Category: Final Project

Link to Project: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/robertcookfinal

In my project I used Omeka’s image annotation feature, Soundcite’s embedded audio feature, and my previous glitch project to try to explore how the Great Depression affected children’s culture and experience in that time period.  I chose this due to there seeming to be little attention paid to children of this age, as so much politically and economically was going on.

I chose the image annotation feature because I find that annotation can really assist researchers in discovering new things about an image.  Perhaps it’s part of a picture one might not have noticed before, or an idea that never crossed one’s mind that the annotation adds.  Either way, annotation can be a very good way to get an audience thinking more about the contents of a picture.

By using Soundcite’s embedded audio feature, I assist the audience in listening to specific parts of the audio that I was talking about.  Not only does it assist me in explaining my points made on the page, but it also helps the audience with listening to a, not so perfect recording.  Parts of the audio was the performer talking to the people recording the audio, which I wanted to avoid as it doesn’t add much to what I wanted to talk about.  However, I still included the full audio after the paragraph as a way to let the audience decide if they wanted to sit through it all.

At first, I didn’t really understand the point of glitching, as I’m not really into more “modern art”, however as I used it, I realized that it can be an excellent way to find new meaning in certain images as mentioned in an article we read. ¹   I chose the glitch project I did before as a way to connect the old with the new, an old photograph with a new art form.  By doing this, I hope to get the audience thinking about how other photographs can be glitched.

The history of the 1930’s isn’t really one that has interested me much before this class.  I’m greatly interested in history; however, I find that the closer to the modern age we get, the less interested I am in learning.  Of course, after this class I find that the 1930’s is more interesting than I gave it credit for. 

The age is filled with revolutionary new ideas, progressive thought and social movements that caused change for the modern world.  Federal projects shaped American culture, and this is where we can really see a truly United States form.  Thanks to FDR and in large part the Federal One project, we now have a much more unified idea of what it means to be an American, and a more powerful federal government.²  Whether it be through song, theater, or photography, being an American was shaped during this age.³

Turning back to the modern age, being an ethical digital citizen is truly an important, yet seriously difficult task.  So much of modern society is being shaped by fairly unethical means, such as algorithms and mega corporations slicing up parts of the internet. ⁴  From this class I can take away that we have a responsibility to protect the free flow and democratization of information and ideas. 

In conclusion, we now live in an age with so much unprecedented knowledge spreading as insane rates, that it can be hard to realize how much is at stake at times.  To protect what we have now seems more important than ever, and to make sure that it stays in the hands of the people, where it belongs should be a goal for everyone who calls themselves a netizen.

The New Deal has had a lasting impact in so many ways around Washington D.C. Many of its buildings and artwork is a direct result of the New Deal. However, just because the impact of the New Deal is long lasting does not mean that its message has been preserved. In D.C. today it is very likely that most of the sites that are products of the New Deal are still physically in tact. This does not extend to the ideological preservation. While they have not been destroyed. But merely that the message the original sites held has been pushed away, hidden, or in some small cases removed.

The notion that one can use mapping projects to show the success of something or the message of something is talked about in a piece by Sarah Bond ⁵. The piece shows an example of racism as core idea to map. With the sites of the New Deal in Washington D.C. one can largely do the same thing. This is especially apparent with what is discussed as the “success” of something. In the article the success of Digital Humanities is discussed. In the Capital, however, one can discuss the success of the message of New Deal Sites using mapping. This is because in D.C. many of the surrounding area is largely the similarly preserved as the site itself. Two of the best kept sites are the West Wing and the Lockkeeper’s House. One can look at the surrounding area, in this case the Federal Triangle, and it is clear there will be a high level of preservation. The buildings being such well preserved structures, some also products of the New Deal, indicate through mapping that areas around them will also be well preserved. This is also equivalent inversely, one example is the Recorder of Deeds building. Many of the buildings around the Old ROC building have been destroyed. So, following the map trend, the ROC building and the message have also been altered or partially destroyed.

