Who's at the Table?
Creators: Arieza, Dani, Jack, Jai
School: High School Students from NY Historical Society
Project Type: Other
About this Project
As a project for the New-York Historical Society's Student Historian Internship, we've combined our separate blog post projects on "Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner" and The Obadiah Letters to create this StoryMap. Our StoryMap highlights one perspective of our program's greater theme: "Our Composite Nation." A sometimes overlooked part of the Reconstruction era is how it was a time of growing diversity and composite nationality in the United States. Using Thomas Nast's famous illustration, "Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner," we will highlight what citizenship, freedom, and equal rights meant for all Americans during the Reconstruction era, with a special emphasis on indigenous peoples.
The biggest initial challenge with the project was the merger of both projects. At first, we were unsure about how to both bring in the themes of the cartoon and the letters together. Here, we decided on a StoryMap to both showcase the visual elements of the cartoons and the letters. Our project then evolved, as we began to add interactable elements in the form of a zoomed-in map, and then showcasing the various groups affected during the Reconstruction with the original cartoon of Uncle Sam.
The biggest initial challenge with the project was the merger of both projects. At first, we were unsure about how to both bring in the themes of the cartoon and the letters together. Here, we decided on a StoryMap to both showcase the visual elements of the cartoons and the letters. Our project then evolved, as we began to add interactable elements in the form of a zoomed-in map, and then showcasing the various groups affected during the Reconstruction with the original cartoon of Uncle Sam.
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What the Judges are Saying
Very educational information that helps users understand this topic. Have you considered keeping this as a website for users to about this subject, rather than an app - which users would generally come back to?
I love how you combined two of your projects together! Such a smart idea with amazing execution. Very informative great work! I hope to see you expand this further by adding more topics and events.
Well done! I really love your use of storymaps to show how integral a non-White male perspective is in telling our national story. Thank you for detailing the intersection between American and foreign nationalities, and the recognition that these intersectionalities are essential in sharing ones' complex identities authentically. Your project helps talk about our nation's history in a more comprehensive, honest, and inclusive way. This is exactly the type of learning that all students and educators should have access to in the classroom. You recognize that the "origin myth" of our nation's founding needs to be retold honestly, and with multiple perspectives. Thank you for highlighting the strength in diversity of our nation, the essential contributions to our society that marginalized communities have contributed, and the ways in which historical narratives have obscured truth and perspective.
