The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 31

The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 31
August 3, 2018
Volume 24, Number 31

Research and Education

General Interest

Network Tools

Revisited

In the News

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Research and Education

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Musical Geography: Mapping Place and Movement Throughout Music History
Arts

"How can mapping change the way we think about music history?" This "deceptively simple" question is posed on the homepage of Musical Geography, a fascinating collection of projects that explore the intersections of music, geography, and time. Musical Geography was launched in 2015 by Louis Epstein, a professor of music and musicology at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Epstein initially teamed up with four St. Olaf students to create a map of the vibrant music scene of 1924 Paris. Since then, Epstein has worked with two additional student research teams to create additional projects about the geography of music history. Visitors can explore these projects in the Maps section of this website. These projects include "Mapping the Collection of Russian Folk Songs in the Long 19th Century," "Mapping Black Gospel Music," and "The Second Viennese School in Russia." Each of these projects features at least one map (including maps created using Google Maps, ArcGIS, and JS StoryMap) and a short essay. Musical Geography offers a useful resource for instructors and researchers of history and musicology. In addition, this resource may offer inspiration for researchers interested in pursuing their own mapping projects. Visitors who enjoy these maps will want to be sure to check out the Digital Humanities Models section of the Resource Guide, which features a number of other projects and resources that may be of interest. [MMB]

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The Browning Letters
Language Arts

In addition to their poetry, Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are well-known for their numerous letters and correspondence. Scholars and fans will appreciate The Browning Letters, a project that started as a partnership between Baylor University's Armstrong Browning Library and Wellesley College. Because the Brownings' letters and other memorabilia are physically housed in separate collections around the world, this digital collaboration aims "to make the compelling love story of the two poets available to scholars and enthusiasts around the globe." One of the stars of this project is its collection of the Brownings' famous love letters written during their courtship from 1845-1846. This resource also includes correspondence written to and from their family members and other poets, such as Alfred Tennyson. The collection may be searched by multiple fields (including keyword, author, date, first line of text, and location) via the advanced search link at the top. As of this writing, The Browning Letters includes digitized contributions from Balliol College at Oxford University, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin, and Ohio State University. This an active collection and those interested can subscribe via RSS feed to be notified of new additions. [JDC]

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BrainU
Science

Science educators may be interested in BrainU, an educational neuroscience project for teachers directed by Janet Dubinsky, professor of neuroscience at the University of Minnesota. BrainU offers material for K-12 teachers to begin teaching about brain science and to aid their students' learning processes. Under the lessons tab, readers will find more than fifty well-developed lesson plans that are organized by grade level, lesson length, and learning situation (e.g. classroom, laboratory, or experiential station). At the top of the lesson page are links to BrainU's "Neuroscience Concepts and Activities" pages, which are grouped by grade level and intended as curriculum planning aids. Under the cool stuff tab, viewers will find links to curated collections of animations, images, and other visual materials available for classroom use. The Neuroscience tab leads readers to a collection of supplementary teaching materials, such as activities for review, a suggested reading list for teachers, and a glossary of neuroscience terms. BrainU offers a unique way for science teachers to enhance their curriculum and their students' learning. [JDC]

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University of Victoria: Transgender Archives
Social studies

Established in 2007, the University of Victoria's Transgender Archives is home to a number of "documents, rare publications, and memorabilia of persons and organizations associated with activism by and for trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit people." On the archive's homepage, visitors will find a number of resources that may be of interest, including digitized archival materials, videos, and the Archives' report "The Transgender Archives: Foundations for the Future." This report, which is authored by Transgender Archives founder Aaron Devor, offers visitors a good introduction to the scope and depth of the Archives' collection. In addition, this report provides an overview of transgender history in North America and Europe, along with photographs of numerous archival materials. Visitors will find a link to the Archives' online collections in the Our Collections tab. The online collection, which contains contributions from other archives, includes a number of periodicals, drag show programs, and back issues of the Renaissance News (later called Transgender Community News, a publication that ran from 1987 through the early 2000s. [MMB]

