This first week we talked about asking historical questions, using and analyzing primary sources, the Communist Party in America, and a lot of the cultural programs that were enacted during the Great Depression and the overall culture of the 1920’s. I’d really love to talk more about the impact the Red Scare had on the cultural attitudes of the twentieth century. Not just the political attitudes, although those are linked with culture.
This was actually a really cool exhibit for me to focus on for this post, as I consider myself to be queer. LGBT history is extremely important to me and there was one photo in the exhibit that really stood out to me. It was a photo of a camouflage army jacket with a pink triangle painted on the front and the back. During World War II gay men who were arrested and sent to concentration camps were identified by having pink triangles painted on their prison issued shirts. All of these photos are of pieces of clothing from very important events in LGBT history. There’s a jacket from The Gay Games in Sydney, a hat made for Team Los Angeles from the Gay Games in 2006, and the aforementioned jacket. The way this exhibit is set up is very interesting. It’s important to have exhibits like this available on the internet, it makes them more visible and more accessible to the general public. Anyone can see them anywhere- you don’t have to go to a museum to look at them. We can also see who the contributor was (if they were identified), what year it’s from, what collection it resides in, and the geographical location of either the item itself, or where the event it originated from was located. Part of scholarship is sharing your thoughts, your pieces, and your work, and creating a digital exhibit like this one provides easier access and a larger forum of discussion.
