Finishing up NC ECHO grant year
The Craft Revival project is finishing up its 4th year of work with support of NC ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) and the State Library of North Carolina. The ECHO team’s final evaluation of the project can be found on the Library Insider page:
http://www.wcu.edu/library/libraryinsider/craftrevivalgrant/index.htm
The final grant report will be posted to the Library Insider page in the next couple of weeks. We continue moving forward with support from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation to document pottery via collections at the Museum of the Cherokee and at Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual and are talking with a number of potential partners for more work on culture and heritage documentation.
Craft Revival database
During the 4 years of the Craft Revival project, 4,285 digital files were submitted and uploaded to the database. Here are the final counts for this year and for the project overall. Thanks, Anna Craft for the tally.
Institution |
Year 4 |
Total |
HL |
24 |
137 |
JCCFS |
39 |
697 |
MCI |
488 |
488 |
MHC |
8 |
252 |
PSC |
108 |
635 |
QACM |
228 |
240 |
SHCG |
452 |
1820 |
Non-partners |
9 |
16 |
Digital files submitted and uploaded |
1,356 |
4,285 |
NEW on the database In September, the team uploaded 73 new images. These are from the Cherokee Museum, Qualla Arts, and the SHCG. New uploads include: 49 images from MCI, including historic photographs of the Qualla Boundary, Cherokee Boarding School, Allen Long, Virgil Ledford, Goingback Chiltoskey, and a few masks; 20 images from Qualla, include photographs of baskets by Carol Welch, as well as photographs of Nancy Bradley, Martha Ross, Elsie Watty, and Carol Welch; and 4 weaving drawdowns from the Guild. Kate Carter scanned all the MCI images; Lucas Rogers photographed all the Qualla baskets and scanned their archival images; Deb Schillo sent in the drawdowns.
NEW on The Collections portal
Anna Shearouse at the John C. Campbell Folk School has completed a finding aid for the folk school’s Craft Revival-related material that is on the database. The finding aid will be put up at:
http://www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/collection/index.html
Through the project, Anna has gotten practical work experience in library science. She is enrolled on an MLS program at North Carolina Central University and is about half way through.
NEW on the Resources page
We have modified the project Resources page a bit to foreground George Frizzell’s travelogues. There is now a series of direct links to the travelogues from the Resources page. George is still working on one final travelogue that will show the region in the 1930s. Start from here and click on the two travelogues:
http://www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/resources/index.html
NEW: Weaving Pattern Index
We are so very excited to have finally finished a web page that shows early 20th century weaving patterns. This has been a yearlong project involving Deb Schillo and Suzanne McDowell as our weaving experts, and Lucas Rogers and Joel Marchesoni as our image experts. This page functions a lot like the basket weaving page originally developed by Anna F. and Melissa Young. See the new weaving Pattern Index at:
http://www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/crafts/WeavingIndex/index.html
NEW: Tryon Toy-Makers and Wood-Carvers
Anna S. has written a page on the history of the Tryon Toy-Makers and Wood-Carvers This is newly uploaded to The Story section of the website. You can see this new Making History page at:
http://www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/story/MkHst_TryonToyMakers.html
NEW: Cherokee basket weavers’ bios
Two new biographies are up that detail the lives and work of Cherokee basket weavers, Martha Ross and Elsie Watty. View the Martha Ross bio at:
http://www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/people/Baskets_MarthaRoss.html
Learn about Elsie Watty at:
http://www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/people/Baskets_ElsieWatty.html
Online surveys
The project team continues to gather data from 2 online surveys: one for the general public and one designed specifically for teachers. Asheville evaluator, A. J. Rhodes led Jason Woolf and Joel Marchesoni through the steps to develop and link the surveys to the site from any page on the website. The linked buttons—Teachers click here and Tell us what you think—allow the project to continue to gather data over a six-month period. We have only until October 21st to gather data, so if you haven’t completed this survey, please do so now! You can reach the survey directly at:
http://craftrevival.wufoo.com/forms/online-questionnaire-for-general-users/
Survey data
Results from the online surveys indicate that the most popular sections of the website have been The Crafts, followed by The Collection, and The People categories. These reports also indicate that the majority of the traffic to the site was from in-state users, many of whom found the site via search engines. One teacher wrote: This is a wonderful resource! I'm on the site all the time. Many of the students are starting to use the site for research projects. I also pass the information on to teachers in all the schools I work in. In developing the survey, the project team gained experience in Outcomes Based Evaluation, a method sanctioned by IMLS.
Google Analytics
Joel has continued to receive a monthly report from Google that tells us about web traffic to the site. There were a total of 1,504 unique visitors to the site in August. A third of the hits came from a T1 connection and are most likely from within the library. This means that 1,100 of the 1,504 hits were from unique visitors outside the library. The pages with the highest hit counts are the Home page, Advanced Search, The Crafts, and The People, in that order. There seems to be a lot of traffic coming in from search engines, which is a good sign, since people are coming to us when they look for information about the Craft Revival online. We are proud to note that if you Google “Craft Revival,” the site often comes up first on the hit list.
Displays
Jason and Anna F. worked on two displays to promote awareness of the website. Interpretive panels from a Rivercane Basketry exhibit that, previously, were up at the NC Welcome Center have been moved to a case on the first floor of the Hunter Library. Jason installed a new exhibit on Natural Dye Plants at the Welcome Center (north of Asheville on I-26). In addition to the dye panels, the display features materials related to the dye making process, including a dye pot, madder root, indigo flakes and various stages of linen and cotton with finished dyed products and textiles. The objects in the exhibit were provided by the Mountain Heritage Center and Craft Revival staff member Kate Carter.
Project accolades
Project staff just heard from Learn NC that the Craft Revival website is listed as a recommended resource for NC teachers. Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present is listed as part of Learn NC’s “Best of the Web” links. You can find “Best of the Web” at:
http://www.learnnc.org/bestweb/
Accomplishments
The Hunter Library is celebrating the release of a new book on Cherokee arts. The book was produced in cooperation with the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, with support from Cherokee Preservation Foundation and the Hunter Library. Cherokee Basketry: From the Hands of our Elders describes the craft’s forms, functions and methods and records the tradition’s celebrated makers. The book is available from local booksellers. Wholesale purchase for bookstores and events can be made through The History Press, Inc., 843.577.5971; www.historypress.net
Advisory/Partner meeting
Qualla Arts hosted the final Partners meeting in July when we met with the State Library folks; we are currently revamping and will probably restructure our Advisory Committee. In the meantime, I will continue to send out this monthly update—probably more detail than many of you care to know. If anyone would like to be removed from this list, please “reply” to me. Likewise, feel free to forward this to others who you think might want to be added to the list. We hope you will want to continue to keep up with the Craft Revival project.
Anna
Hunter Library | Library Insider | Last updated: 10/2/2009 Joel Marchesoni