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The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yoruba
Language Arts

The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yoruba is a compilation of hundreds of Yoruba proverbs. This resource was created by the late Oyekan Owomoyela, who taught African Literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and was a leading scholar on Yoruba literary forms. Owomoyela writes in his introduction to this project, "[b]elieving that it carries great psychic properties, the Yoruba approach speech with deliberate care, taking great pains to avoid careless, casual, or thoughtless statements whose damage might outlast lifetimes." Proverbs, Owomoyela goes on to note, play a central role in Yoruba speech. In this collection, proverbs are organized into six thematic categories. These categories include: "On humility, self-control, self-knowledge, self-respect, and self-restraint;" "On perspicaciousness (good judgment, perceptiveness), reasonableness, sagacity, savoir-faire, wisdom, and worldly wisdom;" and "On consideration, kindness, and thoughtfulness." Within each of these six categories, proverbs are organized alphabetically. Each Yoruba proverb is accompanied by both an English translation and a note about the proverb's meaning. [MMB]

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How to Teach Quantitative Reasoning with the News
Mathematics

From Carleton College's Science Education Resource Center (SERC) comes this pedagogical resource designed to help educators who want to incorporate news articles into their quantitative reasoning courses. This teaching aid addresses the entire lesson-planning process, including how to choose an article, determine the pedagogical motivation for using the article, and specific suggestions of ways to implement the article's use in the classroom. Several examples and helpful tips are also included, as are links to related activities and teaching aids on the SERC website. Interested teachers may also wish to explore more detailed examples of classroom activities developed around newspaper articles via a link at the top of the page. This resource was last updated, as of this writing, in May 2018 and is part of SERC's Pedagogical Service project; it was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. STEM educators at many levels may find this teaching resource helpful. [JDC]

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The Lake Superior Legacy Collection
Science

In 1882, field geologists from the Lake Superior Division of the US Geological Survey (USGS) began meticulously mapping, collecting samples, and taking inventory of the geology and mineral resources of the Lake Superior region. This survey was completed in 1922, and today the data collected during those four decades of research can be found in the Lake Superior Legacy Collection. Here, visitors will find scanned images of the division geologists' field notebooks and hand-drawn maps, as well as photographs of rock samples (both hand samples and thin sections with accompanying metadata) collected during their survey. This digital collection also features an interactive map where viewers can browse the data based on where it was originally collected, with locations spanning parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario. In addition to the collection's importance to geologists, it may also be of particular interest to historians and geographers. The Lake Superior Legacy Collection was created by the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. It was funded by the USGS National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program. [JDC]

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Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art & Architecture
Arts

Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art & Architecture is an open-access journal published by the International Society for the Study of Pilgrimage Art. Here readers will find scholarly articles focused on "medieval visual culture" as well as book reviews, photo essays, and shorter pieces with a more personal approach. Some issues center around a theme. For example, the most recent theme is the publication's third biennial "Mappings" issue, while medieval graffiti is the theme of the Spring 2017 issue. Art history educators and interested readers may also want to visit this journal's image gallery via the "Photobank" link in the left sidebar, where, as of this writing, they will find over 2,400 images contributed by medievalists as educational resources. Edited by Sarah Blick, professor of Art History at Kenyon College, Peregrinations is published periodically and is part of Kenyon College's digital repository. Each article can be downloaded individually as a PDF, and readers can subscribe via email or RSS to be notified of new publications. [JDC]

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General Interest

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Below the Surface
Social studies