Time can also have a great effect on the the sites themselves. Using timelines one can see, visually and ideologically, how the sites have changed. The Old Post Office building which once brought the Nation together is now seen by many as a symbol of corporate greed. It is now largely rented out by the Trump Organization which has caused some bias in the original buildings preservation. It is incredibly important to be aware of this archival bias that is present in Museums ⁶. One must understand that due to the Hotel that was built, this has pushed the message of the post office away. This is meanly why a timeline comparison was chosen for sites such as this one. One can use it to both compare the old message and the new bias for or against the original message.

The Depression hit many people but due to rampant racism, it hit African Americans much harder ⁷. Due to this many artists of the time would express this in the murals and paintings. The murals in the ROC Building were created to represent the various important African American political figures that worked there. This in many ways is how art was used throughout the 1930’s ⁸. It was an expression of the reality around them and a also an escape.

The Legacies of the New Deal have extended far into the modern age. However, many of the messages have been lost or are hard to find. Through research, the many sites that once held great historical significance have been changed drastically. This has thus destroyed much of the effects that could have happened because of the New Deal. Despite this, the New Deal’s long lasting effects have had a more subtle impact today. Even though physical monuments have been changed, the ideas that were created live on in those who believe in the original messages.

REALLY IMPORTANT

There seems to be a limitation with what Omeka can do with annotated images. It seems to destroy other parts of the page if there is other content. It will also simply not show anything if it is alone. However, this only happens if you are not logged in to omeka. So, you should not have a problem with this but I am not the only one that had this happen. Secondly, if this does in some way effect the project I have attached to the site a “Part 2” which is me analyzing the images but by not using the annotating tool. Please you this if the if there are no image annotations on the other page. Thank you. gg

Also if you paste it as plain text it may also work normally.

Image Analysis

Throughout the semester in Digital History, we discovered the use of a variety of digital tools while learning about the 1930s in the USA. Thanks to the knowledge I acquired in this course, I was able to come up with a research question and answer it.

I decided to ask the following question for my Omeka exhibit: how did the FTP, FMP, and FWP influence the Folk culture in California? I picked digital tools to match the needs of my research question. Indeed, digital history implies the use of images, sounds, and text analysis.

StoryMapJS is a great tool for mapping and building a visual itinerary. Creating and mapping a tour based on the American Guide Series helps to highlight the importance of the Federal Theatre Project ⁹.

SoundCite is a fabulous tool when it comes to share with your audience the atmosphere that is emanating from your text. It is a harmonious way to introduce a sound within the text. It was of great use to present Folk songs and culture and how it was influenced by the Federal Music Project.

VoyantTool is a more serious distant reading text analysis. It is unavoidable when a corpus of text needs to be studied ¹⁰. This tool helped to emphasize the importance of Folk culture and how it was influenced by the Federal Writers’ Project.

Digital tools bring interactivity and a better understanding of the sources. They use our senses to dig into the history. They also attract the audience and makes it feel comfortable.

The 1930s brought a new dimension into the life of people. Franklin Delano Roosevelt developed the politic of the New Deal to fight against the Great Depression. FDR wanted to increase regulatory power, protect collective action, promote social reform, and regulate profiteering ¹¹

The Federal Project Number One regrouping the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal Art Project, and the Federal Writers’ Project entertained the population during this difficult period. It also brought employment in fields like theatre which was the will of Hopkins and Flanagan. ¹²

The FDR government believed in functionalism and wanted to promote this concept. In other words, all cultural forms in a given society – from superstitions to rituals of economic exchange – existed because they served functions in that society. For example, Folk songs that Alan Lomax used to record reflected a process of adaptation, an organizational superstructure and social functions ¹³

In the 1930s, the country was changing. Many people suffered from the Dust Bowl and migrants had to move and find a new place. They shared their culture and traditions, singing together on the railroads. ¹⁴.

The FDR presidency period was also marked by questioning and debates around civil rights. The 1930s were notably marked by the Long Civil Rights era. The New Deal helped to make civil rights a subject for political debate like gender inequalities, racism, discrimination, the place of African American and women in the South ¹⁵.

