Description: The Early Images of Latin America collection offers more than 1,800 photographs from the archives of Tulane University’s Latin American Library. The images document modernization in Latin America between the mid-19th century and 1910, addressing topics such as transportation, urbanization, industrialization, daily life, agriculture, and the environment. The collection allows users to explore changes in natural and urban landscapes, as well as their effects on society and the environment.
Teaching ideas: Students can begin by selecting two or three images from the collection and describing what they see in detail, identifying elements of modernization alongside the natural landscapes and agricultural practices that appear in the background or foreground. These historical photographs can then be compared with images of the same locations today, discussing what has changed and what has disappeared, and developing vocabulary for environmental and social transformation. A creative writing exercise can ask students to compose a letter from the perspective of a person living in Latin America between 1850 and 1910 describing their relationship with the environment and the changes unfolding around them. This is a natural context for practicing the imperfect tense to convey habitual life and the preterite to narrate specific events. Finally, a class discussion can weigh the benefits and challenges of the modernization processes documented in the collection, giving students the opportunity to practice comparative and superlative adjectives as they evaluate social and environmental impact across different regions and time periods.