The city of Amsterdam recently built a massive metro line that crossed the historic city from north to south (from Nieuwe Leeuwarderweg to Europaplein), connecting the two regions of the city that are divided by the IJ, a former bay. Between 2003 and 2015, a team of archeologists had the opportunity to excavate over 700,000 objects that lay beneath the River Amstel, which was drained as part of the metro construction process. This river was "once the vital artery, the central axis, of the city," connecting a trade port off of the IJ (built approximately 800 years ago) to the central city. In Below the Surface, visitors can learn more about this extraordinary archeological project and view some of the fascinating objects unearthed by this endeavor. As the authors of this website note, "the objects paint a multi-faceted picture of daily life in the city of Amsterdam." Visitors can explore Below the Surface in a variety of ways. Those interested in learning more about the story behind this project may want to start with The Excavations, which offers a thirteen-part history of the project. Those interested in exploring some of the artifacts will want to check out See All Objects (where uncovered objects are organized by year of excavation) and Object Stories (where visitors can learn more about the historical context behind some of these objects). Another highlight of Below the Surface is a virtual tour of the Rokin Metro Station, which recently displayed a number of items uncovered during the excavation. [MMB]

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Secret Service: Old and Young King Brady, Detectives
Language Arts

Secret Service is part of Stanford University Libraries' Dime Novel and Story Papers collection. Originally published between 1899 and 1925, this weekly magazine series was aimed at a working-class audience and featured a team of detectives, Old and Young King Brady, and their international crime-fighting adventures. Visitors can browse the series' cover images by themes such as Ethnicity/Nationality, Women, or Violence/Disaster, with additional themes available under the Browse tab. Under the about tab, this online exhibit also contains five complete issues selected from the over one hundred Secret Service issues in Stanford's collection. These issues were carefully chosen "to study perceptions of race and conflict in turn-of-the-century America where Asian, Native American, or African American characters are often the chosen antagonists." Each of these issues has been digitized in full and can be read or browsed in several different viewing layouts. This exhibition will appeal to those interested in turn of the century American history and popular literature. [JDC]

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Historic Liverpool
Social studies

Map and history aficionados may be interested in exploring Historic Liverpool, created by Martin Greaney, a landscape archaeologist, and Liverpool native. Historic Liverpool features a series of interactive maps depicting the historic landscapes of Liverpool and its surrounding area. Visitors can zoom into and click the maps for further details about a specific location. For example, on the History Map, viewers will find a collection of historic features marked by location pins (grouped in categories such as Archaeological Sites and Hidden History) that, when clicked, display a brief description and a link to a blog post with more details and images. The sidebar on the left provides navigation between Historic Liverpool's different main maps, and the site also has a search bar for those who prefer to search by text. Greaney continues to add new material regularly, and the wealth of information available is impressive--as one visitor commented, Historic Liverpool is "as good a reason as I've come across for wasting time constructively!" [JDC]

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YouTube: Tate Talks
Arts

Art lovers of all kinds may be interested in Tate Talks, a YouTube channel produced by the UK's Tate Gallery. With Tate Talks, viewers are treated to in-depth discussions with influential artists about their careers, artwork, and personal experiences. These conversations took place in front of live audiences as special events at the Tate, and some of them also include audience Q&A sessions. The artists interviewed in Tate Talks come from around the world and from varying artistic disciplines. Some examples are American filmmaker and video artist Kahlil Joseph, British painter-sculptor Sir Antony Gormley, Nigerian-born visual artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei. Most Tate Talk discussions are approximately 90 minutes long, and at this time of writing, there are more than 25 videos. For those unable to attend special talks at the Tate in person, the Tate Talk YouTube channel provides an accessible alternative. [JDC]

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HumaNature Podcast
Science

From Wyoming Public Media comes HumaNature, a podcast sharing "real stories where humans and our habitat meet." Through these audio episodes, and the occasional video, listeners can experience true tales of encounters between people and the natural world that are alternately funny, moving, and thrilling. Recent episodes include "Remembering How To Be Human," in which artist Stephanie Housley moves from New York City to tiny Bondurant, Wyoming (population 93), and "Out of the Frying Pan," in which a couple from Portland, Oregon takes a weekend camping trip to the mountains to escape the city's heat only to get trapped by a wildfire. Widely acclaimed for its storytelling, HumaNature was the 2016 and 2018 recipient of the Best Podcast award from Public Radio News Directors Incorporated, and it has aired on more than twenty public radio stations. Episodes run approximately fifteen to twenty minutes long, and most are accompanied by several photographs. Listeners can subscribe via multiple platforms, including SoundCloud, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts. [JDC]

