Getting the GIS-t of It All

The past two weeks have certainly gotten the best of my time. The Digital Public History group project had given me more opportunities to re-familiarize myself with my love-hate relationship with microfilm. The recording process for the group project also gave me the chance to step back into the wonderful world of audio recording. My RA work placement had me more anxious and nervous than my first day on Western's campus, but in an extremely good way. Finally, I was officially introduced to GIS mapping, and the vast number of uses for it.

The process of Historical GIS mapping is incredibly appealing to me. Firstly when looking at the previous projects of past students I had some initial ideas of what I may want to work on for my final project, or simply a project for the future. I had the idea of tracking the growth and change of the downtown core of my hometown of Glace Bay since its creation in 1901. Gathering maps and photos of the growth of the town during the rise of coal, and pairing it with stories from the town and its people. The downtown of Glace Bay is primarily situated on Commercial Street, and that street is filled with historical businesses and stories. Teenagers shooting the drag, Toby's and Ein's clothing store, and even the jello tree (a folklore filled tree which was cut down a few years ago). The other project that came to mind was providing a map of the coal mines across Cape Breton, a concise map with photos and stories about the towns that existed because of them. I personally have been able to find a great workable map with all of the locations for the coal mines, which luckily are all numbered. The Dominion Coal Company gave their collieries a number and that is how they were identified, and communities around Glace Bay are still referred to as being No. 2, or No. 11 for example. I think GIS and what we had been shown with ArcGIS is exciting, and maybe one of these ideas will be something I attempt for my final project.



Another major part of my past two weeks was researching for and gathering information on my stop for the walking tour we are doing for our group project in Digital Public History. The stop I was initially given seemed to overlap with other stops along the tour, so it had to be changed. Luckily I had not gotten too far down the rabbit hole in research for my stop when I was asked if I'd be comfortable changing it, which I was. The new stop actually seemed more in my wheel house anyway, and I'm more than willing to do what it takes when working on a group project, but I had plenty of time to research and refocus my stop for the project. In researching my stop, like many in the class, I was spending a fair amount of time in the downtown central library in the London Room. It is a great space that is welcoming and quiet, but not in a weird unsettling way, if that makes any sense at all. Also, their microfilm room is perfect. They have multiple microfilm readers and such vast collections on microfilm. However, as I mentioned, I have a love-hate relationship with microfilm. It is an incredible piece of technology that lasts vastly longer than many other forms of media, and the resources that can be stored upon it are legible and can be accessed through other digital means. But, with all that being said, my eyes do not like microfilmed newspaper; starring at a white background with small black text for hours on end gives me not so great migraines. I even have blue-light filter type lens things build into my glasses and they don't really help. Knowing all this, discovering a useful resource in a microfilmed newspaper is exciting; it is something that others have most likely glanced over and never thought to write down. My initial research idea for the stop changed as I was finding great articles, headlines, and photos that fit an idea that I didn't consider before beginning my research.

 After I believe 3 or 4 days of after class, and after work research at the library I needed to get away from technology for a while. I enjoy writing and my research is always typed out in the end, but I am very much an pencil and paper kind of person, and I was sitting at my computer or on my laptop trying to type up my research for a few days and it just wasn't coming to me. I also had an assignment for Understanding Archives that I knew what I wanted to do and say, but for whatever reason it just wasn't happening. Also, I believe that's why I ended up having to write about 2 weeks of classes in this 1 blog post. I needed a chance to reconnect with my writing, for whatever reason I had lost it. So after the library one day, I decided to go to Victoria Park. Since arriving in London I interact with nature less than I usually would (obviously), and I knew that was going to be the case when I was coming here. Before I left Cape Breton I was taking evening runs along the cliff at the end of my road, there are four wheeler paths along it, and I would be running right alongside the ocean. It was my way of unwinding at the end of the day, and I think I just needed to reconnect with nature here in London and get back to the pencil and paper way of writing that fits my brain the best sometimes. I spent an hour and a half in the park on a bench writing, and it was just what I had needed. I was able to write down everything I needed for my assignment for Understanding Archives, like I had said, I knew what I wanted to do for it, but simply didn't have the precise drive I wanted at the time to do it. Also, I was able to go through my handwritten research notes and form a structure to my stop for the walking tour. It gave me a baseline of where I wanted the research to go, and I wrote a few paragraphs sitting on a bench on a great evening in Victoria Park. I later went home that night and typed up the assignment, and typed up my research. So, if I ever hit another brick wall with my writing, I'm just going to go to a park and sit, and relax, and it will eventually come to me.

