of private investors, and the personal holdings of the wealthy. Maps tell us what the owners knew or believed about the land, suggest how explorers traveled and traded, and record routes across oceans and continents.
Learn
More
Primary
Source of the Month:
"JOIN, or DIE" Snake
The
famous “Join or Die” snake,
believed to have been created by Benjamin
Franklin, has long enjoyed the distinction
of being the first political cartoon published
in an American newspaper. Few people realize,
however, that it can also be viewed as
a basic map.
Learn
More
Teaching
Strategy: Maps by Hearsay
In the mid 1700s, Great Britain and France
were on the brink of war. Both countries
had claimed the majority of land on the
North American continent. Maps played a
key role in their dispute. The French believed
their maps proved their claims to the Mississippi
River and all the lands drained by it and
its tributaries. To counter these French
assertions, the English needed maps supporting
and proving their own land claims.
Learn More
Colonial
Williamsburg Teaching Resources for Your
Classroom
Colonial
Williamsburg offers a variety of quality
instructional materials dealing with 18th-century
life, including:
–
Degrees Of Latitude (book)
– Mapping Colonial America (CD-ROM)
– Map of Virginia and Maryland
– Map of New England
– Map of New France
Learn
More
Teaching
News: Jamestown Live!
On November 9, 2006 at 1 p.m. EST, you and
your students are invited to participate
in Jamestown Live! a free one-hour educational
webcast that brings to life the legacies
that helped build the tapestry of our nation.
Created in partnership with leading educational
organizations to support standards, this
online educational event is part of the
America's 400th Anniversary commemoration.
Hosted
by renowned veteran journalist and PBS
correspondent Gwen Ifill from the sites
where these historic events took place,
Jamestown Live! offers creative programming
designed for students in Grades 4–8.
Learn
More
Quotation
of the Month
“We find ourselves under the greatest
difficulties arising from the want of exact
Surveys of those Countries [in America],
many parts of which have never been surveyed
at all, and others so imperfectly that the
Charts and Maps thereof are not to be depended
upon, and, in this situation, we are reduced
to the necessity of making Representations
to Your Majesty, founded upon little or
no Information.”
—Privy
Council to King George III, 1764
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Volume
5, Issue 3 
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