This installment includes links to the interactive tools designed for the community. The first installment provided background on the year-long collaborative project with The Digital Innovation Lab. 

What I love about the projects below is that they are based on historical documents—one-dimensional products not intended to be dissected, analyzed and visualized for a fairly accurate glimpse into the past. But, that’s exactly what “Main Street, Carolina” does so well! As Pamella Lach of Digital Innovation Lab notes, “The presence of Lebanese in North Carolina…helps complicate students’ understanding of the Jim Crow south.” Here’s the project introduction by Kim McCray and Elizabeth DeBold, former graduate students of UNC’s School of Information and Library Science:

“The “From Hammana to New Bern: Lebanese Immigration in 1910” project examines the presence of Lebanese immigrants and their families in New Bern in 1910 and presents the data discoveries on the Main Street Carolina software platform.  The central part of the site is a geo-referenced 1908 Sanborn map layered over a present day Google satellite image. On the map are markers showing where the Lebanese lived and linking to additional relevant contextual information.  Images, reflection essays, and a resource list (at the bottom of this page) round out the site’s contents.”

Both maps feature a present-day Google map of the areas with a slider feature that allows you to add the historical overlay to the background or foreground of the map. Both sites also offer a small example of the original Sanborn map. For those of you familiar with the area, it’s an interesting way to orient yourself to the space! The sites offer slightly different features with some tips below.

Charlotte

http://mainstreet.lib.unc.edu/projects/lebanese_charlotte/

• From the Home screen, click Households. From there, you can read household details including the names and ages of the residents and, where relevant, the type of business associated with the family. There is also a link to a copy of the original Census record where all the information was derived.
• From the Home screen, click Browse and choose Tags. From there, you can isolate the census points that include information about that tag.

New Bern

http://mainstreet.lib.unc.edu/projects/lebanese_newbern/

• From the Home screen, click Immigrants. From there, you can read household details including the names and ages of the residents and, where relevant, the type of business associated with the family. There is also a link to a copy of the original Census record where all the information was derived.

Thank you to Digital Innovation Lab’s Bobby Allen, Pamella Lach; UNC’s Kim McCray, Elizabeth DeBold and John Blythe, and all the undergraduates who worked so hard to create an educational tool about the Lebanese community in North Carolina.