 Here was my view while I worked

My second contribution for the walking tour group project was with the narration. Myself and Kat both volunteered to provide our voices to the walking tour, and just the other day we did just that. After handing in our research to our project leader Jess, all of our research for each of the 8 stops was sent off to the next level of preparation, and that was creating a concise voice and final script for the narrators to read. Sitting and recording the stops that I had chosen to read for was as usual more difficult than I expected. Back home I'm involved in theatre, and this is something I always do before I begin a new show. I read the script to myself and it seems fine and none of the words stump me, but eventually when it comes time to project my voice louder, or record myself, not only do I stumble over words but they often make me have to sit for a moment and understand why so many people have issues learning English as a second language. However, it is a fun process, and I have never not had a good time providing my voice to something I am invested in. 

My RA placement each week has gotten more and more exciting, to the point where the past week I was more anxious than I have been so far in London. I was going solely providing tours and leading some of the programs that we have set for visiting schools on field trips, and not only that, but the students would be trying out some of the items I had researched and compiled for new programs at the museum. I had 2 groups of kids during the day and each group had 26 kids in them, and they were surprisingly good. The teachers were also very supportive of me being in charge, and would only step in to discipline or to help me organize them into groups. I was able to present history to elementary school students, and to try out different techniques rather than just speaking at or to them. I was also encouraging them asking me as many questions as they had, because if they feel like they can ask questions then maybe they will, and they won't be too shy to ask about something that draws their attention. Having this opportunity to see how different age groups interact with history is important, and I feel like my work at the museum is going to show me a different side of Public History than I had previously known. As a plus, I had the opportunity to spend some brief time in woods surrounding my work and that was another patch on the nature filled hole in my being.

All in all, it was a fairly busy and interesting couple of weeks.

Also, here is a photo I took on one of my runs when I was closer to the harbour when I was back home.

  

Stories, Memory, And The Collapse Of Industry

While reading Recording oral history : a guide for the humanities and social sciences by Yow, Valerie Raleig. I found a beautiful quote that truly describes how I feel, and why I gravitated towards history and more importantly oral history. "From childhood, I realized that I learned from others' stories and that I liked to tell my own." This quote sums me up to T. The culture of my family and friends is very much entrenched in the idea of storytelling. Creating an image of the past with one's words, and allowing for others to experience what has past is a skill many wish they had. The best storytellers and auditory illustrators can make their memories seem like your own, or they can make you long for the memory they are graciously sharing with you. In Cape Breton, there was a common practice that many teenagers were fortunate to experience in the 1970's and 1980's; and that was "Shooting the Drag". It was the activity of driving around the downtown area of either Sydney, Glace Bay, and I think maybe New Waterford as well? (Don't quote me on the New Waterford bit), and there would be hundreds of teenagers hanging downtown all night, most walking and some driving. Hearing stories while growing up, and even in undergrad about shooting the drag really made me wish we had something like this when I was growing up. There were even divisions in the downtown areas where people from certain schools would gather. People would also come from the nearest towns and visit; the experience that people had while shooting the drag is something I can perfectly picture in my head, the imagery was painted so well by those telling me their stories that I can see how amazing of an experience it would have been. My goal is to one day be able to tell my stories, and to create such vivid projections of memories to others. Whether that be jumping on ice clampers in the dead of night, or searching for fossils along the cliff, or simply playing "the step game" (basically spotlight but othe person who is it can't leave the front step) with my brother and our two friends in my neighbourhood.


