This past semester, in this history class, I have attempted to learn about the history of the Great Depression era as well as some of the digital tools used to capture some of that historical knowledge. Coming in with a certain amount of knowledge for the early 1900’s, I expected most of this class to be learning about the IT aspect but there was plenty to learn about the era, like the WPA and New Deal, that I did not expect. I was, personally, pleasantly surprised by the amount of knowledge obtained from this course.
This exhibit felt like a culmination of all the tools we had learned throughout the semester. I chose the timeline and glitching tools initially because they were, for me, the most useful tools of conveying the information we learned this semester. The timeline was great for laying down background information on the Great Depression era by detailing the major events and including the progression of unemployment as well. It allowed me to take the information from the American Yawp chapter on the Great Depression and present it in a way that conveys the important events of the Great Depression. The chapter states multiple important events such as the stock market crash, the Dust Bowl, and FDR’s New Deal. 1 The glitched image was my favorite skill assignment this semester as it surprised me as to how influential it can be. It feels like an abstract painting where you can take away different meanings from it based on how you look at it. As Kramer said in the glitching images reading,’Glitching was an unlikely candidate for historical inquiry’. 2I used an old exhibit from earlier in the semester that I thought conveyed the attitude of the Great Depression as people worked to get back on their feet. The last exhibit for my project took more thought as I eventually chose to use a poster from the WPA collection. I thought the WPA collections hold so much information and images like posters that I could find something pertaining to employment. They have collections on ex-slave narratives and folklore as well as work related posters. 3 I chose a work poster that had a confidence boosting message to it because it felt like it conveyed the idea that finding new jobs was important for the times but that the morale of people and the country was important as well.
I learned plenty about the Federal Projects in the WPA through the various readings this semester. The preface from the Bindas reading offered the most information on the Federal Arts Projects. I was most surprised to learn how much money was actually allocated to these projects that I had not heard of before. FDR gave over 27 million dollars to these projects. 4
I’m a firm believer in ‘those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it’ so I believe history always has a significant place in the present day decisions. I think if we were to experience problems like those from the Great Depression then funding the arts’ projects could be a viable answer. Going forward, I am definitely more aware of myself as a digital citizen especially after the class with the fake pirate professor. I know what it takes to be a contributing part of the digital world and feel prepared to do so in the future.
Final Exhibit:
http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/finalarthursmith
- Chapters, All, and All Chapters. THE AMERICAN YAWP, 7 June 2013, http://www.americanyawp.com/text/23-the-great-depression/.
- Kramer, and Michael J. “Glitching History: Using Image Deformance to Rethink Agency and Authenticity in the 1960s American Folk Music Revival.” Current Research in Digital History, 1 Jan. 1970, http://crdh.rrchnm.org/essays/v01-08-glitching-history/.
- WPA Publications in the Library Collections : Amassing American “Stuff”: The Library of Congress and the Federal Arts Project of the 1930s : Articles and Essays : Federal Theatre Project, 1935 to 1939 : Digital Collections : Library of Congress. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-theatre-project-1935-to-1939/articles-and-essays/amassing-american-stuff/wpa-publications-in-the-library-collections/.
- Bindas, K. J. (1989). All of this music belongs to the nation: the Federal Music Project of the WPA and American cultural nationalism, 1935-1939. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI.
