Many students struggle to discern the difference between climate and weather. Primary sources may help introduce different meteorological events to students while accessing their prior knowledge, and motivating their interest.

For example, the photograph featured here was taken following a devastating blizzard that swept through the mid-Atlantic region January 27–28, 1922. The storm brought 28 inches of snow to the nation’s capital—and remains the biggest Washington, DC, storm since official record keeping began in 1885. It became known as the Knickerbocker Storm after the Knickerbocker Theater, which had a flat roof that collapsed under the weight of snow. Dozens of people died in this third-most deadly building collapse in the United States. 

Show students the photograph and ask them to share what they see with a partner. Students may point out the car in the foreground, the buildings in the background. Next, ask students to think about what they believe is happening in this photograph. Students might make predictions about the time period based on the type of car, or they might have a discussion about why they think the car is covered in snow. Finally, prompt students to share what they wonder about the photograph: perhaps, when and where it took place, and how many inches of snow fell? 

Share information with students about the storm and the collapse of the theater. Encourage them to speculate about why the theater had been built with a flat roof, and to what extent they think weather or climate considerations played a role.  

The structural considerations of the building that was destroyed by this event provide important insight to the interdisciplinary overlap between engineering, climate, and weather. Challenge students to find other examples. Searching weather­-related terms, such as blizzard, tornado, or flood, on the Library of Congress website will yield a wide variety of sources that could motivate additional student research or student creativity. Sheet music for a song entitled simply “Blizzard” from the 1880s (available at https://www.loc.gov/item/sm1883.06720/) might even inspire a student performance!

Related Student Explorations

• Climate vs. weather
• Meteorology
• Blizzard
• Structural engineering

About the Source

The blizzard image featured in this article is from a glass-plate negative taken on January 28, 1922, in Washington, DC, and is available at: https://www.loc.gov/item/2016832019/. It is part of the National Photo Company Collection in the Prints and Photographs Collection of the Library of Congress (See: https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-photo-company/about-this-collection/). More than 35,000 other photographs are part of this online collection that documents virtually all aspects of Washington, D.C., life. During the administrations of Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, the National Photo Company supplied photographs of current news events in Washington, D.C., as a daily service to its subscribers. It also prepared sets of pictures on popular subjects and undertook special photographic assignments for local businesses and government agencies. The images date between ca. 1850 and 1945; the bulk of the images were created between 1909 and 1932. The Blizzard sheet music mentioned here is available online at: https://www.loc.gov/item/sm1883.06720/. It is part of the “Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, ca. 1870 to 1885” collection on the Library of Congress website that consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra (See: https://www.loc.gov/collections/american-sheet-music-1870-to-1885/about-this-collection/).

Lesley Anderson (landerson@loc.gov) is a 2021–22 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Library of Congress.