In order for students to engage in a Gallery Walk, select 8-12 photographs of your choosing based on your room and class size and display them around the instructional space. As students view the images, have them individually record details they notice in each photograph as well as the tone or feeling evoked. 

As a whole class, share interpretations of tone and ask probing questions with the intended purpose of increasing student skills in analyzing primary sources. Suggested questions include:

• Sourcing:
  • Who do you think paid for these photographs to be taken?  Why?  
  • What do you think was the purpose of these photos?
• Close Reading:
  • What do you notice about the workers featured in these images? 
  • What sorts of work are these people doing?
•  Contextualizing:
  • Why might the Pullman Company have chosen dark-skinned Black men to do these jobs?
  • Why do you think many of the people in these pictures are smiling?
• Inquiry:
  • What questions can you create about the Pullman Porters and Maids? What do you wonder?
  • What theories do you have about the lives and work of Pullman Porters and Maids?  
  • How do you think they felt about their jobs? Why?