Our collective class work this term will be to create a digital humanities project based on the infamous bank raid by the James-Younger Gang in Northfield, MN in 1876. Reenacted annually at the Defeat of Jesse James Days town fair, this event is a key part of Northfield’s history and should provide plenty of scope for making an interactive project that tells a story, analyzes data and interprets the past for a present audience.
As we move through the course and learn new tools and techniques, we will return to this topic repeatedly to gather sample data and try out examples.
Sources
The first place to go for an overview of this event is the MNopedia article on the Northfield Bank Raid.
The Northfield Historical project also has a tour dedicated to the topic: James-Younger Gang Failed 1876 Bank Raid.
Project Planning
In class, we will brainstorm what a DH project on this topic would entail from both a creator’s standpoint, in terms of sources, processes, and presentation, and from a user’s perspective following the advice of our guest speaker Jess Rosenblatt:
- Who is the target audience?
- What is the experience arc for our project?
- High level concept?
- Beats of that experience?
