Author: Lillian Poole

Legacies of a Depressed Generation

What is a Legacy? A legacy is the imprint of what once was.

A Legacy is the positive impact change has on the future.

For My Project I chose to do a case study of Prince William Forest Park, and its narrative and it’s place within the 1930’s. Through the lens of a place-based narrative the cultural changes and cultural limitations are given a name and a face.  With Place Based Narratives the effects of prejudice and change are shown as widespread and viable.

To tell this story I chose to use a map, a timeline, image annotation, and my original Place Based Narrative. I chose to use the Map because spatial awareness brings into picture the limits of people. Raw data is not enough to demonstrate the effects. I used a timeline because timelines put the narrative into real time perspective. It particularly highlighted how abrupt the economic collapse was, and it how long the pollution of the pyrite mine sight lasted. I chose the image annotation because as the viewer is reading through the American Guide Series page, I can narrate the historical importance of the page. It allows for the historian to draw average viewers into a historical source using historical thought. I used my original Place Based Narrative because this Park is also a personal community memory for me. There is no better way to show how important a place is than with a personal experience. All of these digital resources transform the data into easily consumable information, and makes it viable for widespread understanding. History is to be lived, and these tools allow for average people, who are not historians, to live history. These tools add to the historical method through drawing people into the history itself.

I did not know much about the 1930’s when we started. Sure, I knew general information on FDR and the Federal One Project, but all I knew was vague. I knew about the destitute culture from the Grapes of Wrath. I knew of the Federal Theatre Project and its Communist ties through a Theatre Class, but I did not understand the depth of the issues that the Federal One Projects took on. The Federal Writers Project sought to create the American Guide Series that increased employment for writers1 through collaboration with local and federal perspectives created a positive tourist resource.2 The themes of mobility and value of movement within the 1930s highlights the hopes of the people. It may not be so great where they were, but maybe on the other side of the country they have work. 3 Then underlying all these social issues the Long Civil Rights Movement is trudging through the depression, and African-Americans are treated worse than ever. The case of the Scottsboro boys breaks my heart. The lack of critical consideration and disregard for human life astounds me.4

People today take history for granted, but people particularly take the 1930’s developments for granted. The 30’s was a hard time For African-Americans, but the strides taken by many during that time set up the change to come in the 1960s. The Federal One Projects have a direct impact on our everyday life in the 21st century, and my projects scope gives life to that change. Every project the Cultural New Deal took upon themselves had a return investment, and continues to have a return investment. The Recreation District Areas, RDA’s, are now National Parks, and these are considered a national treasure. The foundation the Cultural New Deal laid began a much of the American image we hold onto today. Every culture has its roots in history.

Now with what I know about History, and how people can use their time to change and build communities; I know to question everything, even the things no one else has the guts to question. Algorithms, Aka opinionated math, has whittled its way into the minds of people as “TRUTH.” People are consistently being disadvantaged because of unfair algorithms, but people have done little to rewrite them.5 This course has shown me how to remain confident in the face of digital ethical discussions.

But most of all, I know to hope for the future, because when a depressed generation bands together they can leave a Legacy of a beautiful future.

Music and the Depression

Music connects cultures. Music builds emotion. Music creates beauty.

It is only obvious that the Cultural New Deal would use music to grow a national identity and urge depression relief. Unlike other projects the Music Project was well received, and while it was in operation received very little opposition. But not long after the Federal Music Project became wide spread in it’s influence some of it’s popularity was torn out of History. How could something so widely accepted as AMERICAN be just as quickly torn out of societal norms?

Unlike the controversial disbandment of the Federal Theatre Project the Cultural New Deal created the Federal Music Project. This project focused on education and national identity. Through the efforts of this project the glorious world of American Music was discovered. Folk music became distinctly American, and people found the new trend highly agreeable. the Federal Theatre Project did not present to the people a viable reason for it’s funding and distribution. It had educational programs and catered to a wide American audience.

