This Beautiful Sisterhood of Books (BSB)

Project Partners: Dr. Jacqueline Thoni Howard and

Kate Adams

Project Overview

Beautiful Sisterhood of Books is a digital humanities recovery project that recreates the Woman’s Literary Department from the New Orleans 1884 World’s Fair and recovers the exclusion of Black women and their work from the Woman’s Department exhibit. This recovery project is carried out through multiple data research projects, including the collection of books, journals, newspapers, and sheet music donated by publishers and collected by “lady delegates” from around the US in the 1800s. This data is then used to research and recreate exhibits from the fair.

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Our Work

  • Cleaned Black Women’s Writers spreadsheet and added more authors
  • Created multiple distinct visualizations to help illustrate the works we collected and researched
  • Retouched multiple pages on the website for better accessibility and reader experience
  •  Began development on a virtual library, giving users a virtual experience of what it would be like to interact with the exhibit in real life
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Tools and Skills Used

Microsoft Excel

Use Microsoft Excel to organize and input researched data, we created an overall database design and ethics.

Website Development

Using technical hand-coded solutions (CSS, Python, and Javascript) and tools like WordPress to add and update website pages.

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Database Management

Perform regular auditing, cleaning cycles, and data analysis to validate our work. Create data visualizations and metadata standardizations.

How our Work is Used

The work we’ve completed is being used to increase the accessibility and the impact of the materials we’ve collected. First, we have created multiple distinct visualizations that help audiences better understand and interpret the works we researched, making the information more engaging and easier to explore. In addition, we have begun developing a virtual library that allows users to experience the exhibit in an immersive, interactive environment. This virtual space will give people the opportunity to engage with the collection as they would in a physical exhibit, expanding access and creating interactive material.

Pictured is a data visualization that includes the genre distribution of the works featured at the New Orleans 1884 World’s Fair.

 

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