FDR and the 1930s are still in the mind of people and we can still observe its legacies. For example, The Green New Deal is an emerging energy infrastructure plan to combat a disrupted climate ¹⁶.

T. Mills Kelly gave us a great lesson about the credibility of sources on the Internet. He supported his argument based on his own course he taught at George Mason University Lying About the Past. He emphasized the importance of having a critic look on what we think is a reliable source of information or not. He created fake History published on Wikipedia with his students. They used part of truth and lies.

For ten days, no one noticed the discrepancy. They finally removed it from the web, but they hope that people will be more sensible in the future in picking their sources. He also explained that the growth of hoaxes on the web is an issue and they spread with social networks. We need to be careful more than ever. ¹⁷

Although I came into this class having knowledge of the 1930’s, the skills and resources we have used this semester has allowed me to gain new insight and perspective on the time period and how we can view history overall. Reflecting on what we learned through the use of these digitized tools I am reminded of Tony Guidone’s presentation in which we discussed the benefits and possible downsides to use of these tools. An example of which can be found in Ian Milligan’s article where he talks about the impacts of the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star being digitized. Before digitization most newspapers were cited around the same amount. However, after the Toronto Star was digitized, it was cited far more frequently than its non-digitized counterparts.¹⁸

One of my favorite skills we learned this semester was being able to glitch images and that’s why I decided to use that for my final project. The first time we saw this being used was in Michael J. Kramer’s example of glitching, which places an African American man in the forefront of the image instead of the two other white men revealing a new narrative for folk music.¹⁹ I glitched an image of an older man sitting peacefully playing the violin. The glitching process not only created an entirely new feel to the image but allowed me to view details about the image I missed before.

The second tool I used was soundcite to help convey exactly what I was describing. Inserting sound clips makes what I’m talking about seem not only more personal, but real to the reader or listener. As Peggy Seeger suggests, you can’t “live those stories” without hearing the “voices on the recordings, drenched as they were in sorrow, joy, anger, poverty.”²⁰ Without this tool, the reader wouldn’t be able to fully grasp what the meanings behind any of the clips.

The third and final tool I used was the voyant tool which allows me to visualize text in a new way that furthers understanding. It was tricky to use at first, but once I was able to understand the mechanics of it, I was able to begin analyzing different texts. For my project, I compiled various different songs that were popular in the 1930’s and put all of their lyrics into voyant to analyze the songs based on specific words used. Based solely on the songs I chose, I thought that I had an idea of how the text analysis would go, however, after using the voyant tool and taking a look at these songs through a distant reading scale, I was able to notice things I didn’t before. I was initially able to see what words were most commonly used through the use of the “word cloud, with more frequently occurring words shown in a larger size.”²¹ Some of the popular words weren’t surprising, but there were others I didn’t expect to be on there, which opened up the opportunity to look at these songs and their historical meanings in a completely new way.

Final Project Link: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/introductiontomusic

I chose my final exhibit to be about crime and the fluctuations of crime rates. Being a criminology major all I do is research crime, but I have never actually looked into crime happening during the 1930’s. I knew of the Prohibition and what J. Edgar Hoover did for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, but I have never looked at them in great detail. America had gained a slogan during that decade, “Lawless in the Depression Era.” The more I researched, the more apparent it became to me that the criminals and the general public had more power than the actual law did. Mobsters would gun down the law enforcement agents, eventually the officers/ agents would not try to intervene. The public was being controlled by fear of powerful Mobsters or Gangsters. Half of the population would partake in crime itself by becoming a bootlegger/ rum-runner, or speakeasies. Serial killers started to become widely active in this decade, and drugs were being trafficking out of every possible source. Places like Canada, China or Mexico flourished economically because America was desperate. Hoover’s changes to the FBI structure helped more than he thought they would. Trained agents now walked the streets and helped take down the high profile criminals. New divisions were started to be developed such as, forensic laboratories and counterintelligence. 

