Overview:
This page contains weekly updates regarding my final project for Spring 2020. I will enter the date for each update above the appropriate entry.
Update as of 3/4/2020
- I am currently working on refining my project. Asking questions like what is the core augment of this project? As a project on the history of the US Census would be much too large, how am I to narrow down this project? Where are the core of my sources going to come from?
- The biggest mountain to climb is to create a tight, strong argument that this public history project will revolve around. A thesis of sorts that can be the nexus or focal point for this project. Once I have that down, I can limit my primary source research, and I can limit my discussions of these sources so that all sections and subsections within this project are arguing towards a common thesis.
- Regarding the website itself, I am currently working on playing with the layout and refining overall aesthetic of the site. I am running into some troubles with CSS coding; however, Omeka has many online blogs that help answer simple coding questions.
- I am also working on building my exhibits in so that they present themselves clearly with discussion sections.
- Overall, I am still in the depths of research and site building, but I believe that in four weeks for my last post update, I will have found a thesis, narrowed my core sources, and created a more streamlined design for my website. These are three main objects for the month of March.
Update as of 3/11/2020
Research and Questions:
- As I continue with my research, I am interested in how minorities were enumerated within the census. In other words, I am working on creating a tighter focus to my research. My working research question is how were minorities described in the US Census? I am still using my three time periods (1790-1800, 1850-60, 1930-40) to dive deep into each census (3 of them total) to see how minorities were written or categorized in the census form. Simply, this project is evolving into how the census form itself morphed over time, adding new categories for minorities and other subgroups.
Objects:
- My research is not only focusing on quantitative sources but also on qualitative sources. Adding pictures and more objects to my Omeka site offers the visitor more interaction with the site. Pictures, maps, and other objects allow the visitors to visually see the census records and the history of the census.
Update as of 3/19/2020
Research and Questions:
- Research is still on-going. Besides narrowing down the US Census history into three, discrete time segments, I still need to narrow down my thesis or overall argumentation. While I would enjoy to write a block of text explaining the history of the US Census, this course has taught me that public history digital exhibits are about visual arguments for an interactive audience.
- On that note, I have started to compile a folder of pictures and objects to insert into the exhibit via “Exhibit Builder” in the Omeka site.
- Regarding a timeline, I would like to update this site by the end of Monday, March 23rd, 2020. By update I mean that I will be placing all of my current research on the website, and, most importantly, reformattingĀ the website to be more interactive and user friendly.
- In the end, my timeline has two main objectives:
- To input the research/craft a tighter argument and then update the aesthetics of the website.
- Reformatting the website has been a bit challenging up to this point. I like the “Thanks, Roy” theme (the standard theme that the site comes with) because I believe it offers an easy site navigation for the user. I would like to update the overall color theme, object layout, and header image size. Accomplishing a few of these goals would, I believe, require me to input the CSS code into Omeka, because the theme allows for customization but only through coding. I am currently using the Omeka FAQ/Blog site to see already submitted questions and following the previously submitted answers. These seem to helping, and I have been able to find many of my questions through various discussion threads.
- To input the research/craft a tighter argument and then update the aesthetics of the website.
Update as of 3/25/2020
- I am currently working on updating the website with more images, tags, and text. This is my primary focus, to narrow my research and curate the best evidence for my online project.
- My secondary concern rests with trying to redesign my website. Fix and adding new images, and making the website flow more user friendly.
- I am still working with Omeka, and using the FAQ site to bolster my understanding of CSS coding and HTML.