The lessons in this issue of Smithsonian in Your Classroom introduce the work of botanists and botanical illustrators, specifically their race to make records of endangered plant species around the world. “Very little of the world’s flora has been fully studied,” says one Smithsonian botanist, “and time is running out.” In the first lesson, students gets to know six endangered plants. They examine illustrations, photographs, and dried specimens of the plants as they consider this question: If a scientist can take a picture of a plant, are there advantages in having an illustration? They go on to consider some of the big questions that botanists themselves must ask: Which of these species are most in need of conservation efforts? Are any of these plants more worth saving than others?In the second lesson, the students try their own hands at botanical illustration, following the methods of a Smithsonian staff illustrator. All that is required for the lesson are pencils, markers, tracing paper, and access to a photocopier.

During World War II, a number of states passed legislation to combat salary inequities suffered by female workers. Many unions also adopted standards to insure that female employees received the same salaries as males who performed similar jobs. The Equal Pay Act of 1963, the first Federal legislation guaranteeing equal pay for equal work, prohibited firms engaged in interstate commerce from paying workers according to wage rates determined by sex. It did not, however, prevent companies from hiring only men for higher paying jobs. Despite the fact that Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 further prevented sex discrimination in employment, African-American women as a class remained "at the bottom of the economic totem pole" because of "their dual victimization by race and sex-based discrimination," in the words of Dr. Pauli Murray, whose testimony to Congress appears below. Dr. Murray, an African-American professor of American studies specializing in law and social change expressed concern that despite previous antidiscrimination legislation, "we are holding on very definitely to the patriarchal aspect of white America." Murray advocated the position that all antidiscrimination legislation should explicitly prohibit sex discrimination

A developing sense of working-class community paved the way for a string of boycotts in the mid-1880s. Boycotts were a way to win concessions from an employer by convincing other workers not to patronize his business. The movement peaked in 1886 with campaigns across the country; that year, there were 150 boycotts in New York State alone. This 1887 cartoon in the satirical weekly Life commented on the ubiquity of the boycott. "Whereas," reads one boy, representing a committee of disgruntled candy-cart customers, "we find we don't git red color enough in our strawberry cream, nor enough yaller in our wanilla, . . . to say nothin' o' the small measure of peanuts we gits for a cent; therefore, be it resolved . . . that all the stands in the city is boycotted until these things is righted."

This is a description sheet (with illustration) for the standard rapid cycling ideotype (RCI) or ideal form for the anthocyaninless, or non-purple stem phenotype. In the anthocyaninless line, a recessive gene blocks the expression of purple, red, or pink pigment, also selected for few or no hairs.Plants lack any purple anthocyanin pigment, anl, however the genetic background of the stock is for high expression of purple anthocyanin, Pan (7), a quantitative trait. None or very few hairs on any plant part, Hir(1), a quantitative trait. Most plants, >80%, are male fertile, MST2/- . A few are male sterile, mst2.

This is a description sheet (with illustration) for the standard rapid cycling ideotype (RCI) or ideal form for the purple stem phenotype. Traits include high expression of purple anthocyanin, Pan(8), throughout plant; particularly noticeable on the hypocotyl, stem, hydathodes and sepals. Anthocyanin expression is strongly enhanced by environmental factors, e.g. high light and nutrient stress. Intermediate and variable expression of hair on leaves and stems, Hir(3-6). Purple anthocyaninand hairiness exhibit quantitative inheritance.

The standard rapid cycling ideotype (RCI) or ideal form for the standard Brassica rapa phenotype. RCI phenotype is selected for uniformity in flowering time and plant form. Traits include: forty days seed to seed, 14 days sowing to flowering. Standard, RCI, is the common genetic background of most Rapid Cycling Brassica mutants.Published info:Williams, P.H. and C. Hill 1986. Rapid-Cycling Populations of Brassicas. Science 232, pp. 1385-89.

This is a description sheet (with illustration) for the standard rapid cycling ideotype (RCI) or ideal form for the yellow-green leaf phenotype. RCI phenotype is selected for uniformity in flowering time and plant form. Forty days seed to seed, 14 days sowing to flowering. Standard, RCI, is the common genetic background of most RBR mutants.Published info:Williams, P.H. and C. Hill 1986. Rapid-Cycling Populations of Brassicas. Science 232, pp. 1385-89.

Design and construction of breakwaters and closure dams in estuaries and rivers. Functional requirements, determination of boundary conditions, spatial and constructional design and construction aspects of breakwaters and dams consisting of rock, sand and caissons.