Breaking up the exhibit was a challenge, I knew what I wanted to share but did not know how to format it. The information did double over in some of the pages. The major thing that increased crime was the prohibition. That caused mobsters and gangs to gain more power, and illegal running of alcohol to become more popular. Then the New Deal Programs was one of the major things that happen to decrease the crime rates. Millions got jobs, and had a stable income. That led many away from crime such as robbery, or being involved in a gang.

During this semester I learned so much. I am not a computer person by any means, I could care-less about them to be honest. But the tools used during this semester were so easy to use and displayed information in a way anyone can understand. Granted I did get frustrated a lot during this semester, looking back I can use the tools I learned in the future. My favorite project was the glitching project, I found it fascinating  how easily it was to distort an image. Then after is was glitch how many interpretations you can gather from just one image. Another thing that was useful was learning how to navigate the Library of Congress, library resources, and online databases. I would spend hours trying to search through this huge databases, but learning tips from our readings, and from Tony Guidone made it so much easier to narrow down sources. Already these tools and tricks helped me in research papers done this semester. Even though this semester taught me a lot, History and IT (computers) are still my least favorite subjects.

Sources:

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/.

Milligan, Ian. “Illusionary Order: Online Databases, Optical Character Recognition, and Canadian History, 1997–2010.” The Canadian Historical Review, University of Toronto Press, 27 Nov. 2013, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/527016.

This semester, many digital tools that I had no idea existed were introduced to me. The specific ones we learned this semester helped me to promote my argument in my final exhibit, which was that the Federal Theatre Project influenced entertainment during the ’30s, especially with film. The tools I chose for my exhibit were image glitching, the timeline tool, and image analysis. My specific exhibit was definitely centered more around the visual aspect versus any kind of writing/word aspect. My exhibit was on the FTP and the film industry, which are both topics that require many visual aspects.

I chose to use image glitching for my first skill of my exhibit because it brought to focus more important aspects of the film and performance posters/photos. Glitching has been my favorite tool from this semester because it really transforms an image and helps you view it in a different way, usually a way you wouldn’t have expected it to transform into. ¹

I chose to use the timeline tool because it helped to show the difference in the dates between the FTP and the films. It helped highlight the important times in the FTP and helped show that the two films were released after the FTP funded ended, proving my argument that these two were the most influenced films from the FTP.

I chose to use image analysis on my glitched photos because I thought it was important to analyze different parts of the two movie posters and photos. ²⁷ It helped push my point that the advancement in film was to make potential audience members feel more involved and also see detail better, something that they were already able to experience during the FTP performances. It helped gain a better historical view, one could argue.

The history of the 1930’s was something that I wasn’t quite clear on. All I really knew was The Great Depression happened during this time and that was really it. I was able to learn about the literature, music, art, and entertainment of the 1930’s, something that never crossed my mind. ²⁸ Learning that folk music was so huge during this time and that the song “This Land is Your Land” was released during the ’30s and the true meaning behind it was definitely a surprise. History classes only really teach about Herbert Hoover and The Great Depression when talking about the ’30s, so this class definitely gave me a better perspective of what the 1930s was really like. The 1930s really created legacies such as new technology, color in film, and the perseverance of American citizens during hard times.

This semester I was able to learn how to be an ethical citizen and pay more attention to copyright. ²⁹ I never really paid attention to copyright, I just knew it was something to avoid, but I never knew what would classify as it or to even check if anything had restricted rights on it. When we had to do metadata for items we put in Omeka, it taught me a little bit about copyright and I was definitely looking out to avoid any items that had restricted rights on it. Also, learning to fact check everything was something I learned. The article about the professor from George Mason stuck out to me earlier in the semester, and then hearing him explain his story in person only made me feel better about constantly fact checking everything and making sure I have accurate information.

I would say one of the most important things I learned this semester was that using digital tools is a great way to learn history. It adds a different approach to history and helps you analyze in a different way. I almost feel like I learned more about history by using these interactive tools than I would have learned from a textbook.

Omeka exhibit.

