The Well Told Story – Slavery in New York

In 2005, The New-York Historical Society created an exhibit called Slavery in New York. The exhibit existed on site at the museum for a period of time, but an online version of the exhibit was also created to last permanently on their website.

The online exhibit was created based off of a physical exhibit at therefore its elements seem to be a re-imagination of what the physical exhibit looked like. I am sure this affected the feel of the exhibit because it was not originally created for an online platform. Our projects differ because our platform is solely digital and has framed how we think about the telling of our individual stories.

The online exhibit is divided into 9 “galleries,” each with a narrative. The overarching story of Slavery in New York is bolstered by additional archival images at the bottom of the each “gallery” page. When you click on the title of the object there is an expanded caption and explanation of its importance.

This site is way too complex for what each of us is trying to accomplish, but for what the New-York Historical Society sought to achieve, I think it works. The idea of “galleries” helps the viewer to visualize the story as an exhibit and not an embellished essay of sorts. I like how the layout of each screen is very organized with every point in its own box. I also think the text to image ratio works well for this specific project. The site also features interactive maps and annotated documents that provide more information when you roll over certain words. Although this site is more complicated than what we have envisioned for our pages, there are elements that may be useful.