Research Goals

At the beginning of the Omeka Project, the project remained broad, and I had not yet identified either my sources or my particular areas of focus. Instead of narrowing either path of research, I  choose to remain "messy" and follow three separate areas of investigation.

I had three main research goals for this project. Each served a different function within the project. Instead of choosing one, I decided to investigate all three areas and see where they lead me. I recognize this will probably mean that this particular iteration of the project won't end up as succinct and clear as it might if I narrowed my approach, but I think broader initial areas of investigation will benefit the project more in the long run.

Here are the three approaches I've identified:

This is the most broad examination of my topic, allowing for the widest possible range of investigation. Essentially it will involve asking all of the questions in the "Who, What, Where" section mentioned on the "Project Outline" page. and seeing what information I already know, and where the holes are in my research so far.

1900 Harvard Debate Club

 

I wish to identify the scope of documents and collections within the Harvard Archives and Library that may be useful to my research on menswear. As a fashion historian, I am used to looking at clothing objects and images such as photographs, paintings, or fashion plates. One of my goals here at Harvard is to identify other types of sources that fashion historians might use, including (for instance) college dress codes, etiquette guides, account books, laundry services, tailors, cartoons, etc. See more about Archival Sources here.

While it won't be possible to investigate all of these sources for this project, my plan is to identify a narrow section of this research that seems like good data to mine for this project. This could include an analysis of changing dress codes stipulated by Harvard Colleges, an investigation into tailors that advertised in Harvard class yearbooks, account books from Harvard laundry services, or an investigation of 19th century Boston tailors.

This last approach is specific to the tools of digital history. How might I use Omeka, Neatline, or Tableau to better understand or illustrate my research? Because I haven't yet identified all my source material, this is a difficult question to answer, but here are a few areas under consideration:

* Mapping the Gilded Age: This would involve plotting the physical locations of Astor homes (and other place-based research) on period maps. How this might benefit the project isn't entirely clear, but it may reveal interesting avenues of investigation that I haven't yet identified.

* Animating the Family Tree: Aside from information about inheritance and familial connections, traditional two-dimensional family trees are surprisingly bad at providing useful information. I am interested in using the platform Tableau to experiment with alternate models of family trees, which could illustrate specific information, such as:
- who is a participant in social or business life (ie not a child or infirm) at any given date
- physical location in the country based on time of year
- physical proximity to members of other family trees