The collection I chose is 1941 Championship of the Women’s Golf Association of California.
The abstract to the collection is as follows: Photograph album of 1941 championship of the Women’s Golf Association of California at the Orinda Country Club, Orinda, Calif. Album depicts competitors, spectators, journalists, tournament organizers, male golfers, and others associated with the event.
Based on the materials in this collection alone, we are able to tell a story about how the championship itself unveiled. Generally speaking, we can tell historical narratives by looking at the pictures in chronological order and also by zooming into various stakeholders’ emotions. For instance, if the photographs in this album is laid out chronologically, we can potentially infer the progression of each competitor in the championship, which will ultimately lead us to knowing who the champion is. Another thing that we can potentially draw out from this collection is how the spectators were feeling. For instance, we would be able to answer these questions: were their opinions fragmented between different players, were they only getting used to women in the golf arena, how many spectators were there, were they mostly high income obtainers or was the crowd spread across various income levels?
However, if we based the narrative solely based on the materials in this collection alone, we are highly likely to miss details pertaining to context, the sentiments of the general public outside of the tournament, and the relationship with prior and subsequent time periods. For instance, if we fail to look at the context of this collection, we might miss some details like whether or not this championship was held controversially or was the championship organized in the midst of a societal division. Furthermore, if it was held controversially, what was the general public’s sentiments? If we fail to understand what this sentiment is, we might miss out the detail that the championship might be a milestone for women in the athletic arena. Finally, deriving a story purely based on the collection alone will overlook whether the champion, for instance, was also a champion in the tournament in years prior or years after. Hence, we will miss a whole lot of important details if we only base our narrative on this collection.
Therefore, other sources that might complement this collection are news articles that would highlight key events (perhaps those that relate to progress or friction in the female emancipation movement) and collections of pictures or reports about prior and subsequent championships. We might even look at the earliest women’s golf championship and for how long the organizers have been pushing for this event to happen. Other sources that goes deeper into investigating the context of the tournament itself will be a useful complementary item to telling a full historical narrative.
I never would have thought to look at this collection! I really like the way you’ve discussed the implications of looking at the collection in different ways, like chronologically versus thematically. So many stories in this little collection!