Skip to main content

Post #9: Examining Avenues for Archival Outreach to the Public

 

This week, my classmates and I discussed the myriad of ways that archival and special collections staff can advocate for the vitalness of their work as well as the ways that they may take action to connect with the public through outreach activities. This conversation reminded me of the appraisal activity that I completed while at Temple’s SCRC this past October. During this activity, I looked through the “Arthur Hall Papers”: a collection that contained papers and documents about the renowned choreographer of African dance, Arthur Hall, who traveled around Philadelphia to teach young children African dance within schools and other spaces of youth learning. With the size of Philadelphia and the variety of programs that take place today centered on youth learning and community activities, could collections like the Arthur Hall Papers be utilized to show Temple’s surrounding communities how the SCRC’s retainment of papers like these are integral to the success and fruitfulness of future youth activities in Philadelphia? After viewing collections like these, would the communities who take the time to view them gain an understanding of not just the value of these collections, but the places which hold the collections themselves?

The question of how to illustrate the vital nature of archives might be answered by examining what communities that surround archives and special collections are doing now. In Timothy L. Ericson’s Preoccupied With Our Own Gardens: Outreach and Archivists, Ericson posits that though the processing of collections is an important task of an archivist, those in communities not aligned with this career may not care as much to learn about this responsibility. For this reason, when archivist do venture to craft exhibits to bring to the public, it is best that they know what interests, programs, and activities that certain communities hold in contemporary times so that connections with the collections of archives might be made and can successfully grab the interest of viewers.[1] In the case of the Arthur Hall Papers, if an exhibit were structured and brought to the surrounding community of Temple, current Philadelphia art, dance, and youth community centers could be connected with by illustrating how Hall touched the minds and hearts of those he instructed while alive in the Philadelphia area.


[1] Timothy L. Ericson, "Preoccupied With Our Own Gardens": Outreach and Archivists, http://journals.sfu.ca/archivar/index.php/archivaria/article/view/11724/12673 119.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fortitude, Community, and Vision: the Black Museum Movement from the 1960s to the Present

  [1] In her book From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement , Andrea A. Burns documents the endeavors of African Americans to establish Black-owned museums in stride and motivated by certain sentiments of the Black Power movement of the 1960s. Focusing primarily on four of the first African American museums in America named The DuSable Museum of African American History, The International Afro-American Museum (IAM), The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (ANM), and the African American Museum of Philadelphia (AAMP), Burns illustrates how these museums were created and run by African Americans. Some of the historical figures in Burns’ narrative include Margaret (Black artist) and Charles Burroughs, Dr. Charles Wright, and museum director John Kinard who out of grassroot movements and extreme effort formed and oversaw operations they saw fit for reconstructing the representations and presentations of African American history. Burns allows her r...
3 comments
Read more

Post #8: Important Discussions of Copyright and Digitization in Archival Spaces

  This week’s discussion in Temple’s Archives and Manuscripts course concerning the protocols of copyright in the archival realm is one that many a researcher might find vital. As a traditional historian, I tend to utilize physical books and monographs. However, I often utilize more contemporary research materials for my papers such as online articles, audio, and countless of other digital sources to input into my papers and assignments. I, like many other researchers, would like to avoid being guilty of copyrighting another’s work and or utilizing a work when it should be restricted or was wrongfully, whether intentionally or unintentionally, made to be used publicly. In Dharma Akmon’s Only With Your Permission: How Rights Respond (Or Don’t Respond) to Requests to Display Archival Materials Online , it is disclosed that many archives try to take multiple measures to ensure that works with complicated rights issues are not digitized to mitigate potential cases of copyright. [1] Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

From Distant Comfort to Submersion: The Morphing of Historical Consciousness and Historical Authenticity in America

     [1] [2] M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska’s book History Comes Alive: Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s is a refreshing and perceptive examination of the changing manners in which history was taught, depicted, reenacted, and reflected upon in America from the 1950s to the 1970s. Rymsza-Pawlowska shows these shifts by presenting to her readers America’s earlier traditions to deliver history in a more distance and purely informational manner and America’s change in method which would incite emotions and provide more interactive ways to partake in historical settings [3] . What I found particularly striking and informative in her book was her inclusion of American television series which showed early reluctance to interact deeply with the past and the move of American television productions to present a more involved and sincere narrative of American history in later decades. For instance, she provides the ways in which early American shows such as The Twilight Zon...
2 comments
Read more