The most widely accepted piece to come out of the Federal Music Project, accepted by the Republican Party, The Democrats, and even the Communist Party  was the Ballad for Americans. 1

This incredibly unique piece gave America an image of their reviving country to grasp onto. Written by a gay man and sung by a black man it’s surprising that it was so widely accepted in an age when the people who created it weren’t accepted. The project included other pieces that built a more regional perception of American and cultural identity. The same broadcast that presented The Ballad for Americans presented an exotic image of Hawaii through The Hawaiian Pursuit of Happiness. 2

This music presents a picturesque image of America, and appeals to all who have fallen prey to the Great Depression. Several years later that all changes. Once anti-Communist sentiments settled in The Ballad for Americans legacy, and it was torn from the music books. The songs of the Federal Music Project, whether regional or wide spread, have the people of the 30’s a means form of art all could grab onto as their own, but the 30’s had to end some time. These overarching themes of a need for an identity shows the 30’s was a time of great rebuilding, and the Federal One Projects used all they had to rebuild the culture.

The Sunflower State

The Sunflower State’s first Tour!

The Sunflower state of Kansas is an incredibly rural State set in the Mid-west. I chose this particular State because it seemed like one of the more obscure states that people wouldn’t investigate for social issues. However, just because it’s lower on the totem pole of popularity in tourism doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be examined. Whoever wants to travel there should be able to.

The first tour of Kansas focuses on the most northern cities and towns. They are all close to the border from one side to the next. All these towns are incredibly small and rural, but in the great depression– racial segregation still managed to impact these lesser known areas.

The Tour I mapped was on the top portion of Kansas, but the Green Book shows us that due to segregation someone traveling couldn’t even go on this tour. They would have to to drive all the way to Colorado just to find somewhere to sleep. Due to racial segregation Kansas’ tourism is greatly limited to who it can cater to. They could even travel to the North if they wanted to. They wouldn’t even be able to share the same experiences because racial segregation completely bars them from entering the northern part of Kansas. There is no comparison, because there is no shared experience.

The simple fact that the northern part of Kansas doesn’t have a place for African-Americans shows us through mapping history many things about that area. It is unlikely that there was a prominent African-American population. Even today there’s very little population in those areas, but there is still racial issues. It also tells us that we really haven’t changed enough. The geographical lines of the past are still evident today.

The Primary source of the American Guide Series and the Green Book shows just how small the world was for African-Americans in the Great Depression. How could the project hope to encourage tourism if only a portion of the population could comfortably travel? How could a world in economics disarray not see the full extent of their societal issues? Every generation has its paradoxes, and studying sources like this illuminates how in the future we can avoid these issues.

The Archives

Oh say can you see the funding for Archives dropping like flies.

Archives and thier place in the continuation of historical memory are incredibly prominent, but my biggest takeaway from our trip to the GMU archives is that thier funding is not nearly what it needs to be. So today I’m breaking out my soap box and giving y’all a speech as to why Archives are important.

Archives are important because of their valuable resource to scholars. Whether it is online via digital records or in person via physical records archives provide something that other resources can not maintain, consistency.

Whether the object in question is a puppet or a pamphlet their main goal is to ensure that that piece is kept in it’s exact state when first in thier possession. Unlike other resources the archive is set to maintain everything, whether bought or donated, it receives. For scholars this allows for a confident and necessary physical record. Rather than just having secondary sources talking about something scholars can take a critical re-evaluation of things through the primary sources. Then digitized archive give them a similar means of looking at primary sources. The general public likewise can utilize this resource to satisfy their curiosity.

However the other side of the story is the tediousness of digital archives.

With digital archiving their’s a certain process of deciding what is digitized, and how it’s digitized. Do they digitized objects other than documents? Which of the documents and objects do they document? The answers to these questions are totally up to the archivist and the technology they have at their disposal. To digitization a 3D object they might just take a picture as it’s digital fingerprint, but then you lose the necessary elements such as touch and spacial comparison out of the picture.

