After our first two classes of The Digital Past and the introduction to the New Deal, I have already learned quite a bit. Everyone in the class has a different perspective on what we discussed, whether it is having a grandparent who lived during the Great Depression or only ever learning about it from a text book. Using many different online tools that I had never heard of will be challenging, however, I am curious to see how we can build a bridge between our digital age and our past, using these tools. I have only ever learned about the 1930’s from textbooks and lectures. It will be very interesting to see how we are still learning lessons from America’s past through technology that didn’t exist then.
I was assigned Digital Humanities project number 25, America’s Public Bible: Biblical Quotations in U.S. Newspapers created by Lincoln Mullen. The basis of this online resource is to explore the history of the Bible in American newspapers and to discover the trends of the quoted verses. This site also looks to explore the relation of these quotes to what was happening at the time of their use. This resource looks at the different interpretations of the quoted verses as well. “[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26) This was quoted at the time when people began to speak out against slavery. This quote was the “crucial text with which American Christians thought about race and slavery, especially since it was a proof text for the unity of human beings regardless of race.” (Mullen, America’s Public Bible) This is just one example of the thousands of quotes found in American Newspapers.
When looking at the trends of the number of quotes used, one can see that the number increases during a period of national hardship. The number of quotes used during the 1920’s and The Great Depression is much larger than in 1910. Mullen provided, on the website, two graphics showing these trends. One is a graph showing the difference in number of quotes between The Bible, The Old Testament, and The New Testament. The second graphic shows the trends for the different verses, Acts 17:26, John 15:13, Luke 18:16, and Proverbs 14:34. All of these quotations can be found on the Explore the Quotations tab. You can also find specific quotes separated by decade and passages that were frequently quoted together on the Topics and Verses tab. This page I found particularly helpful as I do not know very much about the bible. This page helped me understand better the use of specific quotes. Since quotes were put into time periods in which they were used and I had prior knowledge of these times I could connect what the quote really meant. The Final page on this site is the sources and methods. Muller includes on this page not only all of his sources, but the code he used to collect the quotes.
Sources
Lincoln Mullen, America’s Public Bible: Biblical Quotations in U.S. Newspapers, website, code, and datasets (2016): <http://americaspublicbible.org>.
The Denver star. [volume] (Denver, Colo.), 09 Jan. 1915. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025887/1915-01-09/ed-1/seq-4/>
This source sounds like a fantastic biblical resource guide! It sounds very well categorized which allows for one to find a quote and its relevance in America at any given time.
What an awesome resource! I know that there has been times where I read about how a bible verse has been used to rationalize an argument, how cool is it that this is available for reference. It’s also impressive that it includes what was happening in the nation at the time the quote was used. Context is a huge factor when looking at these and can helpful when evaluating sources. Really neat digital project!
This is such an interesting idea to begin with. The trends of bible verses in the newspaper?! How cool. It also allows us to see how America has long been tied to a religious past that they were even posting bible verses in the newspaper just assuming that the majority of people wanted to see these verses. I love that they explain the context around each bible verse as well.
This is a great source! As soon as I saw the many scriptures presented in your post, I became excited as I am a believer and love seeing how the Bible relates to many all throughout history.
Hey Kylie,
I’m curious to know if you found any of the graphics confusing or difficult to read at first. As someone who finds it challenging to read statistics, I know that at first glance it’s difficult to make out all the information being presented in a chart or graph. If you were to add any additional media to this project, what would it be? Would you have preferred a short video that explains the graphic instead of the graphic itself, or did you find the information provided to be relatively self explanatory. I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Thank you for sharing a critique about this digital project with us. I was impressed by how this subject could be treated with such clarity. I think the use of graphics played an important part. I also understand now how digital tools can help the audience to read and understand more elaborated subjects. The use of pictures and extracts of articles are well integrated within the text. It was interesting to learn about biblical quotations in U.S. newspapers. Thank you!