Eating beans, selling fireworks by the road, creating a family history—it is not only historical events that are important to us. Images of daily life give us ideas about what people are like, even when their lives are not being shaped by grand events. This tour is a selection of objects that are about, or created as a part of, everyday life.

Classroom Activities
Karl Bodmer's view of Bethlehem, PA is a scene from daily life in 1832. Have students study Bethlehem, PA today by searching for the city on the Internet or using other resources. If they were artists, what scene would they choose to show a typical day in Bethlehem today?

Have students create a storyboard (a series of quick sketches) of things that happen during a typical day in their life. Ask students to choose one sketch or segment of the storyboard that represents what they value most. Students might develop this sketch into a more formal work of art.

Poets and painters often notice things in life that other people ignore. Have students use Clarence Holbrook's Outside the Limits as a source for writing a poem about what they believe to be unique or interesting about this scene.

Have students create one-page plays that portray a scene in which they take on the role of a shopper at Richard Earlom's Fish Market. Have students take turns acting out one another's plays.

Often what we know about history comes not from amazing achievements or extraordinary events, but from things left behind by ordinary people. Have students examine the works of art in this theme as history detectives, using all the information in and about the works of art to reach conclusions about daily life at the time the work was made.

Have the class create a record of a day in the life of their school. Assign students to carry cameras and sketch pads at different points during the day. Students can create a larger work of art or an illustrated story from the information they gather.