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About My Books . . .Muckrakers
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· published 2007 (scheduled for release in September) |
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Political corruption, corporate greed, sickness and death from tainted foods—today's headlines may shock us, but in fact they echo the scandalous exposés of the past century. Then, as now, it was the news media—not government agencies, not lawyers, and not the police—who frequently brought the truth to light. |
It might surprise readers to learn how many tasks go into the making of a nonfiction children's book. Writing is just one of many steps in the process. Another one—and one of my favorites—is photo research. In most cases I'm responsible for finding the photos that illustrate my books. I love to search for rarely published images and other photographs that will add to the readers' appreciation of history. Even though more and more images may be found today using the Internet, I still visit archives in person, too. When I'm on site, I can view photos that have not yet been digitized or posted online. Plus there's something magical about spending hours with historical photos. I can't help but absorb details from the time period that enrich my connections to a topic.
One of the best archives to visit—either in person or on line—is the Prints and Photographs Reading Room at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. I found this collection particularly helpful while researching images for Muckrakers. In addition to working off-site through the library's website, I spent several days on site, too. I combed through file cabinets, explored the contents of archival boxes, and searched databases in my quest to find just the right illustrations for the book. I made similar searches at other archives, either online or in person. In the end I reviewed hundreds of potential images in order to find the 50-plus selections that appear in the book.
When I conduct photo research, I develop a list of search terms related to my topic. I've taken some of those search terms and created a series of searches you can conduct from your computer. If you follow these steps, you'll be retracing some of my own research steps for Muckrakers. A research note at the end of this section explains how to download images and warns about possible copyright protection.
SEARCH ONE—MUCKRAKING
Step one. Click here to access the search engine page of the Prints and Photographs Reading Room from the Library of Congress.
Step two. Enter the search term "muckrakers" in the "Searching ALL CATALOG RECORDS" data cell.
Step three. Click search. A summary screen of available records will appear. If you receive an error message stating that "No records were found for the search," double-check that you spelled "muckrakers" correctly.
Step four. Click the option to "preview images." Now you will be able to see small images—thumbnails—of these records.
Step five. Click on the title of a brief record (any blue text) to find out more information about an image. You may access these full records from the summary screen (text list) or the thumbnails (preview images). Even from the preview screen you may recognize thumbnail images that appear in Muckrakers. Would you like to see larger images? Read on.
SEARCH TWO—IDA M. TARBELL
Researchers using the Prints and Photographs database at on-site computers are able to view an enlargement of any image by clicking on the illustration—that convenience provides one more reason to visit the Library of Congress in person. Some images may be enlarged off site, too; look for images framed within blue borders. This next search will lead you to enlargeable images. (Note: Enlargeable images are available as downloads, too.)
Step one. Return to the Prints and Photographs search engine page.
Step two. Enter the search term "Ida M. Tarbell" in the "Searching ALL CATALOG RECORDS" data cell.
Step three. Click search. A summary screen of available records will appear. If you receive an error message stating that "No records were found for the search," double-check that you entered the name "Ida M. Tarbell" correctly.
Step four. Click the option to "preview images." You will see a number of thumbnail-sized portraits of Ida Tarbell, including images that appear in my book. Some of these images are framed by a blue border.
Step five. To enlarge these blue-bordered images, simply click once on the thumbnail photo. You'll find links to downloads above the enlarged image.
Step six. Use the back button to return to the brief records screen and look for more enlargeable images.
Step seven. As with our first search, you may click on the title of a brief record (any blue text) to reach the full background record for an image. In addition, the full record may be reached from an enlarged image by clicking on the boxed blue text "Bibliographic Information" at the top of the screen.
 Stuffing sausages, 1893. Note how many children are on the job. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-97455 |
SEARCH THREE—MEAT PACKING
When I searched for illustrations at the Library of Congress for Muckrakers, I had the most fun finding the images that illustrate chapter four of the book "Labor and Lamb Chops." Well, maybe not fun exactly because photos from a meatpacking slaughterhouse are never pleasant, but I enjoyed the challenge of tracking down the most evocative and stirring illustrations. I found a lot of photos of sausage making, and some of my favorites illustrate this section of my website. You may recognize at least one of them from my book. Would you like to see more? Follow the steps below.
Step one. Return to the Prints and Photographs search engine page.
Step two. Enter the two-word search term "meat packing" in the "Searching ALL CATALOG RECORDS" data cell.
Step three. Click search. So many records appear that several screens are required for their viewing. If you receive an error message stating that "No records were found for the search," double-check that you entered "meat packing" correctly (entering it as two words, not one, for example).
Step four. Click the option to "preview images." Although many of the records include online images, some only bear the designation of "group record." Many of these images have not been digitized; I had to visit the Library of Congress in person to view them.
SEARCH FOUR—STEREOSCOPIC SLIDES
I spent a lot of time at the Library of Congress looking at a type of picture called a stereoscopic slide. These images were popular a hundred or more years ago as a form of entertainment—before radio, movies, and television. The slides were thick pieces of cardboard printed with two parallel views of the same scene taken with a special camera. By using a customized viewing device, the images appear to merge into a single three-dimensional picture. A century ago, homes might have one viewing device and a stack of slides—everything from pictures of famous people to humorous scenes to landmarks to current events—even scenes of the Chicago meatpacking industry.
 Converting animal intestines into sausage skins, 1893, stereoscopic slide. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-96091 |
 Stuffing sausages, 1905, the year Upton Sinclair researched The Jungle. PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-50217 |
In the Classroom—photo research. Have students conduct research for photographs using the Prints and Photographs Reading Room. Students may identify a topic, develop a list of search terms, and explore the online database. Topics could be historical, thematic (e.g. billboard images), or genre-based (e.g. political cartoons). Discuss issues of photo ownership and copyright. Many images, particularly pre-1920, are in the public domain, but others are protected by copyright. Rights, when known, are included in the records for Library of Congress images. Any images available for off-site download are in the public domain. (A blue border surrounds these images.)
On the stage—author program. Follow this link to find out about an author program related to this book. The program is called "Muckraking! A How-to View of Investigative Journalism." General information about Author Visits is available, too.
Golden Kite Award
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Nonfiction Award Book
2008 Orbis Pictus Awards
National Council of Teachers of English
Honor Book
2008 Notable Children's Book
American Library Association
Choices 2008
Cooperative Children's Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Interactive museum of news
Reports of "the news that didn't make the news"
Stories that Changed America: Muckrakers of the 20th Century edited by Carl Jensen, Seven Stories Press, 2000.
The Muckrakers edited by Arthur Weinberg and Lila Weinberg, University of Illinois Press, 2001.