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DPH 794, Project, Reviews

DPH 794: Post 8 InTERNSHIP ReflectIonS

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My internship was to create a Smithsonian Learning Lab exhibit that forged a bridge between the Smithsonian National Museum of American History: Medicine and Science Collections Washington, D.C., and those of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio.

Image of the Home page of the Smithsonian Learning Lab

                 Please visit:  “Who Cares”  http://learninglab.si.edu/q/ll-c/3LXidXoP4xkEhBvH

Image of the exhibit created by Kim Lenahan entitled "Who Care" features thumbnails of exhibit artifacts.

“ Because of my internship, I am…”

Proud of the work accomplished: as it broke new ground in highlighting women’s achievements in the area of medicine and science, that it has provided evidence for how women are seldom recognized or their artifacts collected; that it encourages attention to be drawn to women’s lives and stories; that a novel way of promoting this history has been developed on an innovative platform that will encourage use of the collections of NMAH Medicine & Science & the Western Reserve Historical Society.

Comforted by recognizing historic limits of medicine and science, which councils’ patience when I am caring for family members, or in the face my own health challenges. I am more empathetic with the striving of myself and others to achieve recognition. I commiserate with and seek to encourage those who are quiet or who have been overlooked, viewed as ordinary as their heroism may be greater than those whom we applaud.

More courageous having attempted something new, recognized it was more difficult than anticipated and still persevered.  I am less fearful of looking foolish, breaking something, or violating rules.  I am grateful for the space and opportunity to explore, collaborate with experts, rethink the use of standard practices, technological tools, and the limits of location, resources, and connections.

Wiser for having viewed my understanding of women, healthcare, place, and significance from an entirely different perspective.  More thoughtful for having observed and experienced ‘teaching and learning’ in a different environment.

Committed to restoring what has been hidden, to being more intentional in valuing the students, the colleagues, and the people I interact with daily; to collecting their stories and their heritage and thereby the indomitable power of the human spirit.

DPH 794

STASIS

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    It is Winter in Cleveland, OH.  Here on the North coast when the ice comes, the “shipping season” comes to a halt.  Ohio was the Western frontier when America was young. The fastest way to the interior of the new country was down the St. Lawrence Seaway or up the Mississippi River. The building of the Erie Canal in the 1830s was Cleveland’s first boom period. Our location in the North, the abundance of immigrant workers and again our importance as a port made Cleveland a hub for supplying Union Troops during the Civil War and its location between the ore mines of the Upper Great Lakes, coal mines of West Virginia and oil fields of Western Pennsylvania made it a primary hub of manufacturing after the war.  
 But the country grew Westward, it passed us by. Airplanes and Amazon have taken their toll on these Midwest rust belt cities. In the winter, Cleveland waits, hoping for Spring.

Postcards of Cleveland http://www.cleveland memory.org/postcards/leedy.html Cleveland State University, Michael Schwartz Library, Special collections.

    The current political waves are choppy and unpredictable.  Surrounded by books I am cozy in my living room. With my computer and technological devices I could reach out to the world, but it is winter and I am just waiting for circumstances beyond my control to resolve themselves.  According to the most erudite of all scholars, “Sometimes, when I am going somewhere, I wait. And then somewhere comes to me” (A.A. Miline, Winnie-the Pooh). Winnie and winter remind us humans that we are not always in control. We live day to day, assuming it will turn out as we plan, but as we examine the past we recognize things happen and lives are impacted.

Isabel Hampton Robb

    Isabel Hampton Robb, known by nurses as the mother of Nursing Education, was the Superintendent of nurses and principal at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She was a force to be reckoned with in training nurses, publishing textbooks, advocating for and organizing the nursing profession. Robb came to Cleveland as the bride of Dr. Hunter Robb who was hired to teach gynecology at Case Western Reserve University in 1894.  It would have been socially unthinkable, then, for a married woman to “work”, so she organized and wrote. Mrs. Robb traveled to meetings, developed nursing practices and wrote the rules of efficiency. Until she died abruptly in a streetcar accident…in downtown Cleveland…in 1910 …..at the age of fifty one.