Via the Archive the Federal Theater Project becomes clearer. Their plays, costumes, and puppets are kept alive through the Archive’s efforts. From the beginning they were criticized for their messages, criticized for their goals, and policed with bureaucracy. But I, a scholar, could see the costumes, feel the puppets, and enjoy the pamphlets through historical memory. By the Archives the Federal Theater Project’s efforts are not lost into oblivion.

Look to the Margins

In the FWP’s records how does the involvement and voice of African-American Women vary through singular vs. familial accounts?

Do African-American Women fall into the abyss of words and accounts as the corpus of FWP focuses on other voices?

I selected my sources by submitting myself to the mercy of the Library of Congress digital algorithms. After I used the African-American filter to ensure I was in the right place I picked the first 5 women’s accounts and the first 5 family/couples accounts. I did this because someone wanting to see the basic African-American women’s account would see these documents. So I purposefully did not use severe discretion with my options.

The Voyant tools were incredibly useful in thier scope in their use of distant reading. Uploading the corpus was easy and efficient. Of all the tools the “Distinct Word” and “Vocabulary Density” feature stood out the most. Voyant alligns the documents in terms of most which ones have the most dense vocabulary vs. the least dense vocabulary. The women’s and Familial accounts both have pretty evenly dense vocabulary, and the same ratio is in the document length.

These comparisons show that with this document sample can truly only tease certain questions. However, those questions it teases are lost within the confines of an overflow of text in the broad corpus.

My question is about the voices of African-American Women, and there is no way to that within the confines of this overwhelming amount of documents that the voice of a Minority can be heard. If I am to properly seek an answer to my question my 10 documents need to be the topic of study.

Everyone during the great depression was concerned about work. That concern is reflected in the common word in all data clumps of the word “work.” However, One particular feature that stands out among the comparison are the dialect words.

In the African-American women’s accounts dialect words are a huge component of the culture. One story in particular, [I Got a Record], records not only what she says but how she says it. Dialect history is as much as necessary part of history as any.

In the main corpus many of the dialect words are not present, and thus erases an element of the story. Their culture is lost in a see of words. Their stories are just so unique and different that it does not “fit” with the rest of storylines. For history to be told properly it needs to be organized according to catagory. Rather than an overarching narative filling the space a need for categorized and harmonious naratives are needed. Every topic must have a consideration of race and gender because it changes the perameters.

Historical questions are only as good as the tactics we use. If we wish to look at the broad picture of the entire corpus, then we see the main concerns of the entirety of the people. But with this decision lose certain aspects of it within the quantity of words. Distent reading is good for answering questions of generality, but close reading is necessary to understand the specific categorical naratives.

To Re-code

How does the National Gallery of Art represent America? How can the National Gallery of Art further redefine itself to attract America in the future? These questions pose a universal issue of representation and identity of a Nation. Because of that the Datathon, named “Coding Our Collection”, highlighted something that many don’t think of, the issue of representation.

The whole premise behind the Datathon of evaluating and quantifying representation while rethinking why artwork is picked reminded me of the time we met with the head history library. He talked about the questions that go into researching, and how we need to ask why the collector brought together these particular pieces. Then, we discussed how those questions can further our ideas of our own questions we were exploring. History in the digital age is changing as new questions are being asked.

To evaluate the galleries techniques and contributors is to ensure the future of the Gallery. Everything changes.

The first segment talked about the representation of women artists within the national gallery as their work being put on display. The representation is way below that of men, and even if their gallery were to show an  exhibit totally by women the representation would still be significantly below men’s representation.

Another segment talked about women’s contribution in the donation spectrum of the National Gallery. A late 40’s percentage of donors were women. Even though female artists weren’t nearly as represented, a significant number of women did have a say in the collections of the Gallery. Names of artists are something that’s well known in comparison to the benefactors. Benefactors are just as important as Artists. Artists create, but without someone to acknowledge that beauty it is insignificant. 

