Comprehension Aid: "Washday at Stooksbury Homestead"

Getting the Meaning:

• Look up the word "homestead" in a dictionary. What does it mean?
• Look at the photograph for several minutes. Make a list of at least ten things you see.
• Examine your list. Write "F" next to those that are facts, such as, "I see five people." Write "H" next to those that are hunches, such as, "These people are poor." (You can't really be sure they are poor.)

• The author tells us that this photograph "was often reprinted to demonstrate the primitive conditions of the people of the Norris Basin." Why do you think newspapers wanted Americans to believe the people were primitive?
• According to John Rice Irwin, how did local people feel about being portrayed this way?
• In other notes, John Rice Irwin says, "If it had been all spic and span and beautiful, well, it wouldn't have been interesting to anybody." What does he mean? Do you think it is true today?