Chapter Chronology

Quiz for Visualizing History: “A View of Urban Life”

Select the best answer for each question. Click the “submit” button for each question to turn in your work.

Question

1. Which of the following describes how this 1768 New York neighborhood is depicted in this painting?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is c. In contrast to urban areas in modern cities, this painting depicts a quiet, safe, and friendly street, where neighbors converse with each other and feel comfortable leaving their front doors open.
Incorrect. The answer is c. In contrast to urban areas in modern cities, this painting depicts a quiet, safe, and friendly street, where neighbors converse with each other and feel comfortable leaving their front doors open.

Question

2. What does the appearance and location of the church suggest about its role in this late-eighteenth-century neighborhood?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. The church building is simply designed and intermingled with neighborhood homes. Visually, only the church’s large size marks it as serving a different kind of function compared to the other structures in this scene. The combination of its simple appearance and convenient location suggests that going to church was a common, normal, and everyday part of life for the members of this neighborhood.
Incorrect. The answer is b. The church building is simply designed and intermingled with neighborhood homes. Visually, only the church’s large size marks it as serving a different kind of function compared to the other structures in this scene. The combination of its simple appearance and convenient location suggests that going to church was a common, normal, and everyday part of life for the members of this neighborhood.

Question

3. According to this essay, what typical feature of mid-eighteenth-century cities is missing from this painting?

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is d. Mid-eighteenth-century cities were dirty places, for their streets were filled with human waste, animal carcasses, horse manure, and trash. None of this filth is evident in Joseph B. Smith’s painting.
Incorrect. The answer is d. Mid-eighteenth-century cities were dirty places, for their streets were filled with human waste, animal carcasses, horse manure, and trash. None of this filth is evident in Joseph B. Smith’s painting.

Question

4. What does this painting suggest as one characteristic aspect of urban life that might have appealed to rural colonists in the mid-eighteenth century?

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B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is a. Nearly all the people depicted in this painting are engaged in casual conversation with fellow city-dwellers, as they stand in small groups on sidewalks and in the street. Such casual encounters would likely be absent from rural lives, where families might live far away from their neighbors. At a time when the majority of colonists lived in rural areas, such a feature of city life might have seemed appealing.
Incorrect. The answer is a. Nearly all the people depicted in this painting are engaged in casual conversation with fellow city-dwellers, as they stand in small groups on sidewalks and in the street. Such casual encounters would likely be absent from rural lives, where families might live far away from their neighbors. At a time when the majority of colonists lived in rural areas, such a feature of city life might have seemed appealing.

Question

5. This essay supports which of the following historical arguments about mid-eighteenth-century cities?

A.
B.
C.
D.
Correct. The answer is b. This essay illustrates how Joseph B. Smith’s painting of New York City “depicts an idealized and sanitized version of mid-eighteenth-century urban life” because it does not depict the common reality of filthy, smelly streets. This dirty reality suggests that cities in that period did not include adequate sanitation systems to manage the refuse caused by so many people living so close together.
Incorrect. The answer is b. This essay illustrates how Joseph B. Smith’s painting of New York City “depicts an idealized and sanitized version of mid-eighteenth-century urban life” because it does not depict the common reality of filthy, smelly streets. This dirty reality suggests that cities in that period did not include adequate sanitation systems to manage the refuse caused by so many people living so close together.