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The Getty: Art + Ideas
Arts

Those interested in learning about art museums behind the scenes may want to check out Art + Ideas, a podcast produced by The Getty in Los Angeles as part of The Iris, the museum's blog. In Art + Ideas, Getty president Jim Cuno interviews curators, artists, writers, and scholars in a series of wide-ranging conversations. Examples of recent topics include a curator-led audio tour of the Getty exhibit "Beyond the Nile--Egypt and the Classical World," a discussion of the destruction wrought upon Reims Cathedral in France during World War I, and conversations exploring the creation of the Getty Center's campus in retrospect of its opening twenty years ago. Episodes can be streamed in the browser or via SoundCloud, and each is accompanied by links to relevant works in the J. Paul Getty Museum or other resources, as well as a full transcript. They tend to range from approximately thirty minutes to an hour in length, and new episodes of Art + Ideas are released about every two weeks. [JDC]

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City Desk 400
Language Arts

In 2016, the literary and theatrical world collectively celebrated the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. As part of that global celebration, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater organized Shakespeare 400 Chicago, a citywide, year-long festival consisting of hundreds of theatrical performances and interdisciplinary events to commemorate the Bard. In City Desk 400, thirty scholars from nine universities wrote essays discussing and contextualizing many of these events. Examples include essays on the event "Culinary Complete Works - Three Takes: Two Gentlemen" by Clark Hulse of the University of Illinois and Lydia Craig of Loyola University Chicago and discussions of the Newberry Library's exhibit "Creating Shakespeare" by Anna Ullman of Loyola University Chicago and Andrew S. Keener of Northwestern University. These essays and many others provide stimulating commentary and context for the specific events they discuss and also for Shakespeare's work and cultural relevance. City Desk 400 was edited by Regina Buccola, scholar-in-residence at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and professor of English at Roosevelt University. [JDC]

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Culinary Institute of America Menu Collection
Social studies

The Archives at the Culinary Institute of America (the other CIA), is in the process of digitizing its menu collection, which encompasses over 30,000 historical menus that date from the 1830s to the 2010s. The menus have been gathered from every state in the US and over 80 countries, and include menus from ships, railroads, airlines, and special events. Close to 4,000 menus have been digitized and can be browsed or searched at the website. The menus represent everyday operations at well-known restaurants, such as Andre Soltner's Lutece in New York City or the Berghoff Restaurant in Chicago. In addition, this collection features special menus for occasions, such as award dinners or meals to honor a chef or patron, many of which took place at the CIA. For example, there's the "7-Up International Sandwich Gardens, 'Round the World Eating menu" from the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, featuring sausages on Westphalian pumpernickel as an example of a German sandwich, and turkey on whole wheat with cranberries as the American offering. There are also hundreds of set menus for special dinners for restaurant world organizations such as Les Amis d'Escoffier or the Wine and Food Society. [DS]

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Network Tools

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Litsy
Language Arts

Book lovers interested in discovering new titles or connecting with other readers may enjoy Litsy, a mobile application that aims to "bring as many people into the book conversation as possible." The application was launched in 2015 and is currently operated by LibraryThing.com Inc. On this application, readers can create to-read lists and lists of books that they have already read. In addition, users are invited to provide short book reviews or share favorite quotes from books; other uses can add comments to these reviews (which are tagged by book title), allowing different users to converse with another. Litsy users can also follow other users, which may especially appeal to those hunting for new book recommendations. To use Litsy, users need to create a free account. Litsy is available for iOS and Android devices. [MMB]

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KanbanFlow
Educational Technology