    Bernadine Healy, Vassar alumna, Harvard Med, Cleveland cardiologist, was the first woman to be named head of the National Institutes of Health.  She had previously successfully reorganized and managed the Cleveland Clinic’s Research Institute. A staunch Republican, she was a natural for George Bush to choose to reorganize and revitalize the NIH.  Healy launched the Women’s Health Initiative, a pioneering and critical study of women’s health that resulted in significant changes in the diagnosis of heart disease, and improved understanding of the role of estrogen in the body and the treatment of cancer in women.  The tides of politics shifted, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, became president and Healy stepped down. Healy later ran into difficulties with the embedded staff and board of the American Red Cross,complicated by organizational difficulties of the Red Cross’s response to 9-11. She left that organization in 2001.  Dr. Healy then became a TV health commentator and author, but her brain cancer returned. She died in her home in Shaker Hts. in 2011, at the age of 67.

    I imagine what you are thinking, is this author obsessed with death and what does this have to do with “Digital Public Humanities”?  These women were particularly brilliant and beautiful and renowned. Separated by over one hundred years, they cared for people, influenced medicine, and had lives that made a difference. They too lived through Cleveland winters with their families.  Digital Public Humanities gives us a lens to look at other lives–perhaps those with less notoriety, but no less important to their families and the people for whom they care. In my research and in my internship, I hope to uncover the work and connections of Cleveland’s women, using new tools.  But the political winds are blowing and the times are uncertain. Persons working for the government today are unsettled and afraid to make plans. We are waiting for forces beyond control. Medical practitioners try to uncover patterns of disease and wrest control. Politicians try to force their will and navigate our society’s future in alignment with their goals.  The power of the historian is to look backward and see how these threads of life, both wild and controlled, intertwine and eventually create a past worth remembering. We find and share stories in ways that help us understand one hundred years later, how we got here.

Chronicle Telegram 1/22/17

     A quote from Isabel Hampton Robb is inscribed on the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Nursing building, “Nurses are trusted with the most precious thing on earth: the life, health, and happiness of other human beings.”  I have been entrusted to tell the stories of some nurses and other women who hoped to improve the lives around them. In Cleveland, I am hopefully waiting for the thaw and for Spring.

DPH 794

STORMS

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As I write this the Northeast is battening down for a weekend of blizzard.  I am old enough to remember the days before global warming when this was a common occurrence.   I would still have to go to school in below zero weather (where we would sit in our coats) and trudge back through the snow to get home.

Cartoon of woman stuck in a car in a blizzard c1944
Yes Sir, It’s One Winter We’ll Remember! Cleveland Memory Project

There is another storm, the crisis of government workers – working or not, trapped by not being paid, yet not really free to ‘move on’, as America plays politics.  I have lived through a government shutdown as a worker – I did not face a long shutdown, but however long – the uncertainty takes a toll.  It is not a holiday.  I have been also been impacted directly by this shut down as the internship I was supposed to begin with the Smithsonian hangs in limbo land.  I am fortunate; it is not my bread and butter.  But it puts me into the “unease,” will I complete my certificate this summer as planned? 

Storms of uncertainty can be powerful motivators.  Cleveland women throughout the generations have not been idle when faced with questions they could not answer and problems they could not solve.  They have taken action to solve them. In the earliest days, survival was an issue.  Due to the nature of the crooked (meaning of the Indian name) Cuyahoga River, Clevelanders faced waves of malaria as well as other epidemics during its settlement period in the early 1800’s.  Also from the beginning Cleveland women relied upon each other.  Talitha Stiles one of the first settlers came to the Western Reserve with her husband and the Moses Cleveland Survey party in 1796.  Talitha gave birth to the first ‘Cleveland child’ the following year, reportedly attended by Indian Women.[1]

The history of women and health care in Cleveland has mostly been unrecognized, because Western tradition and social practice has emphasized “firsts”, otherwise predicated as Great Men and Great Deeds.  While men were “conquering the West”, women accompanied them, cooked for them, patched their clothes and their wounds, birthed the children and mostly received no recognition.  No one ever recorded, ‘Talitha Stiles was the first woman to cook beans and muffins in Cleveland’.  But, she was the first woman to birth a child in this Western wilderness, Charles Phelps Stiles.[2]  I wonder if it would have been recorded had he been a she?

