Lesson 8 Part 3--CAMIO

 

 

     I was anxious to check out CAMIO, but being not only a lucky mom, but also a lucky grandma, my extra time at school is limited, so here I am on a Saturday morning back at school to delve into CAMIO.   When I did a search for "Sioux", I found so many great artifacts of the Sioux Indians, from clothing to jewelry to pipes to artwork to costumes.  The information on these pieces was interesting and saddening at the same time.  Most of it was located nowhere near where it originated.  I realize that more of the population will be able to view it in a more populated area, but it would be nice if we held it here where the Sioux lived and still do live and where people who are seeing it could also view the environment in which it was created.  Nevertheless, CAMIO enables me to know where to go to see the real thing and to know what rights I  have as an educator to use these images of such very valuable primary sources.  It's the next best thing to being there (to steal a quote and to date myself)!  I don't teach South Dakota history, but I'll surely pass along this find to my colleague next door who does teach it.  Students (like myself) are often such visual learners, and these images can make a lasting impression.  To see the intricacies of these works will instill an appreciation for the talents and the culture of the Sioux.  I thought I that I might find some of the Oscar Howe paintings among these, but there weren't any (that I found, at least).  I guess they must all be held by non-participating institutions.  As the introduction said, it's a growing collection, so, hopefully, we'll be able to see those in the future.

 

     I did a search for Albert Bierstadt, as I have an old, old print of one of his Yosemite Valley paintings bought at an estate sale back in the 1970s.  I know of a couple other works of his just from teaching history all these years.  I was amazed when CAMIO brought up so many diverse paintings from Bierstadt.  I saved them to my favorites and used the compare tool to look at them side-by-side.  I thought how great this would be for an art teacher to show early and later works from the same artist to see how his or her work evolved over a lifetime.  It was nice to be able to zoom in and the option to save it as a webpage would allow a class to do this work outside of the classroom (like I am today!).  As a history teacher, I could use this tool to show changes in attitudes towards a group of  people over time or how and when clothing styles changed in history, for a couple of examples.  Regular use of CAMIO would bring to mind many, many uses in the history classroom, I've no doubt!