Each of these presentations offers a new take on how the National Gallery is to change and grow, and representation is something that a Nation needs to feel whole.

The Life of Aunt Harriet

Aunt Harriet Smith, a soft gentle woman in Hampstead Texas, lived the life of a Texan Slave until she was 13.

Through the life of Aunt Harriet Smith facts of the lives of slaves are sparse and interspersed. Even though they had a hard life Harriet’s story reveals they had many religious traditions. The interviewer mainly focuses on the white people in her life. They asked about how the white people treated her, and if they beat her. Of course she said they didn’t, but her memories were distant. She had difficulty remembering some of the people she married or knew. Aunt Harriet also repeated herself many times. This indicates she may have dementia or another issue that comes with age. Even with the memory issues I was surprised she never went into detail about her parents or family life.

The most surprising moment was when Aunt Harriet’s first husband  and his brother were murdered by a poor white man. Their murder did not surprise me, but the fact that she nursed this particular man as a child. That detail of close relation really twisted my stomach. Another moment that really highlighted the dangerous lives in her lifetime was the story of a young woman. She worker in a molasses mill, and she had her arm torn off while working. It’s details and small tidbits like that that show just how terrifying their lives could be.

This interview is incredibly useful in the sphere of understanding how Texan slaves grew after they were freed. They harbored a community/colony that was sold to them by a man named Reilly. It is, however, limited because the interviewer obviously was more interested in the white folk around her than he was in her story. He steered the conversation rather than expanding on the already existing storyline she was going with he kept redirecting her train of thought.

This interview definitely reinforced my pre existing knowledge of oral history. From readings in contemporary oral history I already knew oral history as a primary source needed important questions to be viable. The interviewer is just as responsible for the information as the interviewee is. Both sides must have a strong understanding of the topic at hand. 

From this interview you can hear the soft gentle personality of Aunt Harriet, and these personality traits wouldn’t be apparent in a written format. Transcription can also lose certain dialectic history. Rather than write in her dialect just transcribers type in the full words. This makes it easy to read, but erases a part of minority history. 

This interview shows that the FWP was concerned with the history of slavery, but the motive behind that concern is a bit hazy. The questions can be misleading and focused on her white folk rather than her. History is about proper questions. Some questions purge the very heart of societal issues, but some ignore it.

Stuck

The Modern Era is a living testament to the history of the 1930’s. The Long Civil Rights Movement and the impact of feminism from the 1930’s remain prevalent to social and political movements of today. The Long Civil Rights Movement set the stage for Martin Luther King Jr.’s walk, and emphasized the importance of the set up. There are decades of set up before there is actual change within a society. Then to the modern Era those changes continue to develop and grow into movements like the Me Too movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. However, these movements and changes in society and political policy can be severely hindered by technological algorithms.

Algorithms essentially create a pattern of habit and keep people in it. An Algorithm is “Opinionated math”. This habitual box keeps the system from growing and changing with the needs of the times. On top of that people are not allowed to know how the Algorithms work. If Algorithms from the 1930’s were used in the same way they’re used today in systems then the definition of rights would have never changed for the better. There is no room for growth in a closed system.

There is no room for change unless there is revision of the algorithms.

Civil Rights and Feminism were a critique of the behavioral “algorithms” of the 1930’s, and if people treated behavior in the same way people treat technological algorithms of today there would have been no change. We take our history for granted and don’t take notes.

But there is a call for the reevaluation of how and why algorithms are written and administered. People treat algorithms as TRUTH rather than what they really are, “Opinionated Math”. Math and technology is only as good as the people behind it. In the same sense they are fighting for the value of equal treatment and American values of freedom. They’re fighting in very different ways but for the same ideas. Different times same issues. Algorithmic Criticism is fighting for substantial growth, Today we are taking our knowledge of humanity and showing people the human behind the mask of math and Technology. Algorithmic Criticism reintroduces the humanities into the sphere of technology. I believe part of the reason we have had such an issue with the revision of Algorithms is due to deification of math and Technology and the disregard for the place of humanities within the system.

