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Analyze a Photograph of Children Playing Marbles in French Village, St. Thomas

In this activity, students will answer questions to help them analyze a photograph from 1941 of children playing marbles in French Village, St. Thomas. They will identify where French Village is located on St. Thomas and discuss how it got that name. Students will discuss the game of marbles and ask their family members whether they played the game.

Activity Type
Photograph
Historical Period:
US Virgin Islands
Keywords
St. Thomas

About

Games played with marbles have been around for a long time. Early marbles, made of rounded pebbles and clay, have been found in ancient sites in different areas of the world. Modern marbles, like those sold in stores today, are largely made of glass. In the Virgin Islands, games played with marbles were very popular from around the early 1900s until around the 1970s.

This photograph was taken in French village, St. Thomas - an area known today as Frenchtown, St. Thomas. It gained the name French village because many French people lived there. The French people were from St. Barthelemy, or St. Barths for short. It is a French island in the Caribbean. People from St. Barths began moving to St. Thomas starting around the 1830s, with larger waves of immigration around the 1870s. People from St. Barths continued to move to St. Thomas until around the 1960s. Descendants of the people from St. Barths still live in Frenchtown today, and also on the Northside of St. Thomas. Frenchtown is a seaside area, located just outside downtown Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

Primary Sources in this Activity

Item:
Photograph of boys playing marbles outside of a general store
Author / Artist:
Jack Delano
Date:
1941
Source:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
View Primary Source

Suggested Teaching Instructions

Load the photograph of the children playing marbles onto an interactive smart board and have students make observations together. If there is not a smart board, students can work in small groups at computers.

Also load the Analyze a Photograph worksheet on the smart board or on computers so that you can lead students through answering the questions on the worksheet.

Analyze the Primary Source

Using the questions from the Analyze a Photograph worksheet, lead students through a photograph analysis and discussion about the details they observe in the photograph. You may load the Analyze a Photograph worksheet on the smart board or on computers so that you can lead students through answering the questions, print the worksheet and distribute to your students, or adapt the questions from the worksheet to create your own. Primary Source Analysis Worksheets

The teacher can point out details in the photograph, like clothing, and the building in the background.

Class Discussion

After discussing the questions on the worksheet, the teacher can ask students:

Do you know how to play marbles?

Have students ever heard of French Village in St. Thomas? Do students know where it is? Do students know how that area of St. Thomas got the name French Village? What is the area called today? The teacher can share information from the About section as needed. The teacher can present a current map of St. Thomas and help students to locate Frenchtown on the map.

Project Ideas

The class can research marbles with the teacher’s help. What is the purpose of the game? The strategy? The skill? Having the biggest or the prettiest marble was a point of pride. Certain marbles had names like “the bluest eye”. Have students ask their parents and/or grandparents whether they played marbles? What were some of the marble games they played? Did their parents and grandparents have any prized marbles? Have students share what their parents and grandparents told them with the class the following day.

During a free time or recess, the teacher can show their students how to play marbles and interest them in the game.

Related Books & Resources

Title:
Games, songs and Toys of the Virgin Islands
Author:
Jeanne Mayo
Level:
Upper Elementary
Getting Started
Teach VI History has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: CARES Act Emergency Relief Grants for Humanities, through the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI). 
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