Author: kmolina0619

Proposed Women’s Tour of the Early 20th Century

kmolina0619

A Walk In the Shoes of a Woman’s Regular Day in the Early 1900’s

Key Focal Areas to Tour Through

725 Madison Ave
1923 Women’ Club of Albany

The Women’s Club of Albany began as a civic organization founded in 1910 by Mrs. Elmer Blair. Its mission was to help aid women and children in need. The clubhouse itself was bought by its member’s generous donations in 1919. It still stands today as a pillar of hope for those in the Albany community with its extended volunteer work and range of projects.

“Woman’s Club of Albany – History.” Woman’s Club of Albany – History. Accessed February 28, 2016. https://womansclubofalbany.com/History.

628 Madison Ave
Studio and Parlor Notre Dame 1895 building

This building was purchased in 1890 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, it would be named The Academy of the Holy Names by its opening in September 1884. The school housed students from grade school to junior high until the mid 20th century when it became a high school until its closing in 1968.

“Woman’s Club of Albany – History.” Woman’s Club of Albany – History. Accessed February 28, 2016. https://womansclubofalbany.com/History.

245 Quail St
1923 Mildred Elley School

The Mildred Elley School was founded by Mrs. Augusta Mildred Elley during a time in which men had gone off to WWI and jobs previously monopolized by men only became available. She taught women how to type and shorthand in her home at 245 Quail Street so that the women that came to her could have better chances at obtaining well paid office positions.

“Mildred-Elley History | Mildred Elley.” Mildred Elley. 2015. Accessed February 29, 2016. http://www.mildred-elley.edu/about/history/.

877-885 Madison Ave
1923 Hagaman& Co Bakery

Began as a smaller end bakery in 1923 and expanded throughout the continuing years in areas such as Troy and Albany. By purchasing parcels of land in large quantities, was known as making the largest baking expansion in NY during the mid 1920’s.

“The Northwestern Miller.” Google Books. Accessed February 29, 2016. https://books.google.com/books?id=4IxFAQAAMAAJ.

351 Hudson Ave
Eastern Star Temple

The building was originally owned by the Daughters of the Eastern Star which were a sec apart of the Freemason. The building was open to both men and women alike for time for worship since its opening in 1923. It’s inside match still the architecture of other Eastern Start chapter houses.

Uptown Downtown Media. “Lark Street, 35 Years Ago.” All Over Albany. Accessed February 29, 2016. http://alloveralbany.com/archive/2012/05/17/lark-street-35-years-ago.

Estimated Time

Google estimates that my proposed tour will take a total of 24-26 minutes, in total it would be 1.2 miles from the start of 351 Hudson Ave up until 877 Madison Ave.

Theme/ Audience/ Takeaway Point

When thinking about what my tour would consist of I began with the single idea of, “How were females accommodating to the early 20th century?”. And the answer is that they were not too badly off. I wanted to start in 1923 with the creation of the Women’s Club of Albany, this is a critical moment because it can be seen as a starting point for this form of communal unity between the women of Albany. From there I wanted to see if there may have been a specific reason for 725 Madison Ave to be the home to this new club. For example, what type of areas around there were convenient or specific to women. I discovered that there was a Church, Middle school, bakery, and learning education center all within walking distance. These are places that I can see women of the era taking advantage of because of these certain locations like going to pick up their children at The Academy of Holy Names, attending the Eastern Star Temple for service, picking up bread and sweets at Hagaman& Co Bakery on their way home and attending type and shorthand teaching classes at the Mildred Elley School. This can all tell a story of what a normal weekday or weekend could consist of for a woman. The audience I hope to capture through looking into this window into the average Albany women’s day ranges from young children all the way to the elderly. This is meant to be a tour of how life use to be decades ago, almost a century ago really. It shall show the change of how Albany has now transformed into an area where everywhere one looks there are stores that pertain not only a single gender but to both whether it be mechanic, hardware or sports store a woman may either work there or pay a visit to it. That’s the takeaway, let us not take advantage of just how far the community of Albany has come in regards to public transportation and vehicles. Now most any type of stores can be near one another to fit around either a women or man’s preference.

Potential Images

https://www.flickr.com/photos/albanygroup/24856638876

https://www.flickr.com/photos/albanygroup/14470541086/

The two potential pictures I found for the tour had the same copyright restrictions since they came from the same site, Flickr. Flickr is stated as being All Rights Reserved, meaning the copyright holder has the legal rights to copies, distribution of his or her work, license and exploitation.

Additional Questions to be Asked

Are there other places maybe a bit farther then the range I gave myself that would better connect with the Women’s Club of Albany?

What type of impact did the club have on the community in regards to its motto having been to assist needy children and women?

