Worth a Thousand Words by Angelica Hom

The National Museum of African American History and Culture’s mission is “to promote and highlight the contributions of African Americans”. Its diverse array of artifacts come from a long history of both triumphs and injustices. If one were to analyze a collection of one object type (instruments, clothing, etc.) from this museum, could that collection alone tell a story of racial justice?During the 19th century, the abolitionist movement in America coincided with the advancements of photography technology. This resulted in recently-freed African Americans having easier access to cameras and gaining control of self-representation in a fight against racist stereotypes. African Americans could finally present and immortalize their best selves.This project explored the titles of the photography collection through an interactive word tree. Once users click to the end of a title structure, the corresponding photograph is revealed. This visualization offers a poetic approach to exploring the NMAAHC’s photography collection that leads users to other thematic analyses of the collection. What can we learn from the juxtaposition of the Smithsonian’s title structure versus the intention of the photo? How did the relationship between the photographer/photographed evolve? Is there further analysis to explore from the photos of the “unidentified”?