Digital Research
My Digital Sources, Tools, and Methods
I am a high-end user of digital technology, digital sources, and digital tools in my research and this is growing exponentially with the fast-paced changes in technology and the rapidly growing resources out there.
An early user of computers in my methodology to create quantitative information for demographic, labor, and economic history, my current research would not only be impossible without digital sources, tools, and methods, it has been transformed by the possibilities.
My Manuscript:
Spin City: Founding Narratives of Lowell, Massachusetts
Not long ago, researching a comprehensive history of Lowell would not be possible from over 3,000 miles away. Distance naturally limited the scope of historical research along with the aims and methods. Digitization has bridged much of the gap in surprising ways that itself shapes the questions we ask and the answers we find. The Digital Revolution has allowed me to study the Industrial Revolution in new and surprising ways.
Summary of the Thesis
A history of the narratives and spin surrounding the founding of America's premier textile city, it explores the myths and realities of the founding of Lowell, the portrayals of the founders/owners (the so-called ‘Boston Associates’), and of the city's place in the history of industrialization and in the history of the new nation.
High-End User of Digital Sources
Digital searches and the sources they lead to have led me to find evidence, events, people, and places that have never before been linked with Lowell.
Traditional Primary Sources Digitized
I have surprised myself by turning to traditional sources I had not used much before (for a variety of reasons), including:
rare books, manuscripts, pamphlets
newspapers
diaries, letters
baptismal records
census records
maps
residence directories
mechanical drawings
legal and legislative records
town meeting minutes
photographs
archival film footage
Digitized Artifacts
I have always used material culture approaches, but the vast array of digitized images has filled in many gaps in my knowledge and led me down unusual paths:
paper currency
postcards
linen labels
fabric samples
costumes
machinery, tools
lithographs
daguerreotypes, stereoscopes
paintings and sculpture
corporate stationery
souvenirs
dyestuff, raw cotton
Born Digital Sources
With my focus on narratives describing the origins of Lowell and its current incarnation, many sources are born or originate on the internet. Not only do I need to examine them, but to capture them since they are often changing and ephemeral. Some examples include:
Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP) and other museum websites
Lowell City government website
Website on the Industrial Revolution, the mill girls, the connections between slavery and cotton
Slideshares, YouTube lessons, lectures and films
Social media posts by LNHP and other museums
Facebook comments on local newspaper stories
While I still have to make visits to traditional archives and repositories, access to a wealth of digital sources has enormously changed the questions I ask and what I seek to find to fill in the gaps.
Using Digital Tools
Digitizing My Sources
I am digitizing sources from archives, museums, private collections, and interviews for personal use.
I have also digitized non-copyrighted material as well. (See also, my page Digital Creation).
I have digitized archival materials from places such as the Massachusetts Historical Society and The Center for Lowell History have allowed me to use my camera
I photograph museum exhibits when permitted
I photograph the changing mixed uses of the spaces in Lowell which I am studying
I have recorded interviews
I have digitized out-of-copyright old music from original 45 discs by Lowell musicians
I have digitized slides (dias)
Mapping Tools
I have begun to use Digital Tools to examine places, spaces and their relationships, to calculate distances to estimate travel, and to map with overlays changes over time.
Actors in my research lived, traveled, and traded in many places around the globe. Creating maps of their activities is helping me to analyze and contextualize their actions, ideas, and networks.
Data Visualization is an important tool for analysis and understanding as well as for communicating and storytelling for digital, visual, and spatial historians such as myself.
Sample: 400 acres
Using Geographic Information System (GIS), Google maps, and tools such as Map Developers, I have created both crude and precise calculations of acreage, compared regions, and conceptualized the uses of space in different times and place. I have also used webcams and tools that calculate nautical distance/time.
Digital Methods
I am contemplating conducting a computational text analysis exercise for my current research, and still exploring the feasibility. I hope to meet someone soon who has or is doing such a project to learn more about it from a practical viewpoint.
I have used quantitative methods and computers and computer-manipulated data programs to conduct original research for a graduate student project.
My Graduate Seminar Project:
Quantitative Methods, Statistics, and Computer Analysis
In lieu of a second language requirement for the requirements of a Doctorate in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at New York University, I took a two-semester long course designed for historians to learn, understand, and critique statistics, quantitative methods, and computing culminating in designing, conducting, and writing our own quantitative, computerized history project. This was an early project in the "Spatial Turn."
My Project: A Quantitative Study of a Lower East Side Neighborhood of New York City, 1900
used census schedules to collect data
quantified the data using computer-generated manipulation
analyzed statistical significance
supplemented with primary and secondary sources
wrote 30-page analysis of a turn-of-the-century NYC ethnic neighborhood
Newly developed GIS programming, newly digitized sources, and computer imaging would greatly enhance the methodology, complexity, and analytical breadth of such a study today. We can move from 2-D to 3-D analysis and representation of our work.
The Greene Street project is a great example of how digital history has created a similar project to mine of a nearby NYC neighborhood in new directions, using digital methodologies and conveying the results through enhanced digital visualization. I highly recommend it!
www.greenestreet.nyc/