Were there certain places that perhaps women from around the community were not allowed to enter? For example, if their husbands were not around could they without being watchfully gawked at enter a woodwork store?

Where do women go after class?

kmolina0619
Dashboard 1
Dashboard 1

https://public.tableau.com/shared/5C9GCMXXN?:display_count=no
https://public.tableau.com/shared/WQ7N96GCF?:display_count=no

I actually chose 4 embeds, the reason being that I really wanted to emphasis what types of places surrounded my main embed which was The Albany Female School. This was a school that opened in 1814, within a little less then a century a W.T Grant Department Store, Albany Art Union and Woolworth would open nearby. It is not that I am curious about why these stories but rather curious on the matter of was this done intentionally or not? Because businesses/ owners knew the school would be filled with young and older women did this have a stronger sway in their decisions to open up their said businesses. This type of situation is one that I believe happens a lot now-a-days, for example when I was in high school their was a monopoly on the deli’s/ food establishments that were close by. One could find pizza, Checkers, Dunkin Donuts, etc and I would like to think the reason this was done so was because these places knew that students liked to get food before, during and after class. I’m interested in the similarities I can find with the embeds I found compared to times now.

Opening Our Eyes to a New Online Accessible World

kmolina0619

Three readings and one video were to be read today, I’m here to discuss them all so that as a class we can better understand what’s going on. Starting with the video, “Is Google Knowledge”, that can be located at Youtube, Hank Green goes on a tirade about whether or not Google is considered “knowledge”. The argument is if we as individuals use Google as a search engine to get information does the process of us having to do this count still as still having gained knowledge. Basically are we cheating ourselves by googling anything we wonder about. Does it make us stupid and/or lazy by having this information at our fingertips?

In comparison Professor Melissa Terras’ piece, Reuse of Digitised Content, discusses the multiple changes she’d like to see in regard with creative reuse of digitised cultural heritage content. A bit of backstory on the content she’s referring to, it is in reference to works such as paintings, sculptures, photographs, etc that galleries, libraries, archives and museums are making public online for individuals such as you and I to access. Terra herself applauds this action on the basis that this access has allowed individuals to create pretty neat things with the works they are seeing such as fabrics, corsets and notebook covers to name a few things. The issue she sees with this unlimited access though is that there are poor search engines, too few works with copyrights, not enough information on how to get copyrights and poor image quality.

The next reading after, by, Dr. Ernesto Priego called, “Some Tips for WordPress.com Beginners”, discusses a multitude of definitions that one should know if interested in blogging (or interested in being relevant with youth today). In addition, Priego uses the published blog of Ryan Cordell to give helpful tips on how one could have a successful blog/ blog post if interested. Examples of this come from all the information that was gathered by him in regards to having a catchy byline/authorship, permalink, Bio/About Me page and categories.

The last reading titled,“Putting big Data to Good Use”, by authors S. Graham, I. Milligan and S. Weingart, examines the positive outcomes that occur when published works get transferred and become accessible online. The example the authors use is the Old Bailey, which covers over 197,000 trials in Britain. The scholars that were tasked with this not only brought Old Bailey online but assisted in creating formats that would help anyone who was looking over it to be able to research specific cases easier by having for example, key words and suggested trails. Authors Graham, milligram and Weingart also discuss the lack of historians being apart of this digitizing process. Though few have slowly made strides to become more involved there is still a scarcity of methods being taught in regards to how to accomplish such as feat as digitizing old works in the historian field itself.

From the three readings that were mentioned connections can be made between them. The first connection that I saw was that all three were written in a type of blog format. There were even instances in which an author would ramble on and catch themselves in the act. They’d let a reader know that whatever was said may have been a rant with no coherent meaning. In regards to content itself all the readings discuss the manner in which accessibility to the online world whether it be through the reuse of digitized content, an online blog or the transferring of online data, has been helpful. Helpful in manners that they themselves did not see possible up until the point they began to appreciate it through the research of a topic of interest to themselves. Being able to have access to the internet is key to one expanding their knowledge and these readings are proof of the wonders that the internet holds. What could have possibly not been imagined decades ago it seems as though online accessibility has reached the farthest corners and will continue to do so.

 

QUESTIONS TO BE POSED:

Is there anything you know of that you have not been able to find accessible online and would like to see accessible?

Do you feel as though as students we have not taken as much advantage as we should be being able to have access online through most all of our smart devices? And why?

Having gained knowledge about certain topics we may or may not have known about before, how do you see yourself spreading awareness about them? Or do you think these authors wrote what they wrote with no real intent on widening the consciousness about the reuse of digitized content, online blogging or the transferring of online data?