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Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
Critical Thinking

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Wayne Perry playing fiddle, Crowley, Louisiana.

[Detail] Wayne Perry playing fiddle, Crowley, Louisiana.

Southern Mosaic's variety of materials makes this collection an excellent resource for projects in which students can gain an exceptionally deep understanding of historical topics and issues and conduct thorough research. The collection also affords students the rare opportunity to learn to analyze and interpret songs based on their cultural and historical contexts.

Chronological Thinking: The Civil War

regional map

Map of Southern Region

Students can read the Special Presentation, "The 1939 Recording Expedition," or The 1939 Southern Recording Trip Report and view the collection's regional map to get a chronological sense of the Lomaxes' trip through the South. Printing the map from the collection or tracing the region from an atlas, students can plot and chronologically number the towns, cities, and counties mentioned in the reports, fieldnotes, and captions. Students can then plot the geographical locations from which some of their favorite songs and images originated, thereby fitting them into a chronological as well as geographical context.