I will be working with a team at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason which the Smithsonian contracted to facilitate the digitization and overall access to archival collections at five Historically Black Colleges and Universities as part of the Smithsonian’s Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard voices initiative. The team consists of three full-time faculty and staff at the RRCHNM, including one technology specialist, two graduate students, and two interns. The work is to help fulfill a charge initiated in the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture that called for the institution to assist HBCUs in increasing access to their archival collection. 

More specifically I will be working with the Jackson State University collection of The William Lamson hand drawn maps. The maps with overlays were part of his expert testimony in demonstrating how school districts were drawn to avoid integration. The specific assignment for the internship has two parts. Part 1: I am to compile a set of resources such as websites, articles, books, news reports, etc. that are related to the collection and provide a brief annotation. Part 2: I am to propose themes for the collection that will help connect the specific collection to others in the project. This will help provide a larger context for understanding the collection. 

I was initially interested in this project because at my institution, we have prioritized organizing and making our archival and special collection more accessible. We cannot hire a full time archivist so this is being done by committee–heaven help us. I thought this project would give me some ideas and direction on how we at Le Moyne could approach our own collections, as well as give me a sense of some of the technology available to do this kind of work. 

While I am very excited to be working on a project of such importance and gaining more knowledge in the workings of Omeka S and in writing for a public audience, I have to say I’m particularly interested in learning more about collaboration between numerous institutions. The “messiness” of such collaboration is something I am experiencing on a smaller scale in my current position, and as I am expected to take on more of a leadership role in this collaborative work, it is not the research or historical thinking aspect that I am most concerned about, it is the relationship management that I find most challenging. I was not necessarily expecting to get this type of experience from the Digital Humanities, but I believe that it will prove invaluable as I continue in my career in collaborative public history/digital history projects.