I was very excited to be enrolled in this course as this was the first real hands on class for my media com major. Towards the beginning of the semester, the class felt a little slow which is understandable since we needed to learn new vocab to make sure we could do our best work on our projects. Some of the readings were a little lengthy, but again understandable as I didn’t know everything there is to know about doc field work and archival work. I really loved the archival work. It was therapeutic for me, once getting into the routine of dating and labeling in the spreadsheet. Also, it was cool to see how the programs have progressed over time. I also really enjoyed the field trips. I felt like a complete stranger to the Allentown Band at first but once we did our oral histories and I got to film the band up close and personally at a rehearsal, I felt part of the band family. The short reflections were helpful so we could touch base with you on how we felt on our assignments. There were some classes where I felt it was difficult to figure out who would be doing what, but once Haley showed us the one website, all of these light bulbs went off and it was off to work we went! This was a class I really enjoyed. I learned a lot and now have skills to use in future classes and in life. The biggest lesson I learned is that everything works out in the end.

Taking Documentary Fieldwork was never on my Muhlenberg agenda, and I would have been shocked if someone had told me a few years ago that I would be in a course with that title. After having secured an internship in Washington D.C. primarily because of the work I did in Doc Research, and subsequently finding a passion for digestible history writing, and digital storytelling through that internship, I was immediately drawn to signing up for this course once Dr. Ranieri told me it would be focused around the Allentown Band. Finally having the opportunity to geek out about band in an academic setting, while also getting to do work that seemed oriented towards a potential career path sounded like a dream come true.

Coming into this class, I was familiar with digital storytelling, and for the most part, the tech side of what this course might entail. I was not, however, familiar with what the archival side would be like, or how it would play into our experience other than using archival material in our projects. To this end, I found the archival theory, material processing, and finding aid creation to be really informative and interesting. It was really cool to have the opportunity to handle the material, and be up close and personal with the letters and photos. It was also amazing to get to try out, and have exposure to a field that I wouldn’t be able to find in any other class at Muhlenberg.

Doing the oral history was also a really interesting opportunity, and I’m happy to have experienced it, but it’s not the part of the process that I would prefer doing. That being said, I really enjoyed meeting Caitlin and the immediate connection that we shared, and I appreciate having learned the skill of oral history. The field trip to the Moravian Archive was interesting in that it helped in putting archival work in context, as far as the differences and similarities between archives, and the different formats and methods for organizing archives. Going to Wenner Hall was also so crucial in understanding the work that we were doing for the Band, and being able to picture and understand so much of their history and surroundings. I regret not being able to see the Band in action due to so many scheduling conflicts, but hope to hear them live in the near future, especially now feeling so personally close to them and their story.

The readings at the beginning of the course were helpful in contextualizing the storytelling aspect, but they did seem to be a bit of a reiteration of the work we did in Doc Research, and I had some difficulty following the progression of the way the readings fit together. Additionally, there was often some confusion about deadlines that could be difficult to navigate, but I recognize that this was a product of starting the class from scratch, and I wouldn’t anticipate future iterations of this course having that issue. As far as the final project, I really enjoyed that we were able to present our work in a different form of digital storytelling than documentary. I was under the impression entering this course that we would be required to make a documentary, and while I wouldn’t have minded this, I prefer other types of digital storytelling and was appreciative that we got to create this outlet ourselves, and could explore different forms.

Overall, this course gave me an opportunity to continue pursuing work that I’ve recently become more interested in and passionate about, so I was able to really use this experience to continue directing myself towards what I would like to do post-graduation. For that reason, this course was something that felt really practical and relevant for me to take in my senior year, with the added bonus of getting to do research, and talk about band a few extra times a week.

By Haley

I honestly can’t believe the semester is coming to an end.  I’m writing this while I’m staring at the collection of bags in my room that are ready to go home, as I get ready to move out of my dorm go to Dublin next semester, which is wild, right? But even more than that, I can’t believe that this class is coming to an end.

