History At Our House

The Value of a Good Story (Part 1)

January 9th, 2008 by Mr. Powell

Welcome back!  In the words of one of my good friends, “2007 was heaven,  2008 will be great!”

I’m especially thrilled with the way the HistoryThroughArt program is progressing, and I’d like to share one of the themes we’ve been exploring as we examine some great visual art.

Before the Christmas break my students and I took at look a great historical painting called the “Childhood of Sir Walter Raleigh,” by a fantastic painter named Sir Edward Everett Millais.  This painting gave us a chance to better appreciate and enjoy the historical material we have been studying and, by expanding the repertoire of great imagery that we have analyzed, to also learn to appreciate a great work of art when we see it.

The Childhood of Walter Raleigh, by Sir Edward Everett Millais

In our history classes, we had studied the search for northern passages and the story of the early English efforts to colonize North America. The students were familiar with the ideas of Richard Hakluyt and the efforts of Raleigh and his half brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert.  Some had also studied the “Sea dogs” and the Reformation with me the year before, and thus had a more complete understanding of the historical context for the story as it unfolded.

But what had driven Raleigh to adopt the life of an adventurer and colonizer?  From where did he draw his inspiration?

To this question we found a possible answer provided by Millais.

In his painting one finds two young boys listening intently to a story being told by a man.  The boys are dressed in richly appointed outfits, but the man (a sailor) is barefoot, has shabby clothes, an earring, and a bushy mustache.  Their difference in station has no bearing, however.  The story he tells is thoroughly engrossing to the boys, as their expressions clearly show. 

The boy in the center is focused intently on the story teller.  His hands may be supporting his head, but there is no hint of fatigue or lack of interest. For his part though, the boy on the left–whom the students and I agreed was the likelier to be Raleigh–seems to experience more than the just the story; his look, which extends beyond the sailor in the picture, suggests a perception of or interest in something beyond the sailor’s story itself.

But what topic has the boys so engrossed?  The artist shows us by the clever insertion of delightful contextual details.

First of all, this story-telling event is depicted as taking place at the shore, which allows the sailor to point to the ocean–obviously related to his tall tale.  Also, a model sailing vessel rests on the sand in the foreground, evoking the idea of travel by sea.  In the right foreground one can detect the shape of a rusted anchor and the body of a tropical bird, which could only have made its way to this setting by the sailor having brought it back from America.

How exciting it must have been for young Englishmen to learn of the New World!  How captivating must the tales swashbuckling adventure been to young and eager minds!

And how thrilling it has been to help my students see history through art, and thus to help them immerse themselves more fully in the value of the story of the past!

(Next time: The value of a great story to an audience…and to the storyteller!)

Posted in American History, Art, Homeschooling, Pedagogy 1 Comment »

One Response to “The Value of a Good Story (Part 1)”

1. Discover the Greatness of Sir Edward Everett Millais! « Powell History Recommends wrote on 03/13/08 at 4:49 am :

   [...] more information about Millais, you can also take in a post I wrote about another one of his works, The Boyhood of Sir Walter Raleigh over at HistoryAtOurHouse.   This artist is fighting for a place in my top five favorite [...]

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