Cleveland Settlement 1800 (Lorenzo Carter & Surveyor’s Cabin – Courtesy Cleveland Memory

The projected internship: Women and Health Care in Cleveland: Utilizing the Digital Collections to Expand Community Connections and Collaboration  focuses on network visualization & mapping of the changing organizations in women’s health care in Cleveland, OH during the 1960’s & 70’s.  Women and Health Care in Cleveland is an ongoing research project that explores the impact of relationships in the development of our regional health care infrastructure. This Digital Public Humanities internship will focus on the intersection of changing Public Health policy, technology, and social cultures on the community and health care institutions.  The components will feature the creation of a digital catalog of pertinent artifacts and resources as well as interpretation and visualizations of the collections, connections and impact of these changes.

[1] Scharf, Lois. :Women”, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, 1988 case.edu/ech/articles/w/women (accessed 1/21/19)

[2] “Stiles, Job Phelps”, Ibid.

Project, Reviews

Reflections: DPHF17 WHCC Mapping 1.0

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I. Aim of the Project

The aim of the DPHF17 WHCC Mapping 1.0 project is to apply what I am learning in the George Mason University Digital Public Humanities Certificate program to the larger historical project “Women and Health Care in Cleveland” (WHCC).  WHCC has examined many types of ‘connections’ between Cleveland’s institutions and individuals using traditional historical methods and disseminating this information through academic and public avenues.  As the WHCC project evolved, it has expanded including many variables: Public and private institutions, corporate, proprietary and government entities, relationships that span the gamut of intimate families and friends, through organizational and philanthropic to distant resource and approval figureheads.  The increasing size of the corpus data has made digital humanities methods attractive to the WHCC.

For this specific project, I am applying two forms of mapping and network analysis software to a small sample WHCC data set to ascertain our ability to adapt WHCC materials to DH methods. I am anxious to see what these visualizations reveal about the WHCC network of medical care in Cleveland, OH during the period 1850-1870, when the city and public institutions are just organizing.  This project is also being conducted as part of a learning community created within the Digital Humanities Certificate Program.  Collaboration is an intrinsic part of projects created within the field of digital humanities. Close engagement with persons involved in all aspects of the resourcing, researching, production and those who will be engaging with the completed research is part of this methodology. (Ramsay, Stephen, “DH Types”) The production of this project and its partners is an exercise in collaboration.  Also this effort will inform WHCC current and future research and project activities.

II. Sources

WHCC records are comprised of traditional research notes, tabulated and compiled over years of assorted projects and presentations.  These records needed to be transformed into complete, structured and clean databases to form a Subset of data for digital analysis.  The technical process of converting WHCC information from its original Excel Spreadsheet to a .cvs database ready to be utilized for DH analysis is described on the WHCC Project Page.

For this particular reflection, it needs to be recognized how “incomplete” the corpus was from a digital standpoint.  This is part of the “art” of traditional historical analysis – interpreting relationships from ‘limited’ sources.  Various specific details are missing for a majority our people, but the ‘missing’ data is not always the same aspect.  The lack of quantifiable and definitive data results in the critiques, such as “Most historians still trade in text mediated by uncertainty and theory; while historical geographers, strive to tie data to a knowable and certain fragment of the world’s surface”, by social scientists that have more measureable data on which to rest their authority. (Hitchcock, Historyonics)  The time consuming task of transforming the minutia of notes (fortunately frequently recorded in digital formats – Word, Excel, Google etc.) was tedious and required several passes to add  missing elements,  correct items, and standardize references. The purpose as Hitchcock asserts

“makes possible a situation in which historians cease to be mere text merchants, obsessed with the perfect quote, and compelling (if largely un-evidenced) argument; and where geographers {AND HISTORIANS} have a new access to the subtle mappings of the marks of ‘culture’ in its broadest sense – a new way of thinking about the geographical distribution of behaviors and ideas, that bring within a geographical fold questions traditionally preserved for others…..We quite suddenly share a new culture of data – and data can be translated.”  (Hitchcock, Historyonics)

But, recorded in these records were extensive descriptions of relationships, references and speculations about connections that cannot be translated into spreadsheet columns.  This difficulty has been noted:

“Humanistic data are almost by definition uncertain, open to interpretation, flexible, and not easily definable. Node types are concrete; your object either is or is not a book. Every book-type thing shares certain unchanging characteristics.  … This reduction of data comes at a price, one that some argue traditionally divided the humanities and social sciences. If humanists care more about the differences than the regularities, more about what makes an object unique rather than what makes it similar, that is, the very information they are likely to lose by defining their objects as nodes.”…..

