Apr 24

How Secure Am I?

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After having listened to the entire speech that we had on Wednesday in class I have come to the conclusion that my online activity is not the most secure. I realized that I have on numerous occasions used the same passwords for many of the accounts that I have on multiple different websites. Much of my online activity is through Google searches, so because of this I know that my data searches are recorded. I believe that because I engage in many of the social media websites on the Internet, much of my data is recorded and then new data is generated. I believe that my metadata is recorded such as if I were to retweet someone’s tweet on twitter, as well as all of the pictures that I put up on websites. This data is then used to categorize and figure out what variable I should attach to that category.  I also believe that I need to make my passwords more secure. After going over passwords I realized that mine did not have enough characters to be properly safe.

On another note, I have begun to make great progress on my final project. Now that my question has been determined I have successfully began weeding out what is useful and what isn’t. I think that once I find the appropriate chart to use, which I have been given much advice about, I think those will be extremely useful. I haven’t reached any particular problems, however I think I need to start working a little bit harder on this project as the due date quickly approaches. I also think that newspapers.com will be extremely useful in finding primary sources.

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Apr 14

Exhibit A, B, or C?

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As I have begun thinking and researching on my final presentation, I have also begun thinking about what my exhibit topic would be. The point of an exhibit is to tell the story that answers your research question through demonstration. The idea that I have been playing around with would be to make my exhibit topic be about Abraham Lincoln’s ability to get the emancipation proclamation to pass. From there I can then take the three items I have to use in this exhibit and make a map to show off how many regions had slaves before,but no longer did after the proclamation passed. The next item I though about trying to find was to make a statistical chart explaining how much Lincoln gained popularity with the African American population. I have yet to create the items that I have been discussing, however I can link you to the website that gave me the ideas to make these graphs, which is link. I can also use this website to help me with this idea as well, which is, link. I think that the two items I have thought of to be included in my topic begin to exhibit first of all how much of an impact slavery was in that society, and then the next graph plays off of that idea and shows what feelings the African Americans had for the man who freed them from slavery. I apologize for not having shared more with you, but because of my intense fluctuation between topics for a while, it has taken me longer to develop the ideas that I would like in order to make my project the best that it can be. I will have more  information soon and look forward to sharing them with my readers as they come.

Apr 08

Weekly Progress

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After a long thought process and debate, I have finally decided on a topic this week which has helped me understand what my goals are in the weeks to come. Now that I have focussed on what question I would like to answer for this research project which is, “What did African-Americans in the Washington, DC, area think of President Lincoln,” I feel as though I now know how to proceed. Having already found a lot of research on President Lincoln’s views on slavery, I think that it is time that I start looking for sources that answer the other question of what the slaves thought of President Lincoln and his generosity. The challenge is definitely finding enough information to support my question. This is why I have changed my question multiple times. My previous questions were extremely specific and in the end did not have enough information to back them up however, I think that this question will be broad enough to where I can find information to make my project the best that it can be.

Apr 03

Google Maps: Historical Narrative

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Screen shot 2014-04-03 at 7.16.23 PM

 

Here is a link to my map on Google Maps.

When deciding what landmarks to chose for my map, I took what I thought was associated with President Abraham Lincoln and paired that with what I thought was associated with the African American culture and era during the civil war. I thought that this would help me decide what to look into when I am researching my topic as to why President Lincoln decided to free the slaves and what his purpose for doing so was. For me it was difficult to layer the map at first but then once I was able to figure it out, I decided that I was going to draw a polygon around the central and oldest building in my locations, which is the White House. After this, I decided to connect the dots and draw a line to the second oldest building and so on. This helped me realize that many of Washington D.C.’s oldest landmarks and buildings are all extremely central to each other, whereas the newest one is farther away which tells me that D.C. has definitely expanded in the last two decades. I don’t really think that creating a historic narrative on a map was necessarily helpful for my topic, however it did help me understand the layout of D.C. more and therefore I can translate my newfound knowledge of the city into what I am researching for my topic. I believe it was definitely an interesting exercise that I will try and use when working on my project in future days to come.

