Transatlantic Digital Archive Project
Purpose
Often we study literature as if it exists in a vacuum: we look for literary devices like irony or metaphor, and we discuss narrative and character as a function of the author’s purpose. This assignment aims to place our readings in specific historical contexts.
Assignment Components
1. Browse through the objects listed on the following archival databases:
a. The New York Public Library’s The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: “In Motion: The African American Migration Experience”:
http://www.inmotionaame.org/gallery/?migration=1&topic=99&type=image
b. The New York Public Library’s Digital Collection on Slavery
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/slavery-2#/?tab=navigation
c. The University of Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, “Slavery Images”: http://slaveryimages.org/search.html
d. The Library of Congress, “Voices from the Days of Slavery”:
https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/index.html
e. The National Museum of African American History & Culture Digital Collection (type: “18th century” into the search box”):
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/collection?results_empty=true
f. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Digital Library on American Slavery:
http://library.uncg.edu/slavery/
2. Choose ONE object (written, visual, or audio text), and save the image to your files.
3. Write a XXXXXXXXXXword “close reading” of your object. If there is a caption for the object, you might use that to help form your description, though a caption is not necessary. Consider the following:
· Include the digital archive’s name.
· Describe all of the visual characteristics of this object. How does the archive present it to its audience? How does it appear on the page? Is it an illustration? Advertisement? A physical artifact? Be as vivid and focused with your language as possible, as though you were describing this object for someone who cannot see it.
· Based on your description, what narrative/story/argument does this object tell?
· Does this object evoke any emotions in its viewer?
· Finally, what do you want to know more about concerning this object? What questions do you have?