- Archivin' and Catalogin' -
America Informed: Wide World of US Federal Government Documents
Embedded Files
Prompt: Explore and reflect on a curated exhibition of archival materials that you visit in-person and also that you explore through a digital counterpart.
━━━━ ✦ In-Person Exhibit ✦ ━━━━
━━━━ ✦ In-Person Exhibit ✦ ━━━━
POV: You just walked up the stairs to the 2nd floor of the Science Library.
*Well, when you've walked past it dozens of times, your brain just sort of gets used to it and internalizes it as "just another part of the background environment."
The exhibit, America Informed, is located on the second floor of the Science Library. In fact, it is one of the first thing you see as you walk up the stairs, making it impossible* to miss.
I believe this placement is intentional—put it somewhere where everyone can see! It's an open invitation to the students. The U-shaped exhibit encourages visitors to start from either end, as the flow of traffic naturally goes both ways.
20250218_155708.mp4A short video of me retracing the path I took on my first walkthrough of the exhibit. Notice how I glanced at the first island but decided I'd better get some context first and headed for the info board.
What's the purpose of this exhibit?
What's the purpose of this exhibit?
According to this big sign you see when you enter the exhibit, America Informed features various materials "produced by and for the federal government and all made available for public use." Transparency and open access to public records is key to holding government officials and institutions accountable. I believe the purpose of this exhibit is to educate citizens on the wide range of federal documents and, more importantly, that they have the right to stay informed! After all, it is their taxpayer money that funds these documents.
Who curated this exhibit?
Who curated this exhibit?
This exhibit is curated by UC Irvine Libraries' staff and student workers. You can read more about them here.
The Importance of Theming In Museum Exhibits
The Importance of Theming In Museum Exhibits
When I hear "federal documents," I think of bills, laws, and memorandums.
The exhibit begins by showcasing that the world of federal documents is way more than that.
On the left, we have books. While the NASA activity book is targeted at a younger audience, the other three are materials intended more for adult researchers, thus showcasing how the target audience of federal documents can vary vastly.
On the right, we have educational materials meant for the general public. They're like public service announcements but in paper form, utilizing cartoons to make it a little entertaining and thus a little more likely to be read instead of thrown away.
These documents are the type you see and go "Oh I didn't think this existed, but it makes sense that it did."
Unlike the previous two islands which feature documents meant to inform the general public, this island features documents for internal governmental use.
Example: the U.S. Coast Guard Incident Management Handbook.
Nonetheless, this information is declassified and available for the general public to access.
The main exhibit is also divided into themes:
What Are Government Documents? // Queer Health & History // Vietnam War Propaganda & Misinformation // September 11th (9/11) Terrorist Attacks
I think choosing these four as the main topics to be featured sends a message that they are all equally important parts of our history and deserve to be archived and studied.
This might be me overanalyzing, but I feel like the background image choices all have significance (and possibly a subconscious influence on the viewer?).
No idea what document this is, but it sure looks like an important government paper written during Colonial/Early America. It's kind of the classical document you picture in your head when you think of "important government paper."
Although rainbow might be the obvious choice, it could feel a little... "on the nose" for some. I think it's pretty tasteful that the graphic designer went with purple, a color that has been historically associated with queerness.
Looks like folk art depicting a marketplace. Considering the topic is war, this background suggests empathy for the civilians involved in war.
A photo of flames and ruins, of what I can only assume to be the Ground Zero of 9/11. One of the words most associated with 9/11 is "tragedy." I think this background amplifies that sentiment.
I thought it was interesting how three sections each feature comments from a student curator, who I assume worked on the exhibit.
Tucked away in the corner is a QR code that takes you to the online virtual exhibit. It's pretty easy to miss, though.
Worldbuilding?
Worldbuilding?
In a way, when displayed like this, these documents create a world of their own.
Worldbuilding stresses the "people" element—the network of people that make up that world and the interconnectedness of it all. There's a team of people behind each and every one of these documents, and they reflect the internal structure of the organization that made its production possible.
━━━━ ✦ Virtual Exhibit ✦ ━━━━
━━━━ ✦ Virtual Exhibit ✦ ━━━━
The first thing I noticed about the virtual exhibit was how... empty, everything felt. With the in-person display, the documents and caption cards are organized in an intricate manner like a puzzle, while the digital version just feels like a list. Personally, I prefer looking at the physical exhibit. I like seeing all the artifacts laid out all at once and letting my gaze wander to whatever looks the most interesting. You don't get this sense of discovery looking at the webpage, as it's laid out all in the same format. Scrolling just doesn't hit the same y'know.
Video showing me clicking through the links.
This primary source caught my eye because Peanuts seem to have a long history with the U.S. government, and I mean this in a complimentary way.
I'll talk more about this later :)
On the webpage, all the images have the same width, so the artifacts don't have the same sense of scale as the in-person display.
However, one advantage of the virtual exhibit over the physical exhibit is that it can link the document's source directly next to it. I had a lot of fun clicking on all the links and checking out the websites the documents are hosted on. Shout out to the Internet Archive (Archive.org) and the Libary of Congress (loc.gov) <3
Some of the artifacts are videos and graphs, which honestly look a little silly when printed out and displayed in person. The virtual exhibit allows the visitor to easily access and view these artifacts in their original format.
❝ Oh, good grief! ❞
❝ Oh, good grief! ❞
US Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1968.
NASA, 1969.
Peanuts, originally a comic strip that has since been adopted in various forms of media, is its own fictional universe with lore and characters. In these documents, the characters are extrapolated from their universe and inserted into the real world. I find it fascinating that federal agencies seem to have a habit of using/collabing with beloved, well-known characters as mascots for whatever Important Thing the agency wants to draw the public's attention to. Smart strategy, honestly.
I believe the goal of "Security is an Eyepatch" is to raise awareness on the lazy eye condition and encourage treatment. In other words, the U.S. Department of Health attempts to build a world where lazy eye is destigmatized one step at a time, starting with this comic strip.
Reflection
Reflection
I think historical archives are very, very cool. And important, too.
I believe there is value in preserving as much materials as we can. Doesn't matter what kind of material it is—videos, photos, websites, memorandums... you name it. As for why we must try to archive to the best of our abilities, I can't give you a reason any more eloquent than "Why not?" After all, there is nothing to be lost about preserving history. Even the most mundane object like a receipt can tell you something about when and where it's from.
As for an in-person vs. digital exhibit, I will always prefer in-person because nothing beats seeing the artifacts in their physical state. However, virtual exhibits are so much more accessible. There are museums I'd love to visit but I probably never will have the chance to since they're on the other side of the country. (For this reason I am BEGGING museums to have a digital catalog of their artifacts ESPECIALLY their special collections and exhibits!!) You don't have this problem with virtual exhibits, since all you need is a browser and internet, and you can visit anywhere and anytime. It's also more convenient if you want more context since you can just search things up in your browser. If it was in-person, you'd have to pull out your phone constantly and that's not really a great experience.
This Digital Archive entry is the perfect opportunity to share some of my favorite primary source digital catalogs:
Digital Public Library of America
National Archives Catalog (did you know that you can hire researchers to help you find what you need in the archives? man if only I had the money...)
March to the Moon (a great place for finding raw photos from the moon programs)
https://wikiarchives.space/ (community-driven archive cataloging spaceflight photos!)
FBI Records: The Vault — The Vault (I ♡ FOIA) (my dream is to file an FOIA some day but I'm honestly too scared to do it LOL)
References / Image Credits
References / Image Credits
Sources:
https://exhibits.lib.uci.edu/america-informed
All photos by me.
Header Image: NGC 1333
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana
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