Week Two: "Constellation" Prize

Photograph of Michael Gladden Jr. and Marie Stapler Gladden at her Retirement Ceremony, c. 1970.

Hello, reader! This week, I focused on finishing my exhibit proposal for STARS, ensuring that it included everything that will make the Gladden Digital Exhibit unique and desirable to such a wonderful repository. As everyone in my life knows, I could talk about the Gladdens until I turn blue. Of course, this made drafting my proposal even easier. The only challenge I foresee is translating my vision for the exhibit into STARS’ format, which appears to be based on an HTML builder, though that was unclear. The FAQ section did not reveal much regarding how the developer side of STARS works, so in any case, it will be a surprise! 

I attempted to do some more searching on STARS to find any trace of a digital exhibit along the lines of my idea. As I observed in last week’s blog post, STARS is primarily used as a digital publication platform for Honors Program theses, while RICHES’ Omeka platform hosts select exhibits from UCF’s digital collections. When searching for the phrase “exhibit,” the closest matches I could find are rather fascinating. The “exhibit” inquiry is dominated by STARS entries originating from a “Wendy S. Howard” of UCF. Ms. Howard appears to be an avid archivist of museum exhibits across Florida, especially those related to the Civil Rights movement. Ms. Howard specifically takes video of her visiting these displays, all recorded on her phone.

When I searched the term “collection,” I was very lucky to find an archived presentation from 2015 mapping out UCF’s plans for STARS! While this wasn’t related to finding a similar exhibit to my plans for the Gladden Digital Exhibit, it was still an interesting find from the early days of this database. However, it still gave me the great idea to archive any in-depth slideshow presentations I create in the future regarding my research on the Gladdens and other Black American safekeepers. 

During our meeting on Tuesday, Dr. French and I discussed alternative venues for presentations on Michael Gladden Jr. and the Gladden Archive. In our conversation, Dr. French brought up the “In Conversation” presentation series, hosted by the Dorothy Turner Johnson Branch of ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History). Each one of these events is held at the Winter Park Library, a location where I have yet to visit. The theme of the “In Conversation” lies perfectly within my research focus: continuing Dr. Woodson's tradition of disseminating information about black life, history, and culture to the global community. The premise I discussed with Dr. French is that I would ideally present alongside Ms. Boykin on Mr. Gladden’s story and the efforts it has taken to safeguard the Gladden Collection from falling into obscurity.

After Dr. French reached out to the ASALH President and Vice President, Manuel Jones and Dr. Rebekah McCloud, I learned via Dr. French that my presentation was greenlit for June 14th! Though I am nervous to be speaking in such a highly-regarded presentation series, Ms. Boykin assured me that we were going to do great. She even shared that Dr. Rebekah McCloud attended my panel presentation on the Gladden Collection at the Florida Historical Society annual conference! Naturally, I have a lot of preparation to do over the next few weeks in order to best represent my research and the Gladden Archive itself. I can't express enough how elated I am to relate Mr. Gladden's story to an entirely fresh audience. Between my STARS project and now the upcoming presentation with ASALH, I can’t wait to update you on these exciting new avenues, reader! More good news to come next week- see you then!