This week I chose to analyze the Digital Harlem map, which congregates legal records from newspapers, police records, and other sources to demonstrate the events that occurred from 1915 to 1930.
The “About” screen states that the project was created to not only provide an exposé of African American artists during the time period, but also to give a representation of everyday life of African American individuals in New York City. The website displays a map, of which the user can toggle between the years 1920, 1925, and 1930 to see Harlem’s growing size over the span of ten years. Additionally, users are able to toggle the layers that they wish to see on the map. Some examples of the layers include law violations such as arrests, illegal gambling, assault, pickpocketing, etc… as well as provides layers for everyday life events such as the locations for pick-up basketball games, parties, weddings, and charitable events. When creating a layer, the user may input a name for the layer, then the map displays location-based points for where the event occurred, and the date it occurred. There are also layers that have already been created by the allows the user to select through a set of four different predetermined layers: January 1925, Number Arrests, Fuller Long, and Churches. I chose to explore the Number Arrests layer. When the user chooses the Number Arrests, the map immediately fills with blue dots to indicate various arrests throughout the specified years. If one chooses to click on an point on the map, the map will display the individual’s name that was arrested and what he or she was arrested for. If one chooses to click the “More Detail” link, the dialog box will display a news clipping of the news story from when the arrest was initially reported, the date of the arrest, the parties involved, the addresses involved, and the legal consequences.
While the map does provide the user with a great wealth of information, I would argue that the map does not necessarily display the everyday life individuals living in Harlem from 1915-1930. In fact, the map paints a more grueling image for those living there, and focuses more heavily on crime more than anything else. Doing so conjures a more grim picture, and might not necessarily be realistic of the greater majority of the individuals living in Harlem during the time. Additionally, while the map tells the user textual details about the events that occurred, it does not include images. Had images been provided, the user would be able to construct a greater archetypal image for “Daily Life” in Harlem from 1915 to 1930.
I enjoyed your post. I think your critique of the Digital Harlem map in saying that its focus on a lot of the negative events does not fully show day-to-day life is definitely true. There is a lot of information that could be added to this project in order to give a better idea of day-to-day life.
I really enjoyed the simplicity of your blog post, easy to read and understand. At times, I wanted to hear more of your opinion, especially the body paragraph where you’ve basically created lists of what was on the map. I feel as if this information could have easily been conveyed through a picture. Nitpicking aside, I really enjoyed your blog post and I do agree with you in that the map focuses too much on the grim aspects of harlem life.
You gave a great run-down of the website and described the components of the website well. I also enjoyed reading your critique. The project does emphasize a lot more on crime because of the sources chosen, which creates a skewed representation of Harlem. I also agree that images would have helped users to better visualize everyday life in Harlem.
I really enjoyed reading your post! I agree with you that the map doesn’t accurately describe everyday life of individuals living in Harlem since it is limited in the amount of information it depicts.
Very thorough descriptions! I like how detailed you were in describing the maps and its layers. Additionally, I agree that images would be more accurate in depicting Harlem, since they do not have a predisposed ontology onto them like police records do.