Alfred C. Kinsey published his pathbreaking research on sexual behavior in 1948 and 1953, reporting that premarital and extramarital sexual activity was not uncommon in American life. In fact, Kinsey argued, it had been part of a long-term shift beginning in the 1910s. Alarmed critics in the popular press attacked the study as a threat to the stability of the American family. In an era during which the family symbolized a retreat from Cold War and atomic age political and social tensions, some in the scientific community joined religious figures and cultural commentators in an ideological battle to strengthen the traditional domestic realm. In the following report in the popular magazine Collier's, a psychology professor characterized his research study as a follow-up to Kinsey that dealt with knowledge and attitudes about sex. Unlike Kinsey's work, however, this report explicitly served as a prescriptive guide--telling Americans how to avoid infidelity, escape divorce, and gain marital happiness through sex education. In attempting to change so-called "incorrect" attitudes, it presented as fact conclusions not warranted by the evidence offered-- that most men wanted wives who were not disinterested in sex but didn't and flaunt it either or that ultimately "the best sex is in marriage." In presenting these beliefs as facts, the report revealed ingrained cultural attitudes at odds with ideals of scientific objectivity. These values, however, conformed with efforts to use potentially disrupting sex research findings to strengthen the one socially approved channel for sexual behavior--marriage.

The American Railway Union's unsuccessful strike against the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894 left many workers without jobs. Not only did the company take on hundreds of new workers in place of the strikers, but total employment in the shops dropped. On August 17, 1894, the desperate and destitute strikers appealed to Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld. The sympathetic governor wrote George Pullman a total of three times, asking him to do something about the "great distress" among his former workers. Typically, Pullman blamed the workers for their problems, arguing that if they had not struck they would not be suffering. He rejected the solutions proposed by Altgeld. The strikers' appeal to Altgeld and the governor's three letters to Pullman are included here. The public was more sympathetic with the plight of the Pullman workers. Contributions of food eased the distress and many Pullman residents eventually moved to find work elsewhere.

Religious concepts and metaphors suffused the words and ideas of many late nineteenth-century American workers. The New and Old Testaments provided not only personal succor to many working people but also a set of allusions and parables they applied directly to their lives and struggles in industrial America. Working-class ideas and writing often were cast in stark millenarian terms, with prophesies of imminent doom predicted for capitalists who worshiped at Mammon's temple and imminent redemption for hard-working, long-suffering, and God-fearing laboring men and women. Christ was uniformly depicted in workers' writing as a poor workingman put on Earth to teach the simple principles of brotherhood and unionism. Trade unionist William D. Mahon chastised organized religion for ignoring its "true mission" to "establish the brotherhood of man" in this 1899 speech espousing a strong church role in helping the labor movement.

This 1954 statement, issued by a group of black educators, strongly endorses the Supreme Court's Brown ruling.

This sampling of newspaper editorials from the mid-1950s reflects the range of public opinion and responses to the Brown decision.

This 1954 statement from Tom Brady, a founder of the White Citizens' Council movement, expresses opposition to the Brown decision.

Zora Neale Hurston's 1955 letter to the editor expresses her belief that the Brown decision would prove detrimental to the educational interests of black students.

The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. (This inflationary measure would have increased the amount of money in circulation and aided cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.) After speeches on the subject by several U.S. Senators, Bryan rose to speak. The thirty-six-year-old former Congressman from Nebraska aspired to be the Democratic nominee for president, and he had been skillfully, but quietly, building support for himself among the delegates. His dramatic speaking style and rhetoric roused the crowd to a frenzy. The response, wrote one reporter, "came like one great burst of artillery." Men and women screamed and waved their hats and canes. "Some," wrote another reporter, "like demented things, divested themselves of their coats and flung them high in the air." The next day the convention nominated Bryan for President on the fifth ballot. The full text of William Jenning Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech appears below. The audio portion is an excerpt. [Note on the recording: In 1896 recording technology was in its infancy, and recording a political convention would have been impossible. But in the early 20th century, the fame of Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech led him to repeat it numerous times on the Chautauqua lecture circuit where he was an enormously popular speaker. In 1921 (25 years after the original speech), he recorded portions of the speech for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana. Although the recording does not capture the power and drama of the original address, it does allow us to hear Bryan delivering this famous speech.]

Professional psychiatry was only in its infancy at the end of the 19th century and many physicians disputed its scientific basis. In 1892, the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane was reorganzied as the American Medico-Pyschological Association. Four years later, psychiatrists--or alienists as they were then called--hurled their opinions into the political arena in a controversy over the sanity of Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was heartily disliked by many middle-class urban professionals, precisely the sort of people who became alienists. In this letter to the New York Times of September 27, 1896, a self-identified anonymous "Alienist" declared that Bryan was of a "mind not entirely sound." While it seems unlikely that this attack had much impact on the outcome of the election (the paper's readers were already unlikely to vote for Bryan), this would not be the last time that elites would seek to discredit radical opponents of the status quo by branding them "crazy."

In this activity created by EDC's Center for Children and Technology, students explore how the framing of a shot affects the meaning of an image.

In this activity developed by EDC's Center for Children and Technology, students explore the relationship between types of shots and storytelling.