#2 Elizabeth Eckford Ignores The Screams Of Students On Her First Day Integrated Into A Little Rock High School, 1957
So, Historical Capsule is a subreddit that’s a “step into the past”. It’s an online depository for old and vintage photographs that tell stories from significant events and moments in history.
The subreddit is home to 50,000 members, being ranked in the top 3%, and encourages open discussion and celebration of all things history.
#4 Anne Frank’s Father Otto, Revisiting The Attic Where They Hid From The Nazis. He Was The Only Surviving Family Member
#5 Ruby Bridges, The First African-American To Attend A White Elementary School In The Deep South, 1960
#6 A Former Slave Named Gordon Shows His Whipping Scars. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863
On the surface, history might sound like a dull and boring discipline. However, if you dig deeper into what it’s all about, you begin to understand just how much essence it has and how much it has to offer in general.
After all, history might be something that’s all about the past, but you’d be surprised just how transformative it might be.
#8 A Lesbian Couple In Semi-Drag Wedding Attire. Kingdom Of Hungary, Budapest, 1920
#9 Following A 23-Hour (Successful) Heart Transplant, Dr. Religa Keeps An Eye On His Patient's Vital Signs. In The Corner, His Assistant Is Sleeping, 1987
History professor Mary Jo Festle wrote a piece on how history as a discipline transforms students. In it, she explained that since there isn’t realistically any empirical evidence of this hypothesis, she took it upon herself to figure it out.
She asked nearly 60 of her students across 8 different sections of the small research seminars they hosted to give open-ended responses to prompts reflecting upon the change.
#10 Reporters Who Exposed The Watergate Scandal Watch President Nixon Resign, 1974
#11 While Cleaning Up From The World Trade Centers Falling, Crews Found A Shipwreck 7ft Below The Foundation That Dated Back To 1773
#12 A Blind Muslim Named Muhammad Carrying His Best Friend A Paralyzed Christian Who Suffers From Dwarfism Named Samir, Damascus, Ottoman Syria, 1889
One of the main prompts was asking students to describe how their understanding of what history is changed during their studies.
A third of the students provided some form of “I now understand history is not just facts about names, dates, or a chronology of events.”
#13 Remember That Photo Of The Construction Workers Having Lunch On The Unfinished Empire State Building? Well Here's The Photographer Charles Ebbets Taking That Photo, 1932
#14 A Man Browsing For Books In Cincinnati's Cavernous Old Main Library. The Library Was Demolished In 1955
#15 George Mclaurin, The First Black Man To Be Admitted To The University Of Oklahoma In 1948, Was Forced To Sit In A Corner Away From His Classmates
The answers verified the idea that the interpretive nature of history is a crucial lesson that can be considered a threshold concept.
One student elaborated that they realized how much power historians actually have, i.e. the power to construct the past. History is dynamic and a point of debate as a lot of the unknown in it can be argued.
#16 A Father Looking For His Two Missing Sons That Went Missing During The Kosovo War In 1999
#17 A Starving Boy And A Missionary In Uganda, 1980. Mike Wells Took This Powerful Photograph Of A Catholic Missionary Holding The Hand Of A Starving Ugandan Boy
#18 Sharpshooter Annie Oakley Shooting Over Her Shoulder Using A Hand Mirror, Circa 1899
Another point to mention is that students didn’t see themselves as books full of facts and figures in history. It’s these same activities of interpreting and analyzing sources, conducting research, looking for influences and biases and challenging what has been read from a critical, multifaceted standpoint, that makes all the difference in the discipline.
#19 Cudjoe Kazoola Lewis: The Last Known Survivor Of The Atlantic Slave Trade Between Africa And North America. (Photo From The Early 1900s)
