A couple of years ago, I wrote a post for the LOC Teacher Blog on the Hollerith machine and the U.S. Census. This past week, I was able to finally share these items with a group of teachers in an in-person PD sponsored by TPS Partner NCHE.

In particular, I found that sharing the image of a "Woman using a Hollerith pantographic card-punching machine" without providing the bibliographic record or any background information first prompted a LOT of noticings and wonderings. There was a genuine curiosity in the room about what the figure in the image was wearing, who she might be, what kind of tool she was using, and what the purpose of such a tool might be. 

We then took a look at the bibliographic record, and while that did provide a few initial answers to some of the questions we generated, it also generated MORE questions. You can follow the thread for how our analysis and planning for further investigations unfolded here in this Twitter thread.

I am including links to my slideshow as well as the item list, to which I've added a few items from the Smithsonian and USPTO to round out the collection from LOC. There's also a nice write-up of the Hollerith machine and the 1890 Census from the Census Bureau here.

• Slideshow
• Items (Hollerith machine, US census, A. G. Bell)
• Item List (Hollerith machine, US census)

I share this here because (1) the initial item seemed to really provoke a lot of interest amongst the teachers (who were quite confused about what a such device might have been for) and (2) the initial item combined with the U.S. Census Bureau secondary source and with another primary source, a letter from Alexander Graham Bell to Mabel Hubbard Bell about his efforts to design a punched card for an upcoming census at the turn of the century to better account for the numbers of Americans who were deaf and blind raises a whole series of questions that can be productive for further investigation. For instance, students might explore the more technical side of these devices from a computational thinking perspective. Further, students should be supported in asking questions about the purpose of the census for ensuring (or denying) political representation. This seems like a topic that is incredibly pertinent today. 

Science Social Studies/History Technology