“Unfortunately, given that humanistic data are often uncertain and biased to begin with, every arbitrary act of data-cutting has the potential to add further uncertainty and bias to a point where the network no longer provides meaningful results. The ability to cut away just enough data to make the network manageable, but not enough to lose information, is as much an art as it is a science.” (Weingart, “Demystifying Networks”).

An objective of this project is to create a physical picture, while maintaining our awareness that this “picture” is a created artifact.  The primary criteria of removal from our corpus was incomplete addresses, this reduced the initial data set from 772 to 194.  Identifiable geolocations reduced it to 135.  In statistical terms, the test data is comprised of 17% of the full corpus.  The analysis has also been governed more by ‘quantifiable’ units (nodes) and is therefore more broad and superficial than the depth of WHCC records indicate.  For example, Oliver Hazard Payne, the grandson of Oliver Hazard Perry, served in the Civil War and then became a board member of Standard Oil.  He donated to Cornell Medical College, Cleveland’s Lakeside Hospital, the Jewish Orphan Asylum, St. Vincent Charity hospital among others, but died a bachelor.  He left his money to family members including Elizabeth Bingham Blossom, who married Dudley Blossom, who would become the City Welfare Director and gained national prominence transforming “City” into Metropolitan Hospital.  — How does that get put in a spreadsheet?

“There are many networks that can connect the same group of nodes, and many questions that can be asked of any given network, but before trying to use networks to study history, you should be careful to make sure the questions match the network.” (Weingart, Networks Demystified).  In order to accomplish this test within the limited time-frame, specific decisions were made to include rows that had complete data and columns that could be straightforwardly quantified or compared digitally.  These choices dramatically limited the size of the Trial Data Set and the number of visualizations that could be performed.  It is evident that experience in database design would enhance the structure of the database and the end-product.

III. Software that You Worked With:

The tools used for analysis in the DPHF17 WHCC Mapping Project were CARTO and PALLADIO.  A description of the tool and examples of the visualizations produced with them is available on the WHCC Project Page .

There are aspects of “working” in the field of Digital Humanities that completely change your conception of it.  I recognize “plural” in “Digital Humanities” in a much different way than when I began the semester.  At that point, I believed it was interdisciplinary and combined the digital (discrete bits & computers) with humanistic topics.  The primary purpose being to create products and exhibits that contributed to the understanding and snazz of the Humanities. The Digital Humanities are plural in a much deeper and comprehensive way.  In the creation of the DPHF17 WHCC Mapping Project, I have used multiple softwares.  I think a more appropriate way of discussing them is in terms of categories of tools used, as well as specific applications.

Throughout the project process, communication of ideas and transmission of data has been necessary and on-going.  However a straight forward email is only one form.  Daily I was using several platforms based on where I was working and the type of collaboration I was seeking: Microsoft Outlook at work; Gmail for private and college business communications; Blackboard messages for student interaction within my class, as well as blackboard collaboration for class meetings, Slack – was the primary collaboration tool used for course questions and help within our group.  Each one of these platforms is directed to accomplishing similar goals but in targeted and specific ways.  Blackboard (An education management system) is a suite of tools to address the needs of educators and students.  Microsoft Outlook is particularly targeted to business processes and Gmail tries to straddle both business and private communication spheres.  Choice of usage is not always in the hands of the user, but may be dictated by the environment.

