Public History & Philly

  In the article What’s Wrong with Digital Stewardship: Evaluating the Organization of Digital Preservation Programs from Practitioners’ Perspectives (2020), a study conducted in 2018 unveiled certain issues that archival practitioners found to be hindering the staffing and efficiency of their program’s digital preservation methods. Amongst the thoughts expressed by the participants via interview were concerns about microaggressions, prejudice, and misogyny within their work environments. [1] Though incidents of misogynistic and prejudice behavior are found in a multitude of career pathways, many archives and special collection practitioners today push for diversity of staff within their work and research spaces. In one of these interviews, an anonymous participant pointed out a negative factor of the nature of tenure. The participant stated that due to the tenured status of the practitioner they work with, when they hear said staff member making misogynistic comments towards othe...

  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 f...

  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...

  After reading Timothy D. Pyatt’s article The Harding Affair Letters: How One Archivist Took Every Measure Possible To Ensure Their Preservation , I pondered upon the way that the letters were handled by archivist Ken Duckett and also how letters disclosing an affair of someone out of the public eye may have been treated during Duckett’s lifetime. For instance, if Duckett received a box which included documents about the life of someone who was a well-respected figure in their hometown, but not so much on a national or universal scale, would the same measures to preserve the Harding letters be illustrated in the case of this hypothetical figure? Would these measures have been different in Duckett’s time vs. what would occur today? Pyatt discloses that Duckett believed in preserving the letters to allow a fuller understanding of Harding’s narrative. [1] In contrast to the Harding letters, it can be argued that the letters of people who are not affiliated with political or public-r...

  In Ellen M. Ryan’s Identifying Culturally Sensitive American Indian Material in a Non-tribal Institution (2014), the accessibility to the contents of a collection pertaining to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho found within the Special Collections and Archives of Idaho State University are called into question. This collection, the “J.A. Youngren Papers,” includes photographs of Shoshone-Bannock practices such as the “Sun Dance” (a ceremony of the Great Plains tribes) taken and acquired by the university in the early 20 th century without the consent of Shoshone-Bannock members. [1] In 2013, an undergraduate student and sun dancer tasked with processing and housing these photographs took note of the rituals captured within the photographs and the problematic nature of displaying these photographs online without the consent of tribal members. He thus brought this concern up to the Head of Special Collections of ISU and the photos were soon after ...

  Chela Scott Weber’s Research and Learning Agenda for Archives, Special, and Distinctive Collections in Research Libraries (2017) extensively explores options to improve the functions and quality of archives and special collections by placing attention on both the collections within these places as well as the skills that archivist, stakeholders, and others who work collections can offer to the public. [1] Weber also proclaims that to improve the innerworkings and missions of special collections and archives, diversity of the workforce as well as a push for accessibility and diverse collections must be prioritized. Weber argues that a blockade to drawing in more employees who want to instate these features is the reality of “soft money” funding: a highly unstable way to maintain employment of archivist and special collection staff. In this case, how can more concrete manners of pay be given to these employees? [2] From my knowledge, though this article was published in 2017, I w...

  James M. O’Toole’s On the Idea of Permanence examined archival topics such as archival language and its importance, the discord of what “permanence” is in an archival sphere, the shift from oral records to written records as well as the importance placed on both forms of recording history, and several other important facets of the archivist’s profession. Though I found these topics extremely enlightening and vital, the topic that many of us can relate to is the idea of the original document vs. a copy. In many archives, documents are digitized to allow more access to certain documents while also safeguarding a document’s condition. As a researcher myself, I like utilizing original documents for research, but I understand that that can not always be arranged. Having said this, a quote that O’Toole presents in the article struck me as important in analyzing the research process and digitization of documents moving forward. This quote was from the preservation researcher William J....

This Tuesday’s class included several discussions about archival access, archival reference, archival policies, digitization, and other related topics. One discussion that the class focused in on this session that I find important to highlight was the differences between a library and an archive. People who are researchers or scholars and or have careers that require visitations to a library or archive may know the difference between a library and an archive, but people who do not have history or research-based careers/have not completed research in these spaces may not. For this reason, sources which delineate the difference between libraries and archives such as Laura Schmidt’s article Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research and Mary J. Pough’s article The Illusion of Omniscience: Subject Access and the Reference Archivist are vital to understanding the differing operations that occur within them. For Schmidt’s article, not only did she explain the general protocols of archiv...

  This week, I was again educated on an interesting term used in archival spheres via Terry Cook’s What is Past is Prologue and through class discussion. The term, “intellectual processing,” is used when an archivist configures mentally how items were organized in the archive before it was physically removed/placed in another space due to context, interrelationships, functionality, and other means related to the content of the record. [1] Not having very much archival experience aside from the occasional in-person research trip (much more common pre-COVID-19), I speculate that this strategy can be very helpful when an archivist might need to remove an item from a folder or another object for a variety of reasons, but they can still recollect where that item is meant to be or can be repositioned if necessary. Now that I currently work as a researcher for the JDP, I might even come across this process here as I learn more about what the JDP has in store for me as an Inclusive Histo...

  After reading Ian Milligan’s Historians’ Archival Research Looks Quite Different in the Digital Age (2019), a few points made within this article concerning digital archives vs. physical and traditional archives led me to think about the variety of ways that archives do and will impact our society. Milligan points out the fact that before digital archives existed, researchers relied heavily on documents and resources that were either tangible or available for an in-person viewing for research, but with digital archives, there is often an abundance of material to research from one’s digital device. [1] As technology has positively impacted many facets of academia, it has benefited the many historians, researchers, and scholars who without it might lack access to desired material or would need to take strenuous actions to research certain documents (traveling to another country to review a document, reviewing a document in a highly-confidential facility, etc.). This being said, t...

