I decided to look at the data available for Finding Aid for the Walt Disney productions publicity Ephemera 1938-198x for this assignment. This collection begins by describing the contents of the overall collection. For instance, it introduces the establishment of Walk Disney Company in 1923 and how it has morphed into a giant film production company. This gives an overall list and brief descriptions of different items in the archival collection including photographs, press kits, etc. It shows the progression and success of Walt Disney with each successful film or project from 1938-1980s. It is organized alphabetically by names of movies.
Some of the historical narratives that we might be able to explore based on the materials in this collection is that we could discuss the growth and progression of a successful Hollywood giant that is Walt Disney. We could discuss how the movie industry changed from having silent movies or short animated movies to lengthy, more sophisticated films like “Snow White”. The collection can also be organized in many different ways depending on what we want to show. We can organize the movies in chronological order and show the different types of changes that have accumulated over the lengthy success of Walt Disney or to show the topics being discussed in movies based on the mental state of environment or society.
This definitely seemed like a cool collection. I agree that it could be organized in a variety of ways, which can be both a blessing and a burden. On the one hand a chronological order would make sense to show the development of Walt Disney overtime, his vision and his craft. But I also think organizing it thematically (whether it’s by movie, character, themes of different movies) could be beneficial if we want to compare and contrast the different styles overtime as well.
Good, Jay. What stories might be harder to tell, based on this collection?
It’s harder to tell who the actors, directors, and others involved in making the film are. The data only shows year, title, number of items. If there was such information available regarding this collection, we would be able to possibly organize the data differently. For instance, we can see how many of Walt Disney’s movies or projects have the same people involved and we could organize it that way.