Collection and organization of data was also accomplished through many systems.  The course itself had its own course platform “dhcert” which was customized software hosted on Reclaim.  This enabled the dispersal of information and submission of coursework in a paced process that was much more fluid and individually accessible than Blackboard.  I utilized document tools –  Google Docs and Microsoft Word; spreadsheet tools – Excel and Google sheets.  The primary advantage of Google tools being the ability to synchronously edit and collaborate.

Tools for the dissemination of results include: WordPress – This is publishing software which is hosting my blog and also provides a course record.  The capacity in which it was used this semester was more an educational and professional platform than personal journal.  Also discussed and encouraged are further social media tools utilized to “get the word out”, now that newspapers and print media are not as commonly utilized.  These tools included Facebook, Twitter, other people’s blogs, institutional websites and professional networking resources like Linked In and HNet (field specific network) or sites like www.digitalhumanities.cam.ac.uk

The WHCC Project is a ‘location specific’ project.  At various times, I have hand created maps or adapted existing maps to “show” the relationships with which we are working; and how space impacts those relationships.  So I was drawn to the mapping and visualization tools of CARTO and Palladio.  Multiple tools were selected, because I am interested in testing both the visual map interface and the network constellation visual representations.  Texas A&M GeoServices was an essential tool as it was used to transform street addresses into latitude/longitude coordinates as Geo locations. This opensource program was particularly friendly to work with, utilized my Excel sheet with expanded columns formulated the Geo locations for my limited data set quickly.  The Excel sheet was saved as a .cvs file, which once created could be utilized by both platforms, which was a pleasant surprise.  CARTO maps.  It is possible to upload the GIS data, have it appear on a constructed map.  CARTO then allows the user to make various forms of analysis (Histograms, Graphs, Time Series, Density and Grouping) that help show connections and changes over time on the map itself.  CARTO is easy in the sense that its widgets and analysis software will do magic in transforming data into maps.  But it is a time-consuming process to learn CARTO’s idiosyncrasies and getting the various widgets to operate the way you think they should intuitively. CARTO I can utilize 19th century maps digitized in the Cleveland Map collection. I am choosing this software because, we will be looking at this network again in the 1930’s and 1990’s and utilizing the GIS aspects of CARTO will be particularly helpful.

The Palladio platform is easier to work with than CARTO.  However, the ability to customize visualizations is more limited.   Palladio is structured more as a “tool set”.  The tool is selected, the data is plugged in and “poof” the network image appears.  This makes it much more fun for the non-techie to do techie magic.  In projecting a new form of visualization which focuses on the connection and its strength; Palladio helps the user focus on the relationship between objects.  This non-traditional spatial view of relationships helps the user to consider the meaning of the patterns and stimulates new questions.   Using Palladio and CARTO together

 IV.  Problems Completing the Project:

Overall the major challenge of the project was time.  The time-frame of this sub-project and many design elements have been dictated by DPHCert course requirements.  A substantial portion of time for this project has been spent reorganizing, cleaning and supplementing the information that had been gathered in order to create a clean data set that could be loaded into visualization software.  The scope of the current project has been narrowed from a full scale analysis of the WHCC data to testing a portion of the data. Even then, the scope was reduced further as each activity in the project required learning the methodology of a new tool, or expanding on a fragmentary knowledge of it.  While time available to the project was intended to focus on utilization of the digital tools, the preservation of the larger project’s resources became a time critical issue. While this aspect seems extraneous to the DPHF17 project, it is a valuable reminder of human, machine and societal issues that will impact any public project.  Another ‘human’ issue in the completion of this project is isolation from an active DH facility/community.  As I read fellow “ground” students posts, which included references to conversations and evidently lab type resources and assistance, that resulted in professional products; I recognized the depth of my struggle to learn unfamiliar tools and change embedded practices on my own.

V.  Discoveries About Sources:

Preparation of the full corpus data was beyond my ability to complete in the time available in the semester. The Test corpus was determined by a representative sample and having a substantial number of records to process. Limiting the number of columns in the network relationships (determined as necessary during the data cleaning process) was the most disappointing feature of creating the test data. Also after having compiled the test corpus and run the visualizations, I believe I will need to rethink strategy of formulation. Names are important to understanding the relationships in the larger project, but the ‘significance of the names’ is invisible to the computer. The addresses are also significant, but do not tell the full story of the geographic locations.

