“Finding Douglass: Uncovering The Life of Frederick Douglass”
High School Winner
Creators: Alé, Sky, Sulaf, Saihah
High School Students from NY Historical Society
Type of Project:
- Multimedia,
- Visual Art & Design
Themes of Project:
- Culture/Heritage,
- Education/Schools,
- Social Justice
About this Project:
Our project works to deconstruct and thus uncover the personal life of Frederick Douglass and his relationships. Known as a very private and reserved individual, many of his personal affairs were of little knowledge to both his supporters and oppositions. By means of a scrapbook, our project visually and literally maps out Douglass’ relationships with his family members, colleagues, and other acquaintances; beyond this, our goal is to explore his personal relations with the organizations and causes he was involved in. From this exploration, we want our audience to learn the complexities and complications of Frederick Douglass, which include his lesser known accomplishments, his familial relationships, and what characterized him as a unique individual.
The platform we are using is StoryMaps, inputting an image of a scrapbook that we created using design applications Canva and Figma and then mapping the elements on the page. Different elements are able to be clicked on with information attached to them on a sidecar element. The audience has the option to view everything in sequential order or whatever fashion they please by moving the image around; some elements will not be interactive and are simply for historical decoration. This project is our interpretation and reconfiguration of the Douglass family scrapbooks, facsimiles of which are housed in the New-York Historical Society’s Composite Nation exhibit, which we have spent several months studying while participating in the Student Historians internship at NYHS.
Frederick Douglass continues to be one of the most influential and relevant 19th century abolitionists. His accomplishments were the foundation for modern activism for the rights of people of color, especially for their education, autonomy, and literacy. It is imperative for our audience to understand the complexities and history of discrimination against people of color, especially Black Americans. Furthermore, we hope the audience recognizes the importance of proactive action by understanding the momentous impacts of Frederick Douglass’ life.
The platform we are using is StoryMaps, inputting an image of a scrapbook that we created using design applications Canva and Figma and then mapping the elements on the page. Different elements are able to be clicked on with information attached to them on a sidecar element. The audience has the option to view everything in sequential order or whatever fashion they please by moving the image around; some elements will not be interactive and are simply for historical decoration. This project is our interpretation and reconfiguration of the Douglass family scrapbooks, facsimiles of which are housed in the New-York Historical Society’s Composite Nation exhibit, which we have spent several months studying while participating in the Student Historians internship at NYHS.
Frederick Douglass continues to be one of the most influential and relevant 19th century abolitionists. His accomplishments were the foundation for modern activism for the rights of people of color, especially for their education, autonomy, and literacy. It is imperative for our audience to understand the complexities and history of discrimination against people of color, especially Black Americans. Furthermore, we hope the audience recognizes the importance of proactive action by understanding the momentous impacts of Frederick Douglass’ life.
Project Media
Images
Slides
Video
More About this Project
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Feedback from the Judges:
The project shows excellent effort.
Congrats to you all for all your efforts to produce this wonderful project.
I was struck by your wonderful balance of hard work shown in the project itself as well as your presentation of the project. The details and "behind the scenes" view of your experiences and the digital scrapbook you created are excellent. You showcased your efforts to build deep knowledge in the subject matter. Your creativity to then imagine how to use different tools to thoughtfully present what you learned is wonderful.
Thank you for sharing your learning and design process with so much care and for producing such an engaging solution. Again, congrats to you all for this excellent project.
I was struck by your wonderful balance of hard work shown in the project itself as well as your presentation of the project. The details and "behind the scenes" view of your experiences and the digital scrapbook you created are excellent. You showcased your efforts to build deep knowledge in the subject matter. Your creativity to then imagine how to use different tools to thoughtfully present what you learned is wonderful.
Thank you for sharing your learning and design process with so much care and for producing such an engaging solution. Again, congrats to you all for this excellent project.
WOW :) And this wow is not for your work, which of-course is very well done, but for what you brought together with your research, compilation, and presentation of the scrapbook, that isn't seen in a lot of professionals. Really commend the project team for this.
While this of-course is a digital scrapbook project, and you picked an interesting character for this project, point-of-views from others on his work would add a great page to your scrapbook. Add to it the facts like he was a person who taught himself to read and write, but went on to run a paper, publish a book, conferred with many presidents and was nominated for vice-president. All these items about him would make your scrapbook even more interesting to read.
Barring the above, your scrapbook is both a great project and a very well structure one. Kudos to the team. Cheers
While this of-course is a digital scrapbook project, and you picked an interesting character for this project, point-of-views from others on his work would add a great page to your scrapbook. Add to it the facts like he was a person who taught himself to read and write, but went on to run a paper, publish a book, conferred with many presidents and was nominated for vice-president. All these items about him would make your scrapbook even more interesting to read.
Barring the above, your scrapbook is both a great project and a very well structure one. Kudos to the team. Cheers
Wow, what a project! I'm truly blown away by your work and the thought that went into creating this idea. The scrapbook is so fun to explore, and such an innovative idea. It really feels like museum exhibit, which is even more exciting to explore on my own time virtually. I also really appreciated the effort you put into creating the explanation video, and it was wonderful to learn more about your workflow process and discoveries.
My only feedback is that I would have loved to see your video be a bit more interactive throughout the first descriptions; I found it hard to follow without a visual reference (which we got at the end as you explored the scrapbook). It would have also been great to see more of your process maybe even giving us a glimpse of the post its behind you!
Overall, incredible work!
My only feedback is that I would have loved to see your video be a bit more interactive throughout the first descriptions; I found it hard to follow without a visual reference (which we got at the end as you explored the scrapbook). It would have also been great to see more of your process maybe even giving us a glimpse of the post its behind you!
Overall, incredible work!
Feedback from the Community:
Katherine 👏 a Community Member from Philadelphia
Thank you for creating this inspiring project. Innovative method of teaching and learning.
ryan 👏 a Middle School Student from nyc
so so cool! amazing fr!
Kate 👏 a Teacher and/or Educator from New York City
Congratulations! I especially like the digital scrapbook. What an interesting format to learn more about Douglass and the important people in his life. Great presentation!
Maysaa 👏 a College Representative from Queens College, CUNY
What an impressive project that definitely reflects creativity in format but also scholarship and research that is beyond the high school years. Way to go!!!
Aubrey Sherif 👏 a Community Member from Indianapolis Indiana
Excellent, fast paced presentation.
Jelique 👏 a Technology Professional from NYC
I truly enjoyed reading through this project! Well written and researched, considering the hidden nature of the content!
Sarah 👏 a Technology Professional from New Jersey
Very interactive and informative! Love the original setup, the format and the structure of the site!
Sarah 👏 a Technology Professional from New Jersey
Love the interactivity! Very informative and to the point. Amazing job on the site, and the information!
Rania H 👏 a Community Member
This project is so well-composed and informative! I learnt a great deal. I also appreciate the calls to action near the end, prompting us all to do our part to carry the torch. Thank you for all your hard work bringing this project together!
Sarah 👏 a Technology Professional from New Jersey
Love the incorporated interactivity! Very informative and to the point! Great job on the site!
Zoë 👏 a High School Student from NYC
so cool ong. Rly intersting and leanred a lot
Jasper 👏 a High School Student from New York City
Super cool and informative project! I love how interactive it is and the different mediums you used.
Kate 👏 a High School Student
Such a cool project!
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