Fast Fame

Dickstein was half right. As the culture reacted to the collapse by creating an instigation of fast fame it didn’t just have a phenomenon in escapism. Escapism in the scope of coveted money and fame aspirations is centered on the pop-culture phenomenon. The Kardashians are a huge part of “The current recession has speeded up changes in American life that were long in motion.” 1There popularity has only grown, even with controversial family issues and political ties their names and money grow. They illicit the idea of who everyone wants to be, beautiful and wealthy. 2 Everyone wants to be paid to have no talent, but in a reaction against this coveted ideal there’s another side of how fast fame creates celebrities. 

Greta Thunberg, the famed young girl against climate change, became a household name in a short amount of time. One day she was only known by a small number of people, then the next she’s giving speeches at the UN climate change summit. This social trend is both dependent and beyond the fast fame phenomenon. Without the internet and the idea of overnight fame Greta would not be famous and influential in politics, but she has become famous for an incredibly different reason than the Kardashians. The pop culture fast fame phenomenon has gone beyond skin deep fame. Ideas, political fervor, and activism can now give a famed name to a person. 

Dickstein has a point when he addresses the modern phenomenon of fast fame, but politics and activism are so deeply ingrained in American culture that fast fame is now more than it used to be. It has transformed. People now see that fame is a platform for change, and use that platform for their political beliefs.3  Even the Kardashians have used their platforms to advocate for the release of unjustly incarcerated people. There is still a remnant of what fast fame was, but in the modern age is becoming more political and belief driven.

Dick Tracy and the Glitch

Omeka Link: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/tracy-and-the-glitch/tracy

I chose this image for several reasons. The first being that comics and visual storytellers have had a profound and forward effect on western culture since the 1930’s. Comics truly have become integral to almost every form of pop culture. The 1930’s was many things, poor, hard, and adverse. the times seemed like bleak days were ahead, but underneath all the chaos a theme of movement perpetuated the chaos of the times.1 Of all the storytelling techniques comics are the most movement based and movement invigorated. Comics take this subtle theme of the times and brings it into the lower art world. This particular comic was published at the end of The New Deal.2  There is no reason to read a comic if there’s no movement. This particular comic Dick Tracy was about a detective by that name, and inside this bit of the story elements of social norms are clearly seen. The lady in the expensive fur coat is seen calling people fools even though there is little back story to her character there is a set of assumptions to her character. This comic was aimed at the popular audience, and that means appealing to popular stereotypes. Then as it turns out she is in fact the shooter in a guise to take advantage of stereotypes to get away from the detective. 

From the glitching process we are able to think more critically about the role of movement and sacrifice in the minds of historians. The glitching erased the unnecessary ad, but also interrupted the movement of the story. The movement paced itself at a high level, giving the reader a sense of true adventure and excitement. But the glitch removed the true experience from that. Then the glitch also erased the name of the comic. What we cut out of history may take what we need with it.

Sometimes when we study history we ignore certain things, like an ad. But whether or not we see it, analyze it, or incorporate it doesn’t determine whether its necessary to the project or not. When we consider history we must consider all of history, the good, the bad, the ugly. We cannot pick and chose, because what we cut out of history may take what we need with it. I found the glitching process interesting, because I only saw what I wanted to see. I wanted to be done with the interrupting ad, but how I value this change is totally dependent on me. Someone might look at it and say that the glitch is ridding the historian of an incredibly important bit of information, like the introduction of an ad. However, because I’m looking at it from a value of movement perspective I get annoyed at the ad for interrupting the flow. Glitching is important in the perspective of a visual aid in the story of history, but dangerous in the perspective of historical analysis. 3

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