WHCC spreadsheets were created to compile resources for the purposes of other  sub-projects. This format was not sufficient for effective digital processing. The lack of a fundamental design structure meant that creating a “usable” database was more complex and time consuming than expected. Gaps in the data needed to be filled, extra punctuation and side notes needed to be removed. Addresses has to be placed into standard formats and geolocations calculated. Computer tools can be used for some of these processes, but the interpretation of meaning (even in deciphering aspects within the data structure) requires human analysis.

Choices were made to limit the scope of the project because data was missing or incomplete, but I also discovered that some of the organizational structure even in the newly constructed database was unhelpful.  The original construction of the numbered Charity columns was based on the evidence of commitment or office tenure of the individual.  For the purposes of digital analysis, I believe the columns should be titled by Charity Name.  This would allow a better display of the charities as well as the individual relationships.  Additional dates, (hiring, membership, terms of office etc.) if available would make time sequence analysis possible.

Opening the project up to the public during its ‘working phase’ is not a strategy I would have anticipated or probably considered. The inclusion of public awareness is part of the evolution of my understanding of ‘Digital Humanities’ and exposure to more DH work in a thoughtful way. At our first glance of Digital Harlem, I realized the power and usefulness of its blog. Since this project is somewhat similar to WHCC, in exploring the impact of an aspect of an urban community; I examined this project closely and have been reflecting on its strategy and methodology. WHCC does have a ‘crowdsourcing’ element in its origin and full implementation. Laying the groundwork for that engagement now, seems appropriate,

“[DH] projects allow improved searching and analysis of primary sources, facilitating a researcher in their task and allowing new ways to synthesize, juxtapose, and create knowledge. Although many digitization projects in the Digital Humanities are developed with a core constituency in mind, the resulting resources can be used by a wider audience, and the ramification of opening up access to humanities, arts, and cultural content is just starting to be understood.” (Terras, Digitization and Digital Resources in the Humanities)

 VI.  Highlights of Presentation

WHCC has been collaborative from the beginning in the research, generating community interest and support.  This project has benefitted from and reinforced the significance of that aspect of WHCC practice.  WHCC is an effort to uncover the networks and contributions of previously unrecognized actors in the development of our current health care system.  This project has demonstrated the ability of Digital Humanities methodology and tools to uncover new relationships and generate import research questions. Production of Digital Humanities analysis is time-consuming (expensive) on the front end, but replicable on the back end.

“It is not just that mapped data is seen in its geographical context…large quantities of data, can be combined on a single map, providing an image of the complexity of the past.  You can examine maps of sources at different scales, and discover relationships…by visually detecting spatial patterns that remain hidden in texts and tables.” (Robertson, “Digital Harlem”)

The introduction of this methodology into WHCC proposes a broader understanding of the ‘unrecognized actors’ and a deeper understanding of the embedded nature of the networks within the city.  “Trevor Harris, Jesse Rouse and Susan Bergeron argue, ‘The visual display of information creates a visceral connection to the content that goes beyond what is possible through traditional text documents.’”(In Robertson, “Digital Harlem”)  This project is a step in developing a ‘visceral connection’ within the WHCC.

Notes:

Edelstein, Dan, Findlen, Paula, Ceserani, Giovanna, Winterer, Caroline, and Nicole Coleman. “Historical Research in “A Digital Age: Reflections from the Mapping the Republic of Letters Project.” American History Review, 122, no. 2 (2017): 400-424.

Robertson, Stephen “Putting Harlem on the Map.” In Writing History for the Digital Age.  Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, ed.  University of Michigan Press, 2012.

Hitchcock, Tim. “Place and the Politics of the Past.” Historyonics (blog), July 11, 2012.

Ramsay, Stephen. “DH Types One and Two”. Stephen Ramsay (Blog), 2013.

Terras, Melissa.  “Digitization and Digital Resources in the Humanities.” In Digital Humanities in Practice, ed. Claire Warwick, Melissa Terras, and Julianne Nyhan.  Facet Publishing, 2012.

Weingart, Scott. “Demystifying Networks” Scott Weingart (blog), December 14, 2011.

