Objectives

Students identify different periods in history by comparing and contrasting two artworks representing the Otter Creek falls at Vergennes, Vermont, produced at different times for different purposes in different media. Students examine the significance of place and create a list of agents of change which have affected their local landscape.

Vermont State Standards

1.14 Listening: Critique; 2.1 Types of Questions; 4.5 Continuity and Change; 4.6 Understanding Place; 5.22 Artistic Process: Analysis; 6.1 Causes and Effects in Human Societies; 6.4 Historical Connections; 6.6 Being a Historian; 6.8 Movements and Settlements

Materials

• The Falls of Otter Creek, Lake Champlain, With a Sawmill, 1766 by Thomas Davies
• Print of Vergennes Falls, ca. 1871, L. Giles and Co., New York
• Excerpt from the History of Vergennes from A Vermont Quarterly Gazetteer, no. 1, Addison County edited by Abby Maria Hemenway [PDF]

Instructional Plan I. Listing Changes Over Time

To explore change over time, have students list five changes they've experienced since infancy. For example, the have learned to read, grown taller, gotten glasses, etc. Make a chart listing some of students' responses in chronological order.

Now apply the same strategy to place. What are some ways your neighborhood and/or community may have changed over time? For example, buildings are newly built, remodeled or torn down, trees fall or are cut down, houses are painted, fences built, new street signs are added, etc.

II. Responding to Artworks

Display the two artworks depicting Vergennes Falls in a highly visible place in the classroom. Calculate the number of years between the dates the two artworks were created. Ask students to consult the Timeline [Lesson Creating a Timeline] and describe what was happening in the Champlain Valley at the time each of the artworks were created. You may want students to take a "gallery walk" in the classroom taking them close enough to examine the artworks as well as the timeline.

Using the guiding questions below, lead a class discussion of the artworks. Allow students to observe, describe, extend and interpret. As you discuss the questions, create a Venn diagram noting similarities and differences between the two artworks. Similarities may include: the location and the placement of the falls at the center of the composition. Differences may include: landscape, mood or atmosphere, physical characteristics of the artworks and the artists' intentions.

• After observing the artworks, describe what you see. Distinguish between fact and opinion. (ex. Fact: Thomas Davies' painting shows a forested landscape. Opinion: The forest is dark and gloomy.)
• What message do the artists communicate in these artworks? For whom? Why do you think they chose to depict this scene?
• What story can you tell by looking at the artworks?
• What do you know about the artists by looking at their artworks?
• What would you add to the artwork to convey more information about the time and the place? (ex. Native Americans, French trappers' hut, and canoes could be added to the Thomas Davies painting.)
• List some of the visible changes occurred between the dates of the painting and the print. What were the agents of change?

III. Agents of Change

Read aloud parts of the History of Vergennes from the Vermont Historical Gazetteer. Which of the two artworks do the students identify with the place described? Why? The History of Vergennes includes references to many of the reasons for the changes in the landscape that took place after Thomas Davies painted it. Ask students to identify some of these agents of change and list them on the board. Examples: settlement by non-natives, industry, deforestation, agriculture, war.

Finally, bring students back to the present! If they are familiar with the falls at Vergennes, ask them what changes have taken place since the print was created in the early nineteenth century. Discuss how similar changes have taken place in your town. How might your town have looked different in 1766? In 1860? What agents of change that affected the falls at Vergennes have also affected your town?

Assessment

Assess the quality of the student critique of the paintings and discussion of agents of change. Collect and assess writing pieces to assess for completion, accuracy and depth of understanding.

Extensions

Write a letter to Thomas Davies from the future, explaining at least three important changes that have taken place since 1766. Be sure to tell him what you think of his painting.

Collect historic photographs or artworks depicting parts of your town. Students then create contemporary works of art depicting the same locations, noting the difference in years between the two depictions and some of the changes in the landscape that have occurred, and listing agents of change.

Or, students can create artworks depicting familiar places as they may appear in the future. Again, students note the changes between their depiction and the present reality, and list the agents of change.