History, civics, and art combine at Today’s Document
October 1, 2010
BY BILL FERRIS
Human history has long been documented in cartoon form. From the earliest cave paintings to today’s heavy-handed editorial cartoons, ink and paper (or cave walls) have recorded many of the watershed events in human history. Illustrator Jon White carries on this fine tradition at Today’s Document by making cartoons inspired by our country’s various historical happenings. White himself sums it up best:
“Our National Archives, here in Washington, DC, publishes a handy, educational RSS feed called “Today’s Document.” From those Documents, you’ll see me make drawings here. Some of them have cows.“
We’ve shown White’s work on Instructify before. His drawings provide the events some additional historical context, as well as quite a few laughs — see the above picture commemorating California’s statehood.
Today’s Document is an obvious choice for history and civics teachers, but art teachers could have some cross-curricular fun with these cartoons as well. Challenging students to create their own cartoon documenting a event would be a good way to engage them in history, whether that history is of the world, American, or local variety.