My absolute favorite thing about this class was the freedom that it gave me to explore the universe that is the Allentown Band. I feel like my passion for research is something that often stays invisible in other classes, but in this one, I could get caught up on tangents researching people or whatever my heart desired, and it was excepted and valued by our little community. Also, I loved the field trips. First, our excursion to Moravian which, even with our mild detour through the streets of Bethlehem in the rain by our slightly confused bus driver, really helped our class come together as a team, and it helped put the world of archiving that we were about to delve into into perspective. Even more so, the field trip to Wenner Hall, where we got our first up close and personal taste of the Allentown band, gave us an invaluable glimpse into the world that we would be retroactively inhabiting for the next two months. Then, the oral histories were a great way to put names to faces. Meeting Beth and DeVaughn and getting to talk to them about their experience helped me gain insight into what it truly is like to be a member of the band. And now, watching all of these pieces come together into our digital story making, I couldn’t be happier or more proud of where we are and where this project is going to continue to go even when I am no longer part of it.

The part of this class that fell short for me was the beginning. Until that day, however strange it was, in GQ, when we walked around and started to write observations of the people there and think deeply about the implications of those observations in the second month of class, I didn’t feel a connection to the course material. I was reading about archiving, words like provenance and fons would swirl in my head ephemerally before being replaced the next class with a reading about The Uprising and documentary practices. None of it truly held any weight for me, until that moment in GQ. I wish we had done that sooner and then done the readings to get an understanding of the ethics that we should’ve been observing when we did it. I feel like that would’ve hooked me right from the start.

Honestly, other than that, I’ve had a great time in this class, and I hope that you get to teach this or some iteration of this in the future.

By Haley

As someone who has always prided themselves in their organizational skills, loves spending time in libraries and considers themselves a storyteller, I am shocked that before taking this class I had not realized the immense interconnectedness of documentary story making and archival research. When signing up for this class, I will admit that it was the documentary side that drew me in, but I am happy to declare that finding and learning about people’s lives through my archival research has been one of the pieces of this class that I have derived the most joy from.

Throughout my archival process, I have become familiar with the microcosms of life as an Allentown Band member in the 1950-70’s. From groups like The Sharps & Flats and Little Symphony that grew out of the ensemble to the kinship of the members and their relationships with the community as a whole, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gleaned from the scrapbooks I’ve been working with. By studying this material and correlations between significant events chronicled throughout multiple people’s collections of newspaper clippings, I decided to focus on West Park as the topic for my final documentary. So, the archival material not only informed my decision making but also enriched my knowledge of the venue. Honestly, this made my first solo trip to West Park to take videos for my project hold even more weight. Walking around West Park, I was able to imagine it throughout the years as it had been chronicled in various pictures and newspaper clippings. By going to the park with the history in mind, I was able to more effectively capture the essence of the place today and more accurately show its evolution and the band’s relation to it over time.

Additionally, my time spent archiving has given me a deeper respect for human particularity. No two scrapbooks, even if they are from the same time period, are the same. This is because they reflect the subjectivity of their makers. They are filled with the rich texture that is derived from the love it takes to choose a piece of material as something worthy of saving. From the handwritten marginalia detailing who came to which performance to the candid picture of people in the drumline napping in West Park, these scrapbooks provide snapshots of the three people who made them’s lives. Ultimately, I am sad that this semester is coming to a close and with it my time with this material, but I cannot wait to see how your work with it evolves and how the digitization process goes.

Now coming towards the end of the semester, I would say my brain has been scattered since visiting Wenner Hall, to attending a band rehearsal, recording my oral history, to organizing band programs as archival work.

