Sorting and Seeing: Digitization and Ways of Reading the Archives of French West Africa

This essay provides a brief overview of themes that emerge in historical research when we consider the low-technology and simple methods of digital photography in archives of empire. A brief consideration of how to incorporate aspects of digital capture in the classroom is also discussed. The core o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of world history 2021-06, Vol.32 (2), p.199-217
Main Author:	Burrill, Emily
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Archives & records Classrooms Computerization Democratization Digital archives Digital photography Digitization Educational technology Firearms Gun control Historians Historical analysis Historical research History Photography Reading Research methodology Source materials Students Teaching Technology
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	This essay provides a brief overview of themes that emerge in historical research when we consider the low-technology and simple methods of digital photography in archives of empire. A brief consideration of how to incorporate aspects of digital capture in the classroom is also discussed. The core of the article is a case study of gun permit applications and the circulation of guns between France and French West Africa in the 1950s. The increased capacity to amass material through digital technologies--namely, digital photography in archives--pushes historians to develop sorting methods that open up new analytical terrain in histories of the French empire. Deconstructing the deceptively straight-forward and formulaic gun permit as the primary text in question, the essay explores the following question: what is the relationship between close reading and aggregate methods, and how do we use them together to see different angles on historical process?
ISSN:	1045-6007 1527-8050 1527-8050