Now, take a minute to write down how these two images are both similar and different.

Who are the people in these pictures?

Pocahontas

Original engraving from an artist who met her on a tour of England (primary)

Second was a painting based on the engraving (secondary)--most common image in textbooks

With your students, focus on how her image changed

The story gets stranger...

Suddenly she looks like a

movie actress -- even whiter,

shorter hat, brighter

image...but it gets worse.

APVA, Preservation Virginia website

Wow, what happened to Pocahontas?

Now she’s Barbie Doll!

Historians now call this the “Disney Effect”

Millions of school children think that this is what Pocahontas looked like and that the movie is simply a stylized version of the true story

By the way, who was her love interest in the film?

Hey now, even he cleaned up version of John Smith did not look like this

guy!

Pocohontas was only 10 years old when she met John Smith -- and her real husband was a farmer named John

Rolfe!

Teach your students to examine original artifacts and documents

Teach your students that history is an interpretation and not unquestioned truths

Teach them to question how history is portrayed in media

History versus Heritage: History is the disciplined inquiry of the past. Heritage is the celebration of the past -- “to spark faith, enhance identify, and create a sense of pleasure and joy in who we are.” (Lowenthal, 1998)

“Schools must recognize the impact of cultural experiences and out of classroom influences on the learning of history.” (Van Sledright, 2002)