 

Mar 04

Research Question

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Through the time of the 1860’s what was it like to be an abolitionist in Washington D.C? Was there an extensive movement that occurred in the District of Columbia and how many slaves were freed through these movements?

Mar 02

Copyrightable or Not?

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According to the blog post assignment I am supposed to determine whether or not a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon is protected under copyright law or not. For reference here is the link to the strip in question. What I finally came to a consensus of when debating whether or not the comic strip was copyrightable or not, I came to the conclusion that it is. Because the author of the comic strip, Bill Watterson, is still alive meaning that the work is still protected under U.S. copyright law. Therefore because the author is still alive and yet was not asked if his cartoon could be shown on this particular blog website, the copyright law has technically been broken. What copyright does is it helps an author, artist, ect, protect their work. It is the right for the owner to control what people can and cannot do with their work. In theory, in order to obtain permission to copy an author’s work, you would first have to track down the author, and then you would then contact the owner to ask permission to use their work. Sometimes it is even asked to pay a permission fee to use their work however that can be negotiable depending on the owner.

Feb 21

Topic Exploration

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After looking through my three topics of choice I have finally decided to narrow down and finally decide on what to research for my final project. At first look, all three topics look interesting and appear to be good topics, however after looking into each topic with some mild research, I came to the conclusion that the easiest topic to find information on would be the history of the slave trade in Washington D.C. I would like to look into any abolitionist movements and any history about the underground railroad. I think it will be interesting to find out my information about what slavery meant in Washington D.C. throughout history.  In order to do this research I would first go to the George Mason University libraries website linked here to try and find information on both the online databases as well as on the library catalogue. I really enjoy the research capabilities that the University provides because it gives you access to both primary and secondary reliable resources. I hope this ends up being a great topic of research for me and am excited to take a closer look at the history of slavery in Washington D.C.

Feb 14

Topics of Interest

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Topic 1: A history of the slave trade in Washington DC

One topic that I would consider researching for my final project is the complete history of the slave trade in Washington DC. Although it is a sad topic to research, I have always found the concept of slavery to be interesting to learn about in school. I believe that it is important to recognize where in history we were wrong, so that we never again repeat the past. Enslaving the african american population was horrible and I think it is important to recognize that learning about and researching the history of where it stemmed from and why is the way to ensure that it will never happen again. The way I would go about researching this topic, is first visiting the george mason university library and database website link. From there I would attempt to search for both primary and secondary sources using the tools such as “inPrimo,” databases, and the actual library catalogue to find the best research to use in my final project.

 

Topic 2: A history of the Metro, and how it has become one of the most dependable ways to travel in and out of DC

Another topic that I would consider researching for my final project is the history of how the metro came to be built and why it has become such a reliable way of travel in and out of the city. I find it interesting how technology has evolved through history and in researching this topic, it would be my hope that I would finally understand how dependent this society is on technology to survive throughout the day. When doing research for this topic, I would first visit the University library website that I linked above. After reaching the home page of this website, I would then proceed to first research the history of how the metro was built using the “inPrimo” links as well as the database and catalogue links. After researching the history of it being built, I would then begin to look into the peoples reliability on technology and then the reliability of the metro itself.

 

Topic 3: Terrorist attacks on the District of Columbia

The third topic I would consider researching for my final project would be, the history of all terrorist attacks that have occurred in the District of Columbia. Throughout the last decade, terrorist attacks have become a very large issue in major cities, such as our nation’s capital. Although some attacks are made on the larger scale, some are not as prominent and I think it would be interesting to research all of the attacks that have ever been made on the Washington DC area. To go about this, I would again visit the University Library website from the link that I posted above. From there, I would then research at first the larger scale terrorist attacks such as the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, and then from there I wold begin researching smaller scale attacks such as those in Union Station as well as other places in the city. To do this research I would engage the help from the university provided databases and the library catalogue to help me find both primary and secondary sources.