Weingart, Scott. “Networks Demystified 8: When Networks are Inappropriate.” Scott Weingart (blog), December 5, 2013.

Project

DPHF17 WHCC Social Media Strategy

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Name of Project:  DPHF17 WHCC Mapping 1.0

Project Goals:     

  1. Write an introduction to the project and the mapping rationale
  2. Complete 3 visualizations for the DPHF17 Filtered Data Set
  3. Compile a summary of the DPHF17 WHCC Mapping 1.0 project
  4. Write a Blog about the WHCC Mapping 1.0 project

Who is the Intended Audience: The intended audiences for this project include:

l.  George Mason DPHCert Staff & Student Cohort

Platforms:

Slack – this is a social media tool for closed working group collaboration.  It is being used for conversation and connection to the class for assistance and camaraderie.

WordPress – This blog is a record of the course which serves as an educational and professional tool.  It provides as opportunity to share work and seek input.

Blackboard Collaborate – Blackboard is an educational management system that has a tool for live class conferencing.  Our class will meet to discuss projects.

Carto DB – This mapping program will be used to create 3 visualizations of WHCC data.

Messages:

  1. Project Description
  2. Explanation of the Mapping Project and Visualizations
  3. Summary of Project contributions to course, DH and WHCC project

Measures:

  1. Identified Specific Goals (4) that are Specific, Realistic, and Attainable
  2. Time:
    •   Write introduction and complete preliminary project work
    • Meet with Class on Dec. 7
    • Post 5 Blogs by Dec. 13
    • Complete of Summary & Submission of the Project by Dec. 15

II.  WHCC Project Directors and interested parties.

Platforms:

Microsoft Excel – is being used to collect and categorize data on the women and auxiliaries that formed the first network of health care in Cleveland, Oh prior to and through the Civil War.

Google Docs & Sheets is being used to work collaboratively on the WHCC data and publication drafts.

Texas A&M GeoServices was used to transform Street Coordinates into Geolocations

Facebook & Google Chat are being used for collaboration purposes on WHCC projects and research.

Messages:

  1. WHCC has substantial data that can be analyzed through digital processes
  2. Mapping and other digital visualization processes will contribute to a better understanding of our networks and may lead to new questions or areas of research that should be studied to create a more accurate understanding of the network.
  3. Production of a defined, cleaned and digitally prepared Trial corpus of the WHCC data.
    • Produced Test Visualizations and preliminary interpretations

 Measures:

  1. Messages i-ii have been accomplished in the creation of a Trial corpus
  2. Production of a Trial corpus iii completed 11/25 (188 geolocations out of 752 identifiable WHCC network contacts)
  3. Time
    •  Produced Test Visualizations iv due Dec. 7-15

 

III.   Members of the Health Care Community and Citizens of Cleveland, OH

Platforms:

WordPress will be used to create a Project Page for the WHCC

Michael Schwartz Library Special Collections: Women in Cleveland, Cleveland State University is the current repository for archival collections pertaining to Women & Health Care in Cleveland obtained during the course of the project.

Messages:

  1. Cleveland is a model of Midwestern experience of western migration, rise and fall of the industrial economy and a pivotal center of ethnic and racial migration. Historically the city has recognized the significance and value of its heritage.  The presence of a wide range of institutions that have been involved in the practice, delivery, advancement of and philanthropy for medical institutions and care make it is an excellent location to study the role of women in the creation and transformation of health care practices and systems.
  2. Data and archival resources are valuable resources to the community and should be collected preserved and interpreted.
  3. Using digital tools to research previously untapped historical records can reveal hidden stories, help us recognize unseen connections and create new understandings of our community and its services.

Measures:

  1. Meetings: Regarding archival collections & project goals (on-going, Dec. 21)
  2. Transfer of (currently unnamed) Collection to Michael Schwartz Library (Dec. 2017)
  3. Prepare arrangements for announcement of receipt of said Collection through (currently unnamed) representatives and William Barrow, Dir Special Collections.
  4. Develop WHCC Twitter Updates – Trial on my Twitter; Collection announcement and visualization production – by 3rd week of Dec.