  Hours: 107             Last week, I had the opportunity to utilize the card catalogues at the JDP in order to see what the site does and does not have on file concerning the enslaved, indentured, and free people who labored here in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. Because the only day that I could complete research in person last week was on a Tuesday and due to travel, a good majority of my research following last Tuesday was completed remotely. Though I have searched for documents online concerning my research topic, I again noted the dearth of information available online for my research and relied on secondary sources to gain knowledge about slavery in Delaware. Also, I am still being as attentive as I can be to the ways that “slave” and “enslavement” are utilized throughout the documents that I have come across, secondary or primary. After reviewing more secondary sources, I saw that the push to regard people who wer...

 Hours: 77.5 Last week, I continued to focus my research efforts on the background history of the JDP and to find as much information about the people who were enslaved, indentured, or free at this location during the 18 th and 19 th centuries. However, after receiving a voice message from my research partner Sakinaa at the beginning of that week, I added a new task unto my inclusive history researcher duties. In Sakinaa’s message, I was informed that she and I are being asked by Annie, JDP’s site interpreter, to analyze the ways that the words “slave” and “enslavement” have been utilized in historic documents about the JDP. To analyze the usage of said terms, we might look into matters such as the context in which these words are or are not used, who used these terms, which documents include such terms, and other situations and realities that may help progress our research and knowledge. Tomorrow will be my first research visit to the JDP, and my first trip that I will take to...

  Hours: 50 My task last week was to continue to broaden my knowledge of the history of John Dickinson, the JDP, and the enslaved, indentured, and free people who labored and lived on or around the JDP. One of the main focuses the past couple of days was to learn a bit more about the religious background, that of Quakers, Dickinson grew up around while young. One of the documents the resources that I utilized this week for research was Jane E. Calvert’s book Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson (2009). There were very helpful excerpts which delved into the Quaker faith, stemming back to its beginnings in the 17 th century to Dickinson’s time of political activism during the American Revolution. Having this background, it is important to note that John Dickinson, at a certain time in his life, did not affiliate himself with Quaker beliefs. Being that he owned slaves, this reality sets him apart from many other Quakers at the time who were oppos...

  Photo of Log’d Dwelling Replica at the JDP: https://history.delaware.gov/john-dickinson-plantation/ Hours: 41                                               In a few days, I will have been a member of HCA for two weeks. I am still in the beginning stages of my position, and as of right now, I am working on buffing my knowledge of the history of the JDP, John Dickinson, and the enslaved, indentured, and free people who lived and labored there. Last Wednesday, Annie Fenimore and Gloria Henry, two Historic Site Interpreters of HCA, graciously took time to meet with me at the JDP to fill me in on portions of my future endeavors as an Inclusive History Researcher of this organization. Also, I received a thorough tour from Annie through the mansion of the JDP and di...

Hours: 12.5 For my first week with Delaware’s Historical and Cultural Affairs (HCA), I primarily had to be in processed and was introduced to many of the members of the organization. For this reason, I will not be working on my research this week, but what I can speak about is the abundance of information and history in which I have learned from viewing the Diversity in Delaware History Webinar Series. This webinar is a project in which the staff of the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA) and HCA worked together to create recordings which illustrate to the public the narratives of America’s history which are often omitted from its more mainstream and or widely accepted narratives. For instance, the topics which are discussed throughout the webinar include subjects such as Native American history, American chattel slavery, Indigenous relocation and the genocide committed by White Americans upon them, and many other topics pertinent to this nation’s turbulent and often unnervin...

  As a former track athlete and having seen my fair share of athletic award ceremonies, I have a general idea of where athletic medals are placed on the human body and its usual meaning in American society. In an average athletic competition, medals in the U.S. are usually placed around a competitor’s neck to signify that that competitor has earned/won recognition for a particular athletic event. In the case of commemorative U.S. military medals, I wanted to find a very specific example to draw parallels with this week’s course readings. After having read Sun-Young Park’s Ideals of the Body: Architecture, Urbanism, and Hygiene in Postrevolutionary Paris , I was very pleased with her inclusion of diagrams which laid out the social spaces of French boarding schools and the location of gymnasiums [1] . These diagrams are educational as they show the placement of architecture like schools, living spaces, and gardens in Postrevolutionary France which highly conveyed the social expectati...

  My goal for this week’s workshop was to find an American advertisement of the early 20 th century (preferably between 1900-1940) concerning commemorative and/or war medals. However, I was unsuccessful in finding an advertisement with these specific traits. My speculation for this is that because the U.S. did not enter the Great War until 1917, the year before its end, there may be a lesser amount of distinctively American advertisements concerning these items. For this reason, finding advertisements for my item proved challenging. However, I did manage to find an advertisement of a company called “John Pinches Medallist LTD.” which was founded by two 19 th century British citizens by the name of John Pinches and William Wyon. Though Pinches and Wyon established the Business in Britain, it would soon be bought by the American company “Franklin Mint” located in Pennsylvania [1] . To wrap up this backstory, the company is known for their production of Great War medals, one of them...

    [1] After receiving my medal back in 2019 as a collegiate track runner, I did not place much thought into what its components are. I was, however, very pleased to have won it, and now that I am in Dr. Bruggeman’s Material Culture course, I am on the hunt to discover what my medal consists of. To gain potentially fruitful results of a CAA medal’s structure, I should reach out to the organizers of the CAA activities to gain an idea of what the process to form a CAA medal is and what elements would be found in the medal. For the time being, for this week’s analysis on my CAA medal, I chose to analyze medals in broad terms of object biography. I concentrated on the decades of the 20 th century before the Great War as well as the postwar decades to research the precious metal, gold: a metal which is often found in commemorative medals like mine. While researching the value of gold in decades surrounding the Great War, one of my strategies was to find the current monetary...