Public Heritage Studies

The great thing about having a Digital Humanities Hub on campus is that students can take advantage of the equipment in a variety of ways. This spring, students from Dr. Jeff Bach and Susan Asbury’s PHS/REL 370 Public Heritage Studies: Curating the Young Center’s Collection class utilized the DH Hub equipment for taking photos of several Young Center artifact collections housed in the Hess Archives. The goal of this Mellon Grant-funded course was to introduce students to the Young Center’s artifact collection as well as provide an overview of basic museum collections care practices. Each student was responsible for two sets of artifact collections. Students researched their artifacts, developed catalog sheets for the Hess Archives, created exhibit labels for select artifacts, and wrote catalog essays that wove together the history of the objects and connected them to the larger mission of the Young Center. On March 14, the class met at the Hess Archives and worked with class instructor, Susan Asbury, and archivist, Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh to create museum-quality images to use in their cataloging projects. Students had the opportunity to work with the light box as well as use the cameras, backdrop, and special lighting equipment in order to appropriately photograph the objects. The equipment from the DH Hub provided several students the opportunity to engage with artifacts in a setting similar to a museum.

-Susan Asbury