Teaching Activities 1. Photographs, like all evidence, should be examined with care. Students should be aware that, like written documents, photographs reflect a point of view, may even be staged, and should be used with other sources of evidence. Before discussing this photograph with students, post it on the bulletin board for several days and direct students to look at it closely. It is useful to divide a photograph into quadrants and to look at each in turn, noting striking details.
Photographs freeze events in time and evoke in the viewer a memory of the event.
Discuss the photograph of Lincoln's statue as a symbol of the 1920s. Develop a list of photographic images that are symbolic for students. Consider with students how to judge the validity of a photograph as a symbol. Direct students to investigate these images of Lincoln to see if they stand up under scrutiny. Assign students to survey all of the ways Lincoln has been honored.