Those in search of a lean project management solution may find the web-based tool KanbanFlow helpful. As its name suggests, the methodology of KanbanFlow is drawn from the Japanese "kanban" system. It uses customizable columns and "cards" to visually represent both the tasks and the workflow of a project and to provide an overview of the situation at hand, and each card can be fleshed out with checklists and other details. KanbanFlow gives users the option to limit the number of cards allowed in any particular column (e.g. "in progress") to reduce multitasking and improve productivity. KanbanFlow also incorporates a Pomodoro timer to track the time spent working on a particular task and to encourage focused work in sprints followed by short breaks. Users can also view statistics of their Pomodoro performance to analyze their workflow. KanbanFlow can be used for free by both individuals and teams. It is available on any internet browser. For mobile access, KanbanFlow also provides a mobile-friendly web app that can be used on both iOS and Android devices. [JDC]

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Revisited

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Children and Youth in History
Social studies

Last featured in our 04-01-2016 Scout Report, Children and Youth in History offers visitors a glimpse into how childhood--and the conception of childhood-- has shifted throughout history.

This project from the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University offers students and teachers a closer look at constructions of childhood and youth throughout world history. Completed in 2010, the collected materials are sorted into four categories: Website Reviews, Primary Sources, Case Studies, and Teaching Modules. Each section is then organized by region, ranging from Africa to Latin America to the Pacific Basin. For instance, within Primary Sources, readers will find data tables on Meiji Era School Attendance, primary source text from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and photographs of sculptures, such as the small terra-cotta statue, Ancient Greek Adolescent Girls at Play. Each resource is accompanied by an informative annotation, source information, and guidelines for how to cite it. While some of the external links have not been maintained, there are numerous resources here to inspire learning. Educators, especially, will find the Teaching Modules section helpful as it provides lesson plans, strategies, and document-based questions on a number of topics, including Ancient China, Age of Consent Laws, and Health in Early Modern England.

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In the News

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Particle Accelerator Used to See Tarnished Daguerreotypes

How a particle accelerator helped recover tarnished 19th century images
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-particle-accelerator-helped-recover-tarnished-19th-century-images

X-ray beam illuminates long-forgotten faces on damaged daguerreotypes
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/technology/science/article-x-ray-beam-illuminates-long-forgotten-faces-on-damaged-daguerreotypes

Particle Accelerator Reveals Hidden Faces in Damaged 19th-Century Daguerreotype Portraits
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-used-particle-accelerator-unearth-tarnished-19th-century-daguerreotype-portraits-180969585/

Recovery of Degraded-Beyond-Recognition 19th Century Daguerreotypes with Rapid High Dynamic Range Elemental X-ray Fluorescence Imaging of Mercury L Emission
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-27714-5

An inside look at daguerreotype conservation
https://youtu.be/2YIQvwI-ug8

Daguerreotypes at Harvard
http://preserve.harvard.edu/daguerreotypes/

As the earliest commercially available form of photography, daguerreotypes occupy an important place in art and cultural history. They were hugely popular from the 1840s to 1860s, and many daguerreotypes are still in excellent condition today after careful preservation. Many others, however, have become obscured with tarnish and corrosion due to exposure to air. Recently, a team of researchers led by Madalena Kozachuk at Western University in Ontario, Canada have found a new way to make these damaged images viewable again using a type of particle accelerator called a synchrotron. This method uses X-ray beams to scan the mercury deposits on the daguerreotype plate, which can then be used to recreate the image digitally, revealing the hidden picture under its damaged surface. By providing a nondestructive and noninvasive way to scan and save the information on daguerreotype images, this discovery may prove valuable to many museums. [JDC]

The first three links take readers to news articles about this study from Katherine Bourzac at Science News, Ivan Semeniuk at The Globe and Mail, and Meilan Sully at Smithsonian Magazine. Readers interested in the details of this discovery will find the researchers' study at the fourth link, which was published in Scientific Reports - Nature on June 22. The fifth link takes readers to a short video from Library and Archives Canada showing some of the conservation techniques used for daguerreotypes. Finally, at the last link, readers can browse a collection of daguerreotypes held by the Weissman Preservation Center at Harvard University Library.