This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Detroit and watch a Red Wings game. I am not a huge hockey fan but it was an opportunity that I knew I couldn't pass up on. In traveling to Detroit I was also able to experience something I had only seen the research on, and that was the impact of deindustrialization. Cape Breton was fortunate enough to have their two main industries (coal and steel) slowly wind down to a close over the span of 50 years. Our economy had the chance to change and to grow, instead of being stopped on the spot. The impact that deindustrialization had on Cape Breton is everlasting and can be seen across the Island. Having the opportunity to drive around Detroit and see the city and the ruins of what was once a prosperous place, was eye opening. It was the future that awaited Cape Breton, a future that we luckily avoided. If the coal mines and steel plant were to have closed on the spot, the island would have looked drastically different than it does today. Detroit has beautiful architecture and it is disheartening to see it in it's current state. But, I don't think I could truly understand and appreciate the impact of deindustrialization if I hadn't been there. If I hadn't seen what had happened to the city. But, it wasnt all in ruin. The downtown area was thriving, it had communal seating areas and spaces for community to thrive. It also seemed like something out of silicon valley with their endless amounts of ride sharing scooters and artsy decor. The city is coming back, maybe a lot slower, and climbing up a more difficult hill than anybody ever wanted, but you can see that people are trying. Which is the only way to combat the effects of deindustrialization.

I leave you all with a photo of the Detroit train station. A testimant to industry and its collapse.

Me, Myself, and A Boatload of City Directories

City directories have always been something I for some reason or other, find joy in. Often when doing research in an archive I feel like a detective in a very strange and non-crime solving way. With the city directories you get to learn so much information on something extremely specific; be that a name, or address, and that information can then branch out in so many wonderful ways. I wanted to start this blog with speaking to my experience at ARCC. Friday was my first experience with the archive on campus, and it was great.  Obviously some procedures are a little different than what I'm used to, but it's pretty well the same. That is.. except for the microfilm reader. I have grown to know the microfilm reader and program that I've used for the past 4ish years, and it may take me some time to get used to a whole new setup. Technology and I get along when we need to, but not all the time, I'll speak more to that once I get to talking about finalizing my podcast. 

The house that I am researching for our heritage project was extremely simple in relation to the city directories, and even the tax assessments. Only 8 people were listed as owning the property between 1916 -2013. That can either work well in my favour by giving as shorter list of potential historically significant people, or it can mean that no person of significance lived at my address (which is fine, not everybody needs to be historically significant). While the city directories were great, the fire insurance plans were not uh the kindest of resource to my project. My property is basically just off the radar for the city limits and even at some points it seems purposeful that it isn't there. But, that wont really stop me from finding the fire insurance plan that it is on. 

Visiting ARCC was great, and as Jack Sheppard from Lost famously once said "We have to go back...", and I will be back again!

Our podcasts were due on Wednesday, October 2nd. My experience with Audacity and editing my podcast was probably very similar to other's. The hours I put in trying to make sure my different sound clips were not going all over the map with their sound levels, and finding them was also an issue that I cannot wait to explain. Okay, I'll wait for you to be seated. Are you seated? Okay, so, I am a man who is very set in his ways when it comes to technology (see above mention of microfilm readers for reference). It isn't that I don't know how to use new technology, or that I don't want to try new technologies. I just simply find what works for me and then do not, for any reason, wish to change. I was trying to find some short sounds to rip from YouTube and use in my podcast. Perfectly simple, I just find the mp3 converter that I used to use in Jr. High. Simple enough, except that every Tom, Dick, and Harry now have their own website that'll do this for you and the program no longer exists (to my knowledge). I, being the technologically sedentary man that I am, refused to give the websites any satisfaction from me downloading something off of their website. So, I went to plan C, skipped B because that was just me making any extra sounds with my voice and anything in my apartment. Plan C was to use OBS ( a recording software) to record the audio from any clip that I wanted to use. I would launch OBS, click record, and once it was finished I would convert the clip to mp3, and edit it before placing it into my final Podcast file. The thing is, it took some extra time downloading and updating OBS and figuring out the process of getting it to Audacity, but it worked.

Through and through my experiences with class/class work, are great. They are challenging me and making me think of different ways of doing things. Editing audio may not be my bread and butter, but it may be some really funky food find that you stumble upon and throw it in your cart. You may not enjoy it as much as bread and butter, but if you see it 3 months later you may pick it up again and go "yeah, sure this is pretty good" .

p.s. Here is the mess of files that I created and neatly placed for the purpose of this screenshot. This does not include the sticky notes sprawled across my desk or the page covered front to back in ideas and the breakdown of the Gaelic words that I had to say.