1/25 The History Harvest as Community-Engaged, "Hands-On" History

In recent years, a new form of historical teaching, preserving, and community interaction has been on the rise called the History Harvest. While the idea had been around since 1994 with people like Dr. Edward L. Ayers, it began to gain momentum in 2010 when the University of Nebraska-Lincoln began to promote the concept. The History Harvest seeks to involve the community in a hand on preservation effort by reaching out and requesting artifacts to preserve. Instead of community members having to donate their possessions to the Harvest, the historians involved work to digitize the items and return the artifacts to the visitors once they have scanned the objects in. Artifacts aren’t the only thing that the Harvest collects however as the Harvest also seeks to record oral histories from the participants. Through this collection process, Harvests seek to have a digitized collection that can be accessed at anytime from around the world.

Annotated Bibliography

1.       Chambliss, Julian. “Connie L. Lester and Finding Regional History.” Reframing Digital Humanities Conversations with Digital Humanists, March 3, 2021. https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/reframingdh/chapter/connie-l-lester-and-finding-regional-history/.

In this interview, the speaker explains the history and significance of the Regional Initiative to Collect Histories, Experiences and Stories, or RICHES for short. Starting off, the speaker explains that RICHES is more than just a database, but a way to connect seemingly unrelated objects to each other through a variety of digital tools. The database aspect is still important however, as it allows local communities and local histories to be widely available in a digital format. The interview also helps to explain how this database will continue to evolve and grow into the future so it’s various partnerships and missions that it has for itself.

 

2.       French, Scot. “SAF Keynote - Society of Florida Archivists - 5-11-2022.” Google Slides, May 11, 2022. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ga4us02-mSuzfH1z1dFHdDOvT-LRSHIX9QKSkF_FgbE/edit#slide=id.p.

This slideshow helps to illustrate the sustainability of history harvests and their ability to create lasting connections and relationships with various people and groups. It also illustrates the many ways digital history can be presented and displayed.

 

3.       Georgini, Sara. “Spring at the ‘History Harvest.’” The Junto, March 7, 2013. https://earlyamericanists.com/2013/03/06/spring-at-the-history-harvest/.

 

This is an interview with two of the creators of the history harvest. In it, they highlight how this type of academic study brings academics out of their towers and into the community. They also highlighted the impact it has on non-academics as they are able to see artifacts and histories that challenge their conceptions of their local community and history as a whole. Lastly, the authors emphasize how they are able to gather many artifacts that are often times not found in the community traditionally.

 

 

 

4.       “Home · History Harvest.” Omeka RSS. Accessed January 25, 2024. https://historyharvest.unl.edu/.

This webpage serves to educate scholars about the history of a history harvest. The site provides materials and guidance on how to perform a harvest. The site also shows off how a digital collection would look with their own collections as an example. It emphasizes how the history harvest is a new way to gather history in the evolving 21st-century.

 

5.       Lelis, Ludmilla. “‘Each Item Tells a Human Story’ at History Harvest.” The Orlando Sentinel. March 3, 2013.

 

This brief newspaper article highlights a local interest in the history harvest. It also shows off and tells that even small just family heirlooms can help paint a larger picture. The article also describes the future use of these collection efforts, such as GPS maps showing where artifacts came from.

 

 

6.       Lester, Connie Lee. “Harvesting History: Democratizing the Past through the Digitization of Community History.” Index of DH Conferences - “Harvesting History: Democratizing The Past Through The Digitization Of Community History,” July 2016. https://dh-abstracts.library.virginia.edu/works/2584.

This piece discusses the reasons the history harvest concept has begun to spread. Starting off, the history harvest answers a long-standing question about how to better involve and interact with the community in a historical, setting. Museums have struggled to attract the attention of people involved in the community and to reach the average community member. She highlights the importance of the organic aspects of a history harvest and how it opens up the field of history to people who aren’t academics. She then pivots to discussing the new efforts at the University of Central Florida and its Regional Initiative to Collect Histories, Experiences and Stories, or RICHES for short. She highlights how it is able to compile an entire database for this historical harvest knowledge and the way students at UCS have been able to learn and grow through their interactions with RICHES.

 

 

7.       Thomas, William G., Patrick D. Jones, and Andrew Witmer. “History Harvests: What Happens When Students Collect and Digitize the People’s History?: Perspectives on History: AHA.” History Harvests: What Happens When Students Collect and Digitize the People’s History? | Perspectives on History | AHA, January 2013. https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/january-2013/history-harvests.

These three authors go into a step-by-step process on the history harvest and explain some key ideas about a history harvest. They emphasize the importance of community involvement and understanding the community

 

8.       Vance, Meghan. “Engaging Communities to Preserve: The History Harvest as a Collaboration Model for Digital Preservation: The Signal.” The Library of Congress, September 4, 2013. https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2013/09/engaging-communities-to-preserve-the-history-harvest-as-a-collaboration-model-for-digital-preservation/.

In her article, Vance highlights the challenges that a history harvest can face in their efforts to digitize. She highlights the lack of funding and manpower, but points out the importance of collaboration with private groups to help counter act this. She also explains the interactions in her internship that helped her to better understand how these groups are able to digitize their collections.