Black Gotham Archive

This project was created by Carla Peterson and a team that she collaborated with at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities.

https://archive.blackgothamarchive.org/exhibits/show/stories/introduction/index.html

The Black Gotham archive was created to give people a deeper understanding of what black people’s lives were like in New York within the nineteenth century. One of the points of this project is for the author to share parts of her family members' stories. So, within this project, there are stories about the draft riots that took place, stories about who certain people were with information about their lives, there is a family tree, and overall this archive is full of stories about what life was like in the nineteenth century.

There are some things that you need to know in order to make use out of the data that is on the Black Gotham Archive. Some of which would include being able to navigate your way through the website in order to find information as well as having the ability to take all of the information in and connecting that past with current life. When it comes to finding your way through the website, that is more of a simple thing to do as there are a few tabs within the site that guide you and tell you what you are looking at. When it comes to reading the data, a good way to process the information given is by connecting the data and stories to current life. This is something that makes you think about the similarities and differences of life now and then.

Another program that could do the same work would be Wikipedia. This archive has similar features to Wikipedia, with different tabs along the side that take the veiwer to see varying information.

When it comes to getting started with looking at the Black Gotham Archive, something that people should learn before taking a look at this project would be why this is a project that was created. In order to make use of this project, it would be good for the viewer to figure out what the intentions of this project are. That being said, going into looking at this project with the knowledge that it was created so the author could share her family's stories and give people insight on what black people’s lives were like in the nineteenth century.