Data visualization can serve as an incredible resource both for teaching about history and for researchers looking for historical trends. It is very hard to process long lists of numbers, such as those seen in census records or other sources of historic data. But once you see the numbers on a graph or chart, they start to make sense.
As a historian, seeing data in graph form can help shape questions for research. For instance, if you look at the population for a certain city and see that there is a drop one decade, or the start of a growth trend, that can raise questions about what caused these changes. Then the population data can be compared with other data sets that the census might give, such as number of people who moved from other locations, education level of the population, average household salary, numbers of people employed in certain professions, etc., to learn more about the historic happenings in that city.
Census data is the easiest to access for populations. However, depending on what you are studying, you can draw from all kinds of data sets. If you are studying Civil War history, it might be interesting to create data visualization of the number of combatants in each battle on each side, number of deaths on each side, and how those numbers changed over the course of the war. Or if you want to look at something like how building a new company headquarters or a transit system in a town impacts the population, you could create a data visualization of the census data from shortly before the event through the decades after. There are many ways in which data visualization can be useful.
My final project website has been published in draft form. It can be found at: https://sms244924.wixsite.com/cherokeecarvings. There is still a lot of work to do. On the artists list page, each of the artists' names will link to their own page on my site with information, photos of the objects, and signatures of the artist. I will also add additional information about the history of the art form. I also need to finish the "Sources" and "To Find Out More" sections on the "About" page. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. I welcome any feedback. Thank you!
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Digital Archives
For the Northern Virginia Digital History Archive, I chose to take photos of the town in which I live, Tysons, VA, because of the fast and remarkable changes that have been occurring in the town over the past few years and will be progressing into the future. With the rise of huge corporate headquarters and government contractors in the town, and then with the expansion of the Silver Line of the WMATA through the town, the town has completely changed over the past few decades.
The process for uploading the photos into the archives was easy. I had no difficulties, and the instructions were very clear.
One of my personal favorite online digital archives is the Find A Grave website (https://www.findagrave.com/). I use it frequently for my personal family history research and for searching for information on Native American artists and craftspeople for my job. It is extremely easy to search for a person, a location, or a specific cemetery. Each photo of a grave site or a person has attribution for who uploaded it. The range of cemeteries and people included is impressive. I have found very few weaknesses. Obviously the viewer cannot expect to have photos of every single grave site or cemetery, but I think anyone searching will be shocked at how often the website will actually have what they are looking for. The only drawback that I have encountered in using it for research is that the information people put on tombstones is not always correct and contradicts what can be found in official records. This is not something that the digital archive can be held accountable for, but it is something that researchers need to keep in mind. The same is true for obituaries and any other self-reported or family-reported sources.
My own final project is progressing. I have set up the basic layout of the website, taken photos of the objects for the exhibit, and conducted the research needed. Wix made it very easy to set up a professional-looking template that I am pleased with. I am mostly working out the best way to direct people through the pages of the website in a way that encourages them to access the background info first and then move into looking at the objects and artists that I've included.
The process for uploading the photos into the archives was easy. I had no difficulties, and the instructions were very clear.
One of my personal favorite online digital archives is the Find A Grave website (https://www.findagrave.com/). I use it frequently for my personal family history research and for searching for information on Native American artists and craftspeople for my job. It is extremely easy to search for a person, a location, or a specific cemetery. Each photo of a grave site or a person has attribution for who uploaded it. The range of cemeteries and people included is impressive. I have found very few weaknesses. Obviously the viewer cannot expect to have photos of every single grave site or cemetery, but I think anyone searching will be shocked at how often the website will actually have what they are looking for. The only drawback that I have encountered in using it for research is that the information people put on tombstones is not always correct and contradicts what can be found in official records. This is not something that the digital archive can be held accountable for, but it is something that researchers need to keep in mind. The same is true for obituaries and any other self-reported or family-reported sources.
My own final project is progressing. I have set up the basic layout of the website, taken photos of the objects for the exhibit, and conducted the research needed. Wix made it very easy to set up a professional-looking template that I am pleased with. I am mostly working out the best way to direct people through the pages of the website in a way that encourages them to access the background info first and then move into looking at the objects and artists that I've included.
Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Real or Not?
This week's focus on the dichotomy between real and not real with objects that have been digitized is interesting. I don't think the focus should be on whether one is better/worse, or if one is "real." Instead, like with most forms of technology, historians and museums need to figure out what the best uses of each type of medium are, and how to create "real" experiences for the viewers.
The recorded lecture for this week touched on some of the benefits of a student being able to hold a physical object. It creates a connection with the history. Holding a document that you know that George Washington held (http://catalog.mountvernon.org/digital/collection/p16829coll18/id/595), or even standing in front of it in an exhibit, is very different from reading a digitized version on a screen. This is part of the reason I chose museum work as my profession.
