For our project, Caroline and I would like to expand our mini digital archive project, Faces of Evangeline, by archiving various illustrations of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline. We think this project is worth revisiting and expanding because Evangeline is an iconic representation not only of American literature during the 19th century but also of Cajun culture in Louisiana, depicting the mass movement of people from Canada to Louisiana. So the character Evangeline is literally the face of a culture and a people. That’s why we want to archive all of the images of her we can get our hands on.
Within the many editions and publications of the poem there are various illustrators who represent Evangeline in a wide array of styles. While there are online databases that have archived Evangeline and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s works in general, these resources are not geared toward the illustrations that supplement the text. This is where we come in! Since the poem’s publication in 1850, many different illustrators have contributed to a collective representation of Evangeline. Just as we’ve discussed in class how the organization of databases can influence researchers, adding unique visual interpretations to the text can enhance and broaden the ways in which readers perceive the text.
With this project, we hope to contribute to the DH initiative to “reshape the representation, sharing, and discussion of knowledge… no longer bound by print” (Sampler). In this collection, we want to create a way to archive the illustrations in the context of the poem so that users will not only be able to compare various interpretations of Evangeline over time, but also compare how the same passage of the poem is visually interpreted by different illustrators. We would also like a portal where users can upload their own illustrations of Evangeline to continue to add to this visual discourse.
We want to create a platform to compare illustrators’ variations of the story. We are excited about the crowdsourcing potential of our archive, which will allow users (with both academics and normal people in mind) to contribute their own illustrations or findings to the archive. In terms of our platform, we are thinking about returning to Omeka because it offers visualization and viewer input plugins that are virtually tailored to our project. We are also considering similar content management software, such as Drupal. We are still poking around with specific tools we want to use for the archive’s aesthetic and organization. Right now, we are most excited about the crowdsourcing potential mentioned above, and about the prospect of creating a Timeline visualization that users can navigate with dual chronologies in mind: the timeline of the text itself, and the timeline of the illustrations’ publication dates. We were also toying with the idea of creating a mobile app, but we are at a loss for where to start with that (guidance welcomed if anybody knows anything at all about it!).
In creating this project, we hope to spark discussions about “Evangeline” and Louisiana culture but also other people who have been displaced, culture, and women. Although we are archiving interpretations of Longfellow’s work, like the digital humanities project “Expanding the Republic of Letters,” we are hoping to expand Evangeline. As McPherson in her article “Why Are the Digital Humanities So White?” and Wernimont’s “Whence Feminism?”, we are incorporating perspectives that, when combined and viewed as a whole, fall outside of canonical categorization. We are looking at this poem from a visual angle, providing context to the illustrations and representing a displaced female character (sometimes by a female illustrator). As a side note, later on, we would also like to include the French version of this tale.
This sounds cool! I’m also intrigued about the crowdsourcing angle. I’m no Omeka master, but does it allow for automatic additions to your database, especially from non-credentialed users? (You suggest the answer is yes when you refer to “viewer input plugins.”) I ask because otherwise it sounds like you would have to solicit submissions, curate them, upload them, etc. This would probably mean you need to define the scope of the project. Is there a time frame you’d want to work on, like “send us images by the end of April,” or would you just leave the website up and see how long it lives? The latter case would only seem plausible if you could automate it—unless you want to make Evangeline a career! I guess what would be required is to basically present the Omeka upload/metadata form to contributors. But then I feel like you would probably need to periodically check in to make sure nobody’s uploading like images of cats (or worse)? Hmm.
I was also wondering about the possibilities of generating new art from this kind of project, something like you open submissions for Evangeline-inspired portraits to artists who wouldn’t have created them on their own. There are lots of opportunities, like literature festivals/Louisiana culture festivals, that this would fit perfectly into. It could be a great way to not merely chart an existing visual discourse but reenergize it.
Love the idea of a collection of visual representations of Evangeline. Your mention of a desire to “reshape the representation, sharing, and discussion of knowledge… ” led me to think of derivative and anti- works of the romantic tradition. Vievee Francis, a Black southern poet, has a new book called Forest Primeval, the title of which I believe is a nod to the Evangeline poem’s opening lines. She calls it the anti-pastoral, which is pitted against the premise that the pastoral evokes natural beauty (rather, it evokes violence). That might enrich your image archives if you are able to find/showcase images that illustrate derivations or oppositions of the pastoral.
Hey guys! Cool idea, I like the idea of a continuous history, and how we re-shape and re-form the past and past literary works in our modern context. Jeremy and I are also looking at the world of poetry and its interaction with the visual, so we should definitely keep in contact about the things we find. Right now, we’re thinking about having interactive, visual links, but are not quite sure how to do it. I think that could be interesting for your project as well, so we’ll keep you posted if we figure that out!
I, like Kieran, really like the idea of a timeline which contextualizes the sheer amount of visuals you could potentially include, and gives us a trajectory of how this displaced woman coming into a new context was, and still is, interpreted artistically. And how this connects to the culture of the time. When I went to the GIS workshop last week, Professor Coats was telling me about this thing called storyboard (I believe that was the name): an interactive timeline made through google. I honestly know very little about it, but, from what she said, I think it could be helpful in your project. You should definitely ask her about it, just to see!
This is such a good idea. It strikes a balance between being manageable (at least initially) for a two-person team and being almost infinitely extensible.
Have you looked into platforms that might facilitate (or at least allow) data mining for these images? Besides collecting these images in one place, a digital database gives you and other researchers the opportunity to look at these images as a corpus rather than as discrete artifacts. Something like the timeline you suggested seems like a good way to take advantage of the sheer number of artifacts you’ll end up with. I wonder if there are other ways to represent this corpus as something more than a collection of individual images, from mapping to timelines to color analysis. The Vogue cover website we looked at earlier in the semester might be a good place to look for inspiration.
This sounds like a great expansion of your original project! I especially like the idea of opening the project up to crowdsourcing, since numerous living Louisiana artists continue to create and reinterpret Evangeline. Which brings me to my question: have you considered including 3D representations of Evangeline as well? I am thinking of the numerous Evangeline landmarks both in Louisiana and Nova Scotia, and how these statues of Evangeline and their natural surroundings have influenced the way her body, and the poem, are read by both local Cajuns and the tourists who visit these sites.
Taylor,
Thank you! I have somewhat considered 3D representations because I have seen some of the landmarks of Evangeline, but I’ll have to see how Caroline wants to fit this into our project, if we can. (In fact, the other day I was driving downtown and saw two streets that intersected, Evangeline and Longfellow Street!) I think it would be cool to include a map of the landmarks Evangeline went through on her journey from Canada to Louisiana. This could be like a second map visualization project that people could add to! Interesting thoughts to ponder!