I chose to use image annotation, timeline, and mapping for my final project. I felt that my argument would be best supported through imagery and walking the viewer through the process of my explanation. Image annotation was utilized to depict the travesty that the farmers experienced and give insight to their decisions to leave the Midwest after the dust bowl destroyed their land. ³⁰ Timeline was best to follow the journey of Alan and John Lomax as they recorded styles of music that for the rest of the country may have been largely unheard. Mapping a potential civilian trip through the west showed the uniqueness of the different states in the country, and the opportunities the American Guide Series brought to the people who may have otherwise never left their hometowns, or did not at the time have a strong sense of patriotism.

Using digital tools helps to further develop understanding of the data, as it involves the viewer’s interaction with the information, rather than only looking at a picture or artifact. These tools can be an effective way to reach a variety of learners.

A large concept in class was the importance of obtaining information ethically through the public domain, and that everything not created by the user needs to be referenced. This was not something that I had thought about outside of citing academic sources in research papers. It was interesting to learn that there is no new data, and that because of this idea, everything can be traced back to its origins (thus creating a line of ownership), like with the reading about Alan Lomax’s ownership rights over a Jay-Z song. ³¹

Another important concept to take away from this class is how digital tools, such as what was used in this exhibit, can enhance the learning and understanding of primary sources. Through this method, we were able to analyze texts, artifacts, sounds, and images in multiple ways. This expanded our learning of the topics beyond simply looking at them. ³²

Until now, the 1930s had always been clouded for me by the Great Depression. We learned that the ‘30s were far more about the strength of a nation, and the willpower of its people to pull themselves out of trouble. The history of this period is far more complex than I think its reputation leads us to believe. We have learned that it was not only about the depression, but also about the people’s willingness and drive to make an effort to fix the problems that they were facing, in order to provide for themselves, and other generations, a better future. The legacies left behind by the New Deal are still shaping our country today. Social Security, the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as the development of the Interstate Highway System have all impacted the ways in which we function as a society. ³³ The discovery of new types of music, and the open-ended publication of different forms of art, provided for a resurgence and rebirth of the American artist and redefined our culture. ³⁴

Omeka Exhibit:

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/kellystangerfinalproject/intro

When I first began this project, I was nervous to say the least. I had an idea of the subject that I wished to study; however, I was unsure as to weather or not a historical theme would emerge from my research. Having completed my project, I am glad to say that I managed to find that topic – the American spirit.

I recognize that this is a broad topic of study, but it the Great Depression provides an excellent look into what the American spirit actually is and not what our history textbooks and wartime propaganda campaigns have made it out to be. I believe that my grandfather, Robert W. Smith said it best: The American spirit is the sum of all who have gone before in this great nation.

In Hopeless Times and Dreams of Flight, I attempt to unravel the mysteries of the American spirit through an examination of primary source interviews, the life history of Oscar Winchell, and a glitched image of a man and boy inspecting an aircraft. These three small collections of evidence have led me to conclude that the American spirit is a combination of individual ingenuity motivated by dreams for the benefit of a nation.

In the first portion of my final project, I employed Voyant Tools to develop a better understanding of how pilots managed to propel themselves into the skies during the Great Depression. I was inspired by Lauren Tilton’s article Race and Place: Dialect and the Construction of Southern Identity in the Ex-Slave Narratives. In her project, Tilton drew conclusions from distant readings of ex-slave narratives collected by the Federal Writer’s Project to understand how dialect segregated African Americans.³⁵

From my own distant readings, I found that the individual drives of pilots brought them to the skies. Although they faced many difficulties, aviators during the Great Depression Era continued to live out their dreams of flight.

In the next portion of my project, I created a Story Map using Knight Lab’s StoryMapJS program. In her article Mapping Racism and Assessing the Success of the Digital Humanities, Sarah Bond argues that maps allow the public to easily access critical information regarding important subjects such as segregation.³⁶

In my own project, I map the life of famed pilot Oscar Winchell and his many adventures. What I drew from this history is that although he was a superb aviator, Winchell was unable to control for many outside forces. In order to survive his flights, Winchell would often have to rely on the aid of others in order to survive. Only through a unified dedication to a cause could Winchell have managed his success.