 

Here is an image of what the George Mason University Library resource website looks like:

 

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Feb 09

Primary Sources

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Primary Source 1: http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ShowFullRecord?tab=showFullDescriptionTabs/details&%24searchId=4&%24showFullDescriptionTabs.selectedPaneId=digital&%24digiDetailPageModel.currentPage=0&%24resultsPartitionPageModel.targetModel=true&%24resultsSummaryPageModel.pageSize=10&%24partitionIndex=0&%24digiSummaryPageModel.targetModel=true&%24submitId=2&%24resultsDetailPageModel.search=true&%24digiDetailPageModel.resultPageModel=true&%24resultsDetailPageModel.currentPage=8&%24showArchivalDescriptionsTabs.selectedPaneId=&%24resultsDetailPageModel.pageSize=1&%24resultsSummaryPageModel.targetModel=true&%24sort=RELEVANCE_ASC&%24resultsPartitionPageModel.search=true&%24highlight=false link

This primary source is a digital copy of a voting record of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. What these records entail, are documented lists of who voted for what clauses that eventually produced what is now the Constitution. It is said in the documents that the votes were recorded by William Jackson, who was the secretary of the convention. Although the handwriting of the lists are hard to read as you can tell in the image I have posted below, what is nice about the records is that it can prove who voted for what to make the constitution what it is. One detail that I noted while analyzing the documents was that the column for the state of Rhode Island is blank because they did not participate in the convention. The other detail I noted was that the column for New York was blank for the later part of the convention votes, possibly because they left the convention early.

Rediscovery #01304 Job A1 08-131 Transparencies-1

 

Primary Source 2:  http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/hec.31617/?co=he link

This primary source is an image of a group of people in 1922 looking at the cherry blossoms in full bloom in Washington DC. What this photo gives an indication of, is how people in Washington DC were dressing in the 1920’s, along with the fact that it tells me that even then people were attending a viewing of the cherry blossoms blooming, which is now called the cherry blossom festival. In the background of the photo, you see the Washington Monument, and they seem to be standing next to a decent sized body of water. In the upper right hand corner there seems to be writing of some sort, which I took to be possibly the photographers initials or signature. The photograph was taken by Harris and Ewing, and convey a beautiful piece of imagery on what the Cherry Blossom festival used to be like.

31617r

 

If I had to choose a primary source that I found more difficult to analyze, it would have been the cherry blossom photograph. My reasoning for this, is that although it has historical meaning it is harder to find it by just looking at it, because at first glance all you see is a black and white photograph, but if you look deeper into the image you see that it is of the cherry blossom festival at an earlier date and time

 

Feb 02

Website Reviews

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The first website I looked at was:

http://library.brown.edu/cds/temperance/

This website is categorized as an archive website, and I believe is reliable because it is sponsored by the Brown University Library Center for digital scholarship. Having said this, I also explored the website, it allows you to browse and search for newspaper and journal articles of that time period during prohibition, providing the researcher with primary sources if that is what they are looking for. I did know about the bans and restrictions put on alcohol during this time before visiting this website, however I find it interesting that they provide you with articles directly when the ban was actually in place. It was easy to navigate, and the directions are clear on the home page. The purpose of this website is to give people an idea of the resources at Brown Universities library. Here is an example of the cover page of something that you could find in the website.

1124395205921875

 

 

The second website I looked at was:

http://www.17thc.us/

When first visiting this website, I got the impression that it was not necessarily the most reliable source for information about 17th Century New England. It appears to be an archive website, however I would not trust that. Its sponsors include “Britannica”, and “About the Best of the Net: September 1999.” The site’s home page was last updated in January of 2012, and other pages even earlier than that. When exploring the website, I did not find anything that was cited with credible sources and it appears as if someone put this website together with their own knowledge alone. One part I did find interesting is that when clicking on the primary sources page, the website provided links to credible websites such as the Library of Congress. My conclusion for this website is that it is potentially outdated and may not be the best website to use when looking up information about New England during this time, or in particular the Essex-County witch hunt of 1692.

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