1968 Archives are Loud AF

Using DH to Transform Narratives About 1968 & "The Archive"

This presentation traces the conceptualization and production of the dc 1968 project, an ambitious digital storytelling project designed to transform public memory and scholarship about Washington, DC in 1968 from a hyper focus on the uprising after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr to a fuller and more complex understanding of the entire year. Through deep dives in numerous archives and the curation of 365 #OTD stories and photographs in 2018, the dc 1968 project illumines how loud 1968 archives actually are, how white-owned media outlets like the Washington Post and the Washingtonian magazine silence their own archives, and how archives are also quiet, providing evidence of joy and mobility in the city.

Speakers

Marya McQuirter
Marya McQuirter
Curatordc1968 project

Marya Annette McQuirter, curator of the dc1968 project, is an independent curator, researcher and writer in Washington, DC. Marya is also a Digital Archives & Metadata Fellow at Barnard College Archives in New York. She is currently writing and mapping geographies of 19th century mobile technologies— bicycles and photography—in the U.S. and the diaspora.