Before getting into the groove of archiving, I have to admit I felt a little frantic. Getting to practice creating a finding aid with information from my life definitely helped me prepare for doing the same thing with these programs. It’s neat to see how over time, the programs have changed and how much detail is included in a program, not just the setlist itself, but the advertising and the images used throughout. It’s as if the first program for the band (on record) was an infant and I’m watching it grow up before my eyes (sorry to be super cheesy and sappy, but it’s just how I see it!).

When we visited Wenner Hall, I felt like a complete stranger (although I knew some things about the band prior to visiting), but now that the band members know my face (and shaky camera skills), I feel as if I’m part of the band too in a way, and I’m happy I get to document their lives— they are definitely worth getting to know. They aren’t kidding when they say it takes a village to create a masterpiece like this. I’m really grateful I get to be a part of this project and can’t wait to see the finishing touches after this semester.

Despite using archival material in Documentary Research two years ago, I mostly learned the ins and outs of ethical and interesting documentary work in that course; I thought of the archival material as more of a tool in the documentary making toolbox, per se, than an entirely other discipline. The work that we have been doing in this course has changed my perspective on the connectedness of these fields as a whole, because we are engaged on a working level with the archival material, rather than just being provided with it. Not only this, but that documentary work and archival work have somewhat of a symbiotic relationship. Most documentary work requires access to archival material, which in turn allows that material to be used and observed on a regular basis. It therefore would make sense for documentarians to have some level of archive knowledge, because, as I am finding in this course, having an understanding of the archival side helps with the effectiveness and efficiency of research.

Recording and organizing the Bert Meyers letters, for example, has showed me the detail level work that is required to process archival material, which helped me to understand why it can sometimes be so difficult to locate necessary archival information for documentary work and historical research; not only can processing be slow, but it also means that archives are likely, and maybe even expected, to have back logs which may contain the archival material documentarians need. Understanding both the documentary and archives perspective, then, helps with patience when it comes to completing research.

While I’ve always understood that archival work was detailed oriented, I am definitely discovering that quite possibly the hardest part of the work is to know when to be a little LESS detail oriented (i.e. recording just the names, dates, and important information from letters, rather than an intricate transcription). This can be really challenging, especially when the subject matter is so personally interesting, but at the same time, learning what information is most important to archive is exactly what we do when we decide what information is most relevant to include in a documentary or digital story. Therefore, getting to be actively involved in both sides of these disciplines throughout this project has definitely showed me how similar they are, and how much they lean on one another for a successful outcome.

I found two drastically different ways of knowing through the work I’ve been doing in the archives, and the work I’ve done with the oral histories with the band.

When we initially started archiving the letters, I found it somewhat overwhelming.  This had to do in part with the sheer amount of letters in the box and also with how far back into the band’s history these letters went.  I was having a hard time visualizing how I could connect the personal letters I was going through in these boxes with the band as it is today.  I was worried that the personal qualities of the letters would make it irrelevant to the band today because obviously, the people in the letters are no longer a part of the band.  However, I came to discover that it was the personal qualities of the letters that made them so interesting to me. Through all the letters I have read, I feel like I have come to know people like Meyers and Bob Hoe, and a bunch of other guest conductors and fans of the band.  I know the way they speak and the kind of things they like to talk about, and why they care about the band.  I was really struck by what Popova said about reading, and the way she offered an interpretation of  it as “a relationship to one’s own mind and not a relationship to the matter of silicon or pulped wood.”   While the letters taught me about the people writing them, I was also able to find myself in them.  There would be moments of humor that sometimes don’t serve the purpose of the letter, but that’s one of the crucial parts of how humans interact with one another.  At least it is crucial to the way in which I interact with the people in my life. And while yes, the letters don’t entirely reflect the band as it is today, I think it is the spirit of the people in the letters that lives on today.

