This week I decided to look at Digital Harlem: Everyday Life 1915-1930. This is a map that describes itself as a visualization of New York City’s Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915 – 1930. The information presented is compiled from various legal records, newspapers, and other archival and published sources. When first interacting with the project, a welcome blurb is displayed as well as a search bar to the left, a map in the center, and predetermined search filters on the right.
In the search filters to the left, the field “charge/conviction” immediately stuck out to me. I think this conveys a very specific narrative to new users of this project. It puts a very crime centric spin on the project and it makes it an integral part of the search. In addition to this, the majority of the events in the predetermined search filters on the right showcase arrests and crimes. While I do not think there is a problem with this type of visualization, I think there is an inherent problem with the name of the project. This could be useful information for some people, but to label it as “Everyday Life” is painting the community in a bad light. Yes, there are meetings and public events highlighted, but these are significantly outweighed by the number of crimes presented.
The project provides additional insights through its sources as well as additional maps in the “featured” section. The source section adds contexts to the events on the map, and also say that the crimes are not necessarily representative of hardened criminals. While this may be true, it still presents the surface level visualization of crime. Some users may not delve deeper than the map, and won’t understand the context behind it. To carry the name of “Everyday Life” I think it’s important to include so much more information. Who lived in what communities? What businesses and restaurants were on each block? What did some of these blocks look like? What was the average week for these citizens? To have this static map where people are presented solely by their crime or transgression is not only a disservice to them, but to Harlem as a whole.
This map displays a particular narrative, and is quite selective in its subject material. I would be curious to hear from the creators of this project why they decided to label the project as everyday life and if they had considered any other times. There were some other interesting maps in the featured section such as Harlem’s Hospitals, Harlem & Baseball in the 1920s, and more. I think even these would have been better at showcasing everyday life than the default featured maps on the right.
Super perceptive, Dillon. Most people don’t notice that right away.
Great insight about how “Everyday Life” misrepresents the data that is actually mapped. I definitely agree that either the title needs to change or more information needs to be added to give a more well rounded account of day to day activities. Well done!
You made a good point about the mismatching of the title and the content. That’s a very misleading assumption. “Every life” at least should be defined in their narrative even if they prefer to use criminal activities to define it. Besides the remedy you pointed out, I think perhaps the creators could make a timeline of the events put on the map. So we can have a better sense of what was going on in a specific historical moment.