This is a crowdsourced album created by members of the Primary Sources in Elementary Education group in the TPS Teachers Network. It is a useful collection of Library of Congress photos of community helpers selected for use in PreK-2 classrooms.
Contributor Names: Parks, Gordon, 1912-2006, photographer
Created / Published: 1943 May.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Contributor Names: Johnson, Elmer, photographer
Created / Published: 1935 Apr.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
[Street types of New York City: Postman at letter box]
Summary: Photo shows "Junior Sea Breeze" a summer hospital for babies run by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, supported by John D. Rockefeller. The hospital was located at 64th Street and the East River, New York City. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2008 and the New York Times, August 9, 1909)
Contributor Names: Bain News Service, publisher
Created / Published: [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
[Occupational portrait of a blacksmith, three-quarter length, working on a horseshoe at an anvil, other tools to his side]
Created / Published: [between 1840 and 1860] Subject Headings: - Blacksmiths--1840-1860 Notes: - Photographer unidentified. - Hallmark: [two birds on a tree] 40. - Case: Rinhart 131. - Accompanying business card: H.F. Kirlin, Carpenter & Builder, No. 916 South Seventeenth St. below Christian, Philadelphia. Jobbing [hand] promptly attended to. Evans' Fast Press. - Purchase/exchange; Gary Vroegindewey; 1981; (DLC/PP-1981:380R.20). - Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress). Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA Digital Id: cph 3g04075 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g04075 cph 3d02052 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3d02052
[Snow removal; wagons with snow and men with shovels on snow covered street, Washington, D.C.]
Contributor Names: Harris & Ewing, photographer Created / Published: 1925 January. Subject Headings: - United States--District of Columbia--Washington (D.C.) - District Of Columbia--Washington (D.C.) Notes: - Title devised by Library staff. - Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955. - General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Digital Id: hec 44747 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hec.44747
Date Created/Published: [1920] Call Number: LC-F8- 9716 [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA Notes: Title from unverified data provided by the National Photo Company on the negatives or negative sleeves. Date from negatives in same range. Gift; Herbert A. French; 1947. This glass negative might show streaks and other blemishes resulting from a natural deterioration in the original coatings. Temp. note: Batch one.
'SUMMARYr The subject is the delivery of the U.S. mail in a rural area. The camera was positioned in full sight of a standard rural free delivery post box located in front of a well-kept house and garden. A small boy and girl walk past the camera position in front of the mail box. At that moment, a standard rural horse-drawn postal delivery wagon comes into sight. The postman places the mail in the box, and the wagon continues on its way.r r NOTESr Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company; 22Aug03; H34981.r Cameraman, A. E. Weed.r Filmed August 10, 1903 in Westminister, MD.r r SUBJECTSr Rural free delivery.r Postal service.r Actuality--Shorts.r r RELATED NAMESr Weed, A. E., camera.r American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.r Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)r r DIGITAL IDr awal 0865 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/awal.0865'
'SUMMARYr The subject is the movement of mail by the U.S. postal service. As the film begins, two types of mail boxes on a pole on the corner of a street can be seen. In the background, away from the camera position, are people going by on foot, as well as horse-drawn and electric streetcar transportation. At the end of the film, a man wearing the uniform of a mailman is seen approaching the mail boxes. He unlocks the boxes and removes the mail from both the small and large boxes.r r NOTESr Copyright: American Mutoscope & Biograph Company; 22Aug03; H34968.r Cameraman, A. E. Weed.r Filmed August 10, 1903 in Washington, D.C.r r SUBJECTSr Mail receiving and forwarding services.r Actuality--Shorts.r r RELATED NAMESr Weed, A. E., camera.r American Mutoscope and Biograph Company.r Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)r r DIGITAL IDr awal 0869 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/awal.0869'
Contributor Names: Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer Created / Published: 1939 Nov. Subject Headings: - United States--Mississippi--Holmes County--Mileston Plantation - Plantations--Mississippi Genre: Safety film negatives Notes: - Title and other information from caption card. - Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944. - More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi - Temp. note: usf34batch6 - Film copy on SIS roll 5, frame 2461. Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print Digital Id: fsa 8c10884 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8c10884
Rat-catcher at work
Teaching Notes
When talking with children about community helpers, it is important to honor the most menial of jobs, including that of a 1920's era rat catcher!
I would use this image as an observation exercise or bell ringer activity with no context or added information. How long will it take students to notice the rat?
What do our schools do to control outside invaders? My own library secretary once came to work on a Monday morning after someone in charge of a weekend event had left a garbage bag in her office to be disposed of once school was back in session. Beneath the bag, she discovered a baby rattlesnake!
Date Created/Published: [ca. 1920] Summary: Interior view of building showing a man with a rat on the end of a short stick. Call Number: LOT 10833 [P&P] Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA Notes: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Subjects: Ratcatchers--New York (State)--New York--1910-1930. Ratcatching--New York (State)--New York--1910-1930.
KidCitizen Community Helpers Episode
Teaching Notes
Download the complete Teacher's Guide and play this KidCitizen episode with your young students! The guide includes lots of outstanding Library of Congress primary sources of community helpers, superb background information, standards, and suggestions for activities in science, visual literacy, history, and critical thinking. It's also available in Spanish!
The importance of community helpers is a building block of civics understanding. In this episode, children investigate who community helpers are, and how they have changed over time through exploration of a rich photograph (from the Library of Congress) of a man delivering ice to a schoolhouse in 1899.
Children explore the photograph by revealing it in sections, observing the details they find (See), and working with in-game character Ella to figure out what jobs the helpers are doing. Children collect elements of the photograph to their journal, and use what they have collected to help them decide what the jobs are (Think), and then to connect those jobs with community helpers today (Wonder).
Lee Ann Potter
in her Teaching with the Library of Congress blog post, "Barber Shops, Primary Sources, and Our Need to Connect." 