For the final portion of my project, I created a glitched image of a man and a boy standing next to an airplane. I was motivated to create this image by Michael Kramer’s article Glitching History: Using Image Deformities to Rethink Agency and Authenticity in the 1960s American Folk Music Revival. In this piece, Kramer argues that historians can draw valuable information from images that have been tampered with and draw inspiration for new conclusions about previously discussed historical subjects.³⁷

From my glitched image, I concluded that only through the guidance of President Roosevelt’s administration could the American people have overcome the crisis that was the Great Depression. Individual ingenuity has its limits, and overwhelming challenges require the employment of many different skills and talents in order to be met.

So, what exactly is the American spirit? The answer that I found through this project is that it cannot be captured in a simple, one-line sentence but, rather, is a mosaic of many different talents and abilities that have come together to achieve a greater cause.

The Federal One Project is described in an excerpt from Kenneth Binda’s book All This Music Belongs to the Nation: The WPA’s Federal Music Project and American Society as a coming together of many talented individuals to alleviate the unemployment crisis of the Great Depression.³⁸

Pilots who flew during the Great Depression teach us that although one may have individual abilities, those talents are likely to be forgotten if not put to a higher purpose. The reason we remember President Roosevelt is not simply because of his time in office but because of what he did during that time. He dared to use the federal government to provide relief to the American people and brought his vision to life to lead the nation out of a crisis. Our nation is teeming with men and women just like Roosevelt, all that we must do is tap into this resource.

For this project, I discussed the historical question of: How was Tourism affected for African Americans, in the region of North Carolina, due to racial segregation during the Jim Crow Era? From this topic, I learned that through national organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and and local government statues that tourism for African Americans was extremely difficult and could be potentially life-threatening for them. Lynchings and assaults were common and many African Americans avoided the major cities in North Carolina to stay safe. This involved staying away from the towns on the water that dealt the most in trade. For this project, I used mapping, timelines, and image analysis to explore this topic. I felt these skills were the most useful because they easily showed the issues that African Americans dealt with allowed the reader to more easily understand and see what African Americans dealt with while traveling and touring. For example, glitching would not have been a useful skill for this project because it doesn’t provide an useful insight into segregation and tourism. Glitching is when you take a photo and edit its code to distort its original settings and view.¹ On the other hand, mapping was a great skill to use because it connects easily with the Green Book, which was a travel guide for African Americans, so they would know where it was safe to travel, or eat, or get gas, or sleep.³⁹

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/the-segregation-of-tourism2

The skills discussed above transform sources by allowing a reader to be able to easily understand and incorporate the information to their own life. For example, with the mapping, a reader can compare to places that they have been and see how the place has changed over time or not.

From this class, I learned that the 1930’s was a difficult time for many people, due to the Great Depression and the government created many different organizations to try to get people back to work. This led to the creation of the Federal Works Project which included writing, theatre, arts, and music. Of these projects, the Federal Theatre Project was the least successful because people felt it was given too much money and didn’t produce enough for the money it was given.⁴⁰ These projects were unique because they appealed to those that either didn’t like or couldn’t do manual labor. The Civilian Conservation Corp focused on the manual labor while the Federal Workers Project appealed to the artists in multiple different areas. This history has a larger significance in the sense that it shows while the government did have its own issues that it did want to get the working American back to work. The government worked to provide for its citizens by giving money to these organization and allowing people to work for their money. Also, history is important as it is to show what not to do in the future. This time period was filled with depression and prejudice, so we should all work together to avoid these issues and try to fix things so these problems never happen again.

In this class, I learned many important topics when it comes to being ethical digital citizens. First, don’t make any posts or blogs about topics or issues that you literally know is false. It is not fair or right for people to think information is correct or usable when it is actually filled with mistakes or problems. Also, in general don’t steal information from another user and claim it as your own information. This is plagiarism and can be illegal in some situations due to copyright. Lastly, copyright and trademark are very complicated issues and you should always make sure to check and avoid any issues surrounding these topics. It is important to check the rules because it is still illegal even if you don’t know so make sure to do your research first. ⁴¹