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This article addresses an arts-integrated social studies curriculum for grades three through five entitled Artful Citizenship, designed by The Wolfsonian-Florida International University. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant program, the design and implementation of the program was done concurrently with a three-year evaluation of the curriculum's impact on visual literacy and critical-thinking skills conducted by Curva and Associates. The research was conducted in low-performing urban schools in Miami-Dade County and targeted students at risk for failing Florida's standardized achievement tests in reading and math.Artful Citizenship was created by a museum with a collection specializing in art and design—mass-produced objects that reveal how design reflects and shapes social, political, and technological change. Because of the collection's nature, the aim of Artful Citizenship was to use inquiry-based strategies that focused on t...

All photographers work today with historical perspective. Th ey know that the technology they use has an origin in the distant past. Th ey know photography has progressed and transformed over time, and they believe the current system of photography must be superior to that of the past. Th ey are sure they will witness further progress in photography. Th ese are the lessons of history understood by all, and none need inquire any further in order to photograph.

This edition of the Focal Encyclopedia of Photography has been written at a time when the industrial production of silver halide materials is rapidly declining as a result of digital photographic technologies and practices. At this same time, the movement to preserve the technology of handmade processes from the 19th century is becoming stronger. The greatest challenge for future photohistorians will not be the understanding of photographic processes of the 1800s but rather the photographic industry of the 20th century that is being dismantled at this time.

Whereas the observation of numerous light-sensitive substances and the formative evolution of the camera obscura predate 1800, the invention of photography, as we know it, was essentially a 19th-century phenomenon. Who actually invented photography has been disputed from the very beginning, though the task would have been easier had there been a universally accepted definition of photograph.

Joseph Nicephore Niepce has been credited with creating the first photograph, titled “View from the Window at Le Gras.” It was taken in 1826 in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. This picture, a heliograph on pewter, was made using a camera obscura. After an exposure of at least 8 hours, the camera obscura created a single, one-of-a-kind image. Reproduced here are three versions of that image. The first version was made at the Kodak Research Laboratory in Harrow, England. The rephotographing process produced a gelatin silver print in March 1952. The second version was created by Helmut Gernsheim and the Kodak Research Laboratory in Harrow, England. The second version, a gelatin silver print with applied watercolor reproduction was created March 20-21, 1952. It is interesting to note that Gernsheim, a well-know photographic collector, historian, and author had written several essays and consulted this encyclopedia's first edition before creating the print. The most recent version of Niepce's piece, produced in June 2002, was completed by the Harry Ransom Center and J. Paul Getty Museum.