As we approach the middle of the semester, I want to consolidate my research and thoughts. Given that research is endless and that it doesn’t always make it into the final product, I end up with a bunch of threads that are interesting, informative, or insightful but, if it isn’t included in a final product, does it exist? I wish to avoid this issue as it can represent a significant loss, especially in context of collecting, documenting, and preserving local history. Avoiding or, more realistically, mitigating this issue involves incorporating digital history aspects and methodologies.
For that reason, I want to associate this aspect of the project with another digital component to present a multimodal research project. For collaborative ease of access and in the interest of maintaining an open data set, most of the project information and sources are uploaded and hosted on Google Drive. My project collaborator and I have created a Google MyMaps with Chitlin’ Circuit and juke joint sites, viewable here. The map is coded to distinguish between Chitlin’ Circuit venues and the more vernacular juke joints—although these may have seen some overlap as mentioned last week. We created metadata fields to indicate years active and extant status, as well as a note field for any relevant associated information.
As it stands, the most identifiable and addressable gap in the information collected thus far is filling in research holes regarding the years active. Other obvious gaps are evident in terms of geographic dispersal. While much information remains absent, for now, it is exciting to see this initial iteration—the first culmination of our digital mapping goal. By reaching out to various state and regional institutions, we hope to connect this map to larger networks of knowledge and add more sites.
Another collaborative and digital publishing method is the creation of a Performers List, accessible here. It is a list of performers with associated sources. Again, our network of sites requires expanded knowledge of sites’ chronological contexts and geographic locations. As an actionable deliverable for this aspect of the project, I plan to add a column for the dates of the performances to better locate them geographically and chronologically. Further, this data can be associated with the Google MyMaps as a metadata field to better inform site narratives at Chitlin’ Circuit sites. Many of the sources in the Performers List are retrospectives which are adequate for initial data purposes, but should be further investigated for primary sources—sources such as this mention from Clyde Sanders’ regular column “As Clyde Says It.”
I am indebted to Clyde Sanders—the best source for Club Eaton activities a researcher could hope for. One of Clyde’s many diligent mentions of activities going on throughout Florida’s Chitlin’ Circuit sites is particularly interesting. In an October 20, 1958 article, not only does Clyde provide firsthand knowledge of a performance by B.B. King and/or Pres. Reese and the Barons at the Delux Bar, he also identifies another interesting facet of Chitlin' Circuit that definitely deserves further research—jam session sites on the Circuit, such as the Shamrock Studio "near the Winter Park new lights."
Implementing digital history methods expands access to research projects and public history knowledge. As facets of networks expand, so too do contributions to expanding site and network narratives.