Comparing Urban and Rural Life in the Early 1900s

Focusing on Details: Compare and Contrast

All documents and text associated with this activity are printed below, followed by a worksheet for student responses.

Introduction

Explore the following photographs of two different types of communities from roughly the same time. Examine and analyze the two photographs.

What do you notice first?
What do you see?
List the people, objects, and activities you see in each photograph.
Which is the urban image? How can you tell?
Which is the rural image? How can you tell?

Print Full Activity

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Worksheet

Comparing Urban and Rural Life in the Early 1900s

Focusing on Details: Compare and Contrast

Examine the documents included in this activity and write your response in the space provided.

Create a T-Chart and label one column “Urban” and the other column “Rural.” Record details that you observe in each image to create your own definition of the terms urban and rural.

Based on your analysis of the photographs:

What are the characteristics of urban communities?
What are the characteristics of rural communities?

Your Response

Activity Element

Lantern Slide of Hester Street, New York City

Activity Element

Hancock homestead. Settler from Benson, Minn. Little girl feeding chickens against background of house, buckboard wagon, and ridge of plateau, Sun River, Mont. By Lubken, June 23, 1910

Conclusion

Comparing Urban and Rural Life in the Early 1900s

Focusing on Details: Compare and Contrast

What do the two images tell us about life in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century?

Your Response

Document

Lantern Slide of Hester Street, New York City

ca. 1903

This primary source comes from the Records of the Public Housing Administration.

National Archives Identifier: 3854683

Full Citation: Photograph 196-GS-369; Lantern Slide of Hester Street, New York City; ca. 1903; Public Housing, 1895 - 1905; Records of the Public Housing Administration, ; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/hester-street-nyc, September 9, 2024]

Lantern Slide of Hester Street, New York City

Page 1

Document

Hancock homestead. Settler from Benson, Minn. Little girl feeding chickens against background of house, buckboard wagon, and ridge of plateau, Sun River, Mont. By Lubken, June 23, 1910

6/23/1910

This primary source comes from the Records of the Bureau of Reclamation.

National Archives Identifier: 531562

Full Citation: Hancock homestead. Settler from Benson, Minn. Little girl feeding chickens against background of house, buckboard wagon, and ridge of plateau, Sun River, Mont. By Lubken, June 23, 1910; 6/23/1910; Photographs of Irrigation Projects, 1896 - 1938; Records of the Bureau of Reclamation, ; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/hancock-homestead-sun-river-montana, September 9, 2024]