However, there are benefits to the digitized versions that the physical objects cannot match. The lecture said that seeing a huge painting in person is a different experience than seeing it on a small digital screen. But with that digitized image, the viewer can zoom in to see all of the tiny brush strokes (if the image is good enough). They wouldn't be able to get close enough to do this at a museum. I'd say that this brings you closer to being able to understand the workings of the artist than seeing the whole canvas does. Also, the digitized image can be placed side-by-side with any other digitized artwork to compare them, which a visitor obviously can't do in a museum. These experiences of the artwork are still "real," but different. Just like reading an e-book is still reading a book, but with a different type of experience.
On a side note, today so many things are "born digital" that this idea of real and not real becomes irrelevant. Photos, documents, emails - all are only in a digital form. The digital is the real in these cases. 3D printing is also changing this idea of the real and not real in very interesting ways, particularly in museums. But all that a philosophical matter for another day ...
The recorded lecture for this week touched on some of the benefits of a student being able to hold a physical object. It creates a connection with the history. Holding a document that you know that George Washington held (http://catalog.mountvernon.org/digital/collection/p16829coll18/id/595), or even standing in front of it in an exhibit, is very different from reading a digitized version on a screen. This is part of the reason I chose museum work as my profession.
However, there are benefits to the digitized versions that the physical objects cannot match. The lecture said that seeing a huge painting in person is a different experience than seeing it on a small digital screen. But with that digitized image, the viewer can zoom in to see all of the tiny brush strokes (if the image is good enough). They wouldn't be able to get close enough to do this at a museum. I'd say that this brings you closer to being able to understand the workings of the artist than seeing the whole canvas does. Also, the digitized image can be placed side-by-side with any other digitized artwork to compare them, which a visitor obviously can't do in a museum. These experiences of the artwork are still "real," but different. Just like reading an e-book is still reading a book, but with a different type of experience.
On a side note, today so many things are "born digital" that this idea of real and not real becomes irrelevant. Photos, documents, emails - all are only in a digital form. The digital is the real in these cases. 3D printing is also changing this idea of the real and not real in very interesting ways, particularly in museums. But all that a philosophical matter for another day ...
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Class Project Proposal and Informational Databases
As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, I plan for the final project of the Intro to Digital History course to be an online exhibit of woodcarvings from Eastern Band of Cherokee artists. I will be using my own collection of woodcarvings to create this exhibit. Currently I am planning to create a website for this project.
By using only the carvings in my collection, I am limited in the scope of my exhibit. This happens to museum curators when they are creating exhibits, as well. They are limited to the scope of the museum's collection unless they can pursue a loan from other institutions. With those loans they might not have the rights to use photos of the objects in an online exhibit, though.
For example, Amanda Crowe was the artist who popularized the Eastern Cherokee woodcarving tradition and taught almost all of the Eastern Cherokee artists who carved after her (or taught the people who taught them). Unfortunately I do not have any of her carvings in my collection because they are much too expensive. So, though I will speak about her work throughout the exhibit, I will not be able to include photos of her work. There are a few photos of her available in the public domain through the National Archives that I will probably use.
There has been very little scholarly literature written about these artists, and all of the carvers created their works within the past 50-70 years, so there is not much information in electronic databases that I will be using. Western Carolina University has created a wonderful website with information about Eastern Cherokee artists, and this will be my main source for information for the exhibits. It is called "Cherokee Traditions: From the Hands of Our Elders" (https://www.wcu.edu/library/DigitalCollections/CherokeeTraditions/People/Carvers_AmandaCrowe.html).
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Digital Materials
During my time working in museums and libraries, I have digitized many materials. I worked on book scanning at Widener Library at Harvard University. Due to copyright restrictions, there were many rules about how these scans were accessed, the number of users of the scans, the percentage of a book that could be scanned, etc. It was interesting to see how these copyright laws worked in the real world.
In museums I have taken photos of artwork and objects to be published online in web-base catalogs or online exhibits. Research both on the object itself and the museum's rights to the object are required to learn whether the museum can publish these photos online.
I plan for my final project to be an online exhibit of wood carvings made by members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. I own the carvings and will be using my own photos. I am excited to create a publicly accessible exhibit of these objects to share with the wider world. There are many sources online for digital images, including of similar wood carvings. But a web publisher (which includes all people creating web content) must consider copyright issues when sharing or posting digital images, both for ethical and legal reasons. By using my own photos, I can guarantee that the content is legally used.
In museums I have taken photos of artwork and objects to be published online in web-base catalogs or online exhibits. Research both on the object itself and the museum's rights to the object are required to learn whether the museum can publish these photos online.
