Begin by asking students to think about newspapers and magazines today: 

• Why do they have advertisements? 
• Why do they have photographs and other images? 

Students should recognize the importance of advertising revenue to newspapers’ ability to publish, as well as how photographs and images help readers visualize events or developments and provide a more appealing reading experience. Next, ask students:

• What can we learn about the past from studying newspaper advertisements?
• What can we learn about the past by studying photographs and images in historical newspapers?

Students should recognize that studying ads and images can help us better understand historical context. For example, studying ads can provide clues as to what consumers who read the newspaper might have been purchasing or aspiring to purchase at the time. Meanwhile, images can provide insights into fashions and trends, as well as reveal “snapshots” of everyday life from an era.

Tell students they are going to examine two issues of The Crisis, the publication of the NAACP, from 1915 and 1917. Share with students that the articles have been removed from the newspaper so that they can focus on analyzing the advertisements and images. Distribute Graphic Organizer—See, Think, Wonder to each student. In addition, distribute one of the following editions of The Crisis to each student: The Crisis, Vol. 11, No. 2. (December, 1915) or The Crisis. Vol. 14, No. 4. (August, 1917).

• Source Note: The Crisis is available in the public domain. These selections, which have been excerpted and edited to remove articles and any potentially inappropriate content, were accessed in their original at: The Modernist Journals Project (searchable database). Brown and Tulsa Universities, ongoing. www.modjourn.org.

Give students 15 minutes or so to explore the advertisements and images from their issue of The Crisis, instructing them to fill in their Graphic Organizer as they do so. You may wish to project the following questions on the board or screen at the front of the classroom to aid students as they fill in their Graphic Organizer:

• What can you learn from the advertisements? Why might readers of The Crisis be interested in the products/services advertised in the newspaper?
• Why do you think these specific photographs or images were used in The Crisis, the NAACP’s newspaper? What do you think they show to the reader?

Bring the class back together and lead a discussion in which students share some of what they saw, thought, and wondered. Ask students to reference specific ads and images as they share, and project them on the screen as they do so. Be sure to introduce and reinforce key visual analysis techniques as students discuss their selections. To conclude, have students write a short exit ticket or journal reflection answering the following question:

What did you learn about The Crisis, its readers, and the broader context of Black life in the United States in the 1910s by studying advertisements and images in the newspaper?