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Archives, First Semester Blog, Maps, Reviews, Self-promotion, Visual Imagery

Final Thoughts on My Shuffle Along Project

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Site link: http://richardcarlin.net/mykitchen/exhibits/show/shuffle-along–tours-1921-1923

In creating the two tour maps for Shuffle Along, I was hoping to provide an engaging, easy-to-use representation of the challenges and opportunities faced by African-American theatrical companies touring the country in the 1920s.  I believed it was important to provide contextual information in a narrative form, accompanied by contemporary visual images, to place both the original (A Company) and spinoff (B Company) tours in context.

As I discovered through experimentation with kepler and Neatline software packages, it is important to select the correct software to achieve your goals.  For the A Company–which toured in a more limited area–I wanted to show the timeline of dates along with full information (including photos of theaters when available and clips of early reviews) in an easy-to-use format for the site visitor.  I found Neatline to be the best solution for this task, particularly because of its embedded timeline feature that allows you to quickly locate each appearance.  On the other hand, for the B Company where I was more concerned with showing the geographic range of the tour, kepler worked better.  As with all software packages, I found that I needed to continue to experiment in order to improve the visual representation offered by each platform.  Comments from other students were very helpful in this area and I appreciate their input as I worked to develop my idea.

I already knew going into the project that the A Company played major cities like New York, Boston, and Chicago for extended dates, but avoided any appearances south of Washington, DC, although they still encountered difficulties in obtaining food and lodging due to contemporary racism.  The B Company, on the other hand, mainly appeared in one or two-night stands and toured more widely, although in many cases they appeared in segregated theaters.  Nonetheless, by mapping these appearances I was given new appreciation for the struggles each faced as well as their achievement opening the door for black entertainers on Broadway and beyond.

As with all DH projects, the next step is twofold: To continue to support the site by building more features to it and expand the story to embrace Eubie Blake’s full career; while also determining a social media strategy that will reach the core audience interested in the subject of theatrical history, African-American culture, and the history of American music.  I look forward to embracing these challenges.

Archives, Creative Commons Sources, Public Domain Sources, Video materials

The Prelinger Archives

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The Prelinger Archives website can be accessed here: https://archive.org/details/prelinger

Its rights and permissions statement may be found here: https://archive.org/details/prelinger?tab=about

The Prelinger Archives is a collection of films, many of which are in the public domain, from many different sources, including a rich collection of US government films, educational television, home and amateur movies, and libraries and archives.  Founded in 1983, it has been a part of the Library of Congress’ Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division since 2002.  The Prelinger Archives generally offers its footage through a Creative Commons-Public Domain license, although those requiring higher quality footage would need to work with its licensing agent, Getty Images.  Additionally, each individual item is tagged with licensing information, giving its Creative Commons license and any limitations on use.

Archives, Public Domain Sources, Video materials, Visual Imagery

NASA Commons

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The NASA Commons site on Flickr is located at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons

A rights and permission statement is available on the NASA Images website: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html

The NASA Commons Flickr site gives access to a selection of copyright-free images, video, and other materials from the NASA archives found on its master website, NASA Images: https://images.nasa.gov/.  These images are free to use by the public, with some restrictions as outlined on NASA’s rights and permission page.  Most of these restrictions have to do with commercial usage in advertisements or in other ways that might imply NASA’s endorsement of a commercial project.  Likeliness rights to individual astronauts or individuals shown in photos may be necessary to obtain as well.  The rich library of imagery gives users the ability to draw on NASA’s entire history of space flight and exploration.

Archives, Public Domain Sources, Visual Imagery

J. Paul Getty Museum Website

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The J. Paul Getty Collection Website

You can access the collection here: http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/

The Getty offers the imagery to which it owns the rights without a fee.  Its rights and permission statement can be found here: https://www.getty.edu/about/whatwedo/opencontent.html

You can search the collection here: https://search.getty.edu/gateway/search?q=&cat=highlight&f=%22Open+Content+Images%22&rows=10&srt=a&dir=s&pg=1

The J. Paul Getty Collection offers a rich archive of material, including artworks, photographs, historic documents, and other materials for digital download copyright free.  The website states that “Currently, there are over 100,000 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute available through its Open Content Program. Other images include paintings, drawings, manuscripts, photographs, antiquities, sculpture, decorative arts, artists’ sketchbooks, watercolors, rare prints from the 16th through the 18th century, and 19th-century architectural drawings of cultural landmarks.”  The Getty gives open access to images that it believes are out of copyright, but ultimately it is up to the individual user to determine rights.  It also supports fair use of its imagery.  If an image is used, the museum requests that credit be given to its Open Content Program, and that a copy of any publication be offered free of charge to the collection.