I plan for my final project to be an online exhibit of wood carvings made by members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. I own the carvings and will be using my own photos. I am excited to create a publicly accessible exhibit of these objects to share with the wider world. There are many sources online for digital images, including of similar wood carvings. But a web publisher (which includes all people creating web content) must consider copyright issues when sharing or posting digital images, both for ethical and legal reasons. By using my own photos, I can guarantee that the content is legally used.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Copyright and Digital History
Copyright issues are a continually troubling matter for museums and archives when it comes to digitizing collections or giving permission to writers or researchers for use of images.
Many museums now require donors to give all rights to an object or document to the museum when they donate the object/document. However, this was seldom (if ever) done in the past. Museums and archives have entire collections of materials that they might want to digitize and make available to the public online, but they do not have the right to do so.
Most of the public does not realize that just because a museum has clear ownership of a photograph or a letter in their collection, that does not necessarily mean they have the right to publish it online. If that photograph or letter is not in the public domain, and the creator of the photograph/letter (or their estate) never gave the rights to it to the museum, it legally cannot be published online. As an interesting coincidence with the material in this class, I actually attended a training on this topic taught by archivists at the National Park Service just a few weeks ago.
Alternatively, because I work for a Federal agency, many of the archives and photographs that I work with are in the public domain or the rights belong to the agency for which the creator works. Any document, photograph, artwork, etc., created by a Federal employee as a part of their employment cannot be personally copyrighted by the creator.
Museums need to make the issues surrounding copyright law clearer on their websites. This can easily be done on the main page of their online databases and/or the search page for their database. Each object page within the online database could have a small-print warning about the use of images at the bottom of it, or at least a link to a page to contact the museum for permission to use an image.
Many museums now require donors to give all rights to an object or document to the museum when they donate the object/document. However, this was seldom (if ever) done in the past. Museums and archives have entire collections of materials that they might want to digitize and make available to the public online, but they do not have the right to do so.
Most of the public does not realize that just because a museum has clear ownership of a photograph or a letter in their collection, that does not necessarily mean they have the right to publish it online. If that photograph or letter is not in the public domain, and the creator of the photograph/letter (or their estate) never gave the rights to it to the museum, it legally cannot be published online. As an interesting coincidence with the material in this class, I actually attended a training on this topic taught by archivists at the National Park Service just a few weeks ago.
Alternatively, because I work for a Federal agency, many of the archives and photographs that I work with are in the public domain or the rights belong to the agency for which the creator works. Any document, photograph, artwork, etc., created by a Federal employee as a part of their employment cannot be personally copyrighted by the creator.
Museums need to make the issues surrounding copyright law clearer on their websites. This can easily be done on the main page of their online databases and/or the search page for their database. Each object page within the online database could have a small-print warning about the use of images at the bottom of it, or at least a link to a page to contact the museum for permission to use an image.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Websites and Web Presence
Website Design Tools
This week in class we are studying how you create websites and how they should be formatted. I have been in charge of updating and creating web pages for a couple of the nonprofit organizations in the past. For this work, I always used website builder programs that allow the user to design the website without any programming skills. For instance, the one that I used most recently was Wix. Wix is extremely easy to use with very little learning curve for beginners to the platform. They have beautiful templates (https://www.wix.com/website/templates) for the user to start from.Final Project Tool
For the final project for this class I plan to create an online exhibit. I have not yet decided what web tool I will use to create this exhibit. I have created online exhibits for my current job using Google Arts & Culture: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/bureau-of-indian-affairs. However, only partner museums can upload object photos to that platform to use in exhibits, so it is not an option for the project I am envisioning.The tool that I choose will decide the format of the exhibit (or vice-versa). Here are a few ideas that I have for the format, the tools that would work with them, and my thoughts about each.
- A slideshow format. This could be done extremely simply with a Google Slides presentation. Or it could be done in a more complicated way, but more reader-friendly and professional, by creating a website in which the reader clicks through a set series of pages. I would appreciate any suggestions of other web tools to use for this format.
- A scroll-down-the-page story format with large photos between short text paragraphs. This would be a simple way to present the information that could be done on just one web page. However, unless done very well, this might not be the best way to capture the viewer's attention to read all the way through the exhibit.
- A full website, like in this example final project provided by the professor: https://sharonea124.wixsite.com/historyknittogether. In the real digital history world, this would be a great way to allow the creator to go as in-depth as they'd like with the history, and for the viewer to do the same with the amount they read. The main page can be used to get the basic information across, and then further pages in the site can give more detailed information about different aspects of the topic.
- A Pinterest board. This seems like the version in which the creator has the least control of how the viewer will take in the information, and the most limiting in terms of the story the creator can tell and the amount of words provided. I will likely not use this one for my project, but it could be a good option for other exhibit projects. It would be especially useful for exhibits in which the most important part is the visual aspect, such as a photograph exhibit.
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