Fall 2007 Project

This semester I will be working in Digital Library Services on the project African American Women Students at the University of Iowa, 1910-1960.  Nicole Saylor, head of the department, will act as my mentor.  I will be working with ContentDM, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Contribute.

Between 1913 and 1946, the University of Iowa barred African American students from campus dormitories. Faced with limited housing options, many women worked as servants in at least part exchange for housing. Out of a concern for students study habits, working conditions, and other issues, the Iowa Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs founded the Iowa Federation Home, a dormitory for African American women that operated from 1919-1950. This dorm was among only a few in the nation owned and operated by a formally organized group of African American women. The University of Iowa dormitories were integrated by African American women in 1946 when five women—Leanne Howard, Esther Walls, Nancy Henry, Gwen Davis, and Virginia Harper—integrated Currier Hall.

I will begin this project by culling bibliographic references from the research of Richard M. Breaux, a former History of Education doctoral student from UI, who examined the IFCWC’s history. Those resources, along with other pertinent documents from existing paper and digital collections, will form the basis for this sub-collection of the Iowa Digital Library’s African American Women in Iowa Collection. The project involves working with non-UI archives, such as the State Historical Society and the African American Cultural Center and Museum in Cedar Rapids.

 

In this project, I will concentrate on:

• Examining archival collections to identify items for the collection

• Copyright research

• Digitization

• Metadata creation

• Web page development

• Grant research