Presented at the 5th Annual Library Symposium by the Peer Review & Research Committee:This brief presentation will highlight our current work on the recently awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grant, Enhancing Access and Research Possibilities through Critical Engagement with Historical Data. The goal of this initiative is to produce a set of open data resources, based on the papers of Dana A. Dorsey (1868 - 1940). The papers record Dorsey’s business transactions and consists of warranty deeds, mortgages, legal documents, and correspondence, which detail the properties and locations of what were the newly created Miami sub-divisions from around 1900 through 1940. Dorsey was regarded as a successful Black businessman of his time and known as the first Black millionaire in Miami.
This initiative will help us to better understand the interpersonal networks, community building, and investments and paths of success for Black people in this community during the pre-redlining era. The core values of this work include addressing the significant gaps in our historical record, critical engagement in data collection processes that are rooted in humanity through the histories of individuals and establishing a model for future human centered data work. During this presentation, we will share our progress in the development of data resources in the form of text, tabular data, and geospatial assets. To read more about the project visit https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/86ee1e8760dc43d0abc7e7afcf8cd80