Similarly, the personal quality of the oral histories has also made me feel even more invested and in touch with the band.  Up until I conducted my interview, the band was more of an illusive concept than a real life thing for me.  Talking with DeVaughn was really wonderful, and I was able to get his unique perspective on why he wanted to join the band, why he sticks with it, what his favorite parts are, and I was also able to learn things about him that have nothing to do with the band.  Having the opportunity to experience band members as fully fleshed out people rather than just entities in the band was really helpful for me in viewing the band as the sort of living, breathing being that it truly is.

On the one hand, I am able to know the band through things like the information I can gather from the letters or from Ron’s book, and I can understand the band from a historical aspect.  On another hand, I can learn about the relationships between people involved in the band, and the personalities of current members, and it suddenly becomes so much more alive to me.

After watching the band in person, I have to say I am quite impressed. I didn’t realize the band performs more than just classical music, so it was exciting to hear tunes I knew. It was cool to see interactions between Ron and the band members and interactions between the band members to each other. I see how the band is a family– they sound great together and have a blast playing.

What I was most struck by in our visit to the Moravian archive was the amount of backlog that they have.  We were told they had something like 20% of their collection actually sorted and archived, and I was really surprised by that.  Especially when we went into the archives and I saw how much processed stuff they had, it seems almost overwhelming that they still had 80% of it to archive.  We even ran out of time on our tour for him to show us where the processed and unprocessed material lived.  This makes sense given what we read from Greene and Meissner about how great of a challenge processing backlog is.

I can see a big conflict here where an archivist would want to process things down to an item level because that would make it easier for a user to find something specific that they are looking for, but if everything is processed down to an item level, you would never get through any of your backlog, it would only increase.  This speaks to the Greene and Meissner reading where it says something to the effect of a decision must be made about whether the ultimate goal is preserving the records, or if the goal is to serve users of the archive.

The trip to the Allentown band archive was a completely different story in terms of how it was set up.  Of course, they have backlog too and that is part of what we’re helping with in this class, but it was less apparent to me what was processed and what was not.  I also thought it was really interesting to see the differences in the locations that the materials were held in.  While the Moravian archive was set up in what I imagine is a fairly standard way, much like we saw in the library, the band archive felt much more personal.  We were able to see band uniforms, old programs, and photographs of old band members as we were walking around.

I was also able to gather a lot more story potential from the band’s archive.  I saw seemingly random items like a santa hat, or a poster with some dogs on it, things that seemed to be there for no reason, but it’s important to remember that some one did put it there for a certain reason and it isn’t actually random.  I was able to reflect on this more through reading my field notes and trying to find connections in the things I was seeing.  In the Sunstein and Chiseri-Strater reading, it discusses field notes as a construction of the experience.  This was especially helpful after visiting the band archive because I felt like there was so much going on and so many different things to look at, it would have been very difficult to come to any conclusions about the experience if I hadn’t been documenting it through field notes.

A major similarity that I noticed between the Moravian Archives and Wenner Hall were back logs. Back logs are both a major problem, and major reality, of archives according to Meissner and Greene. They add that back logs are occurring more and more because of the current day archive field being unable to keep up with the amount of material to process because the methods to do so are still old and unchanged (p. 211). Old methods make processing a slow and arduous task.

Another problem that Meissner and Greene point out, which is particularly relevant to both Moravian’s and Wenner’s situation is the issue of processing based on the “perceived needs of [the] collection” and the “demonstrated need of [the] constituents” (p. 212). Even though the Moravian archives had thousands and thousands of processed materials, that amount was actually only a very tiny fraction of their acquisitions. The archivist at the Moravian Archives spoke a lot about this when he was explaining about how researchers use their Archive, and how would they would like to use the archive moving forward.

If information isn’t yet processed, it is unsearchable through digital means, making research for constituents difficult. This is also problematic for the Archive because it highlights the fact that completing research at that particular institution might be hard, or unsuccessful—especially if an Archive is actually in possession of material that a researcher needs, but neither party knows because processing hasn’t happened. This is certainly the case with the Allentown Band Archives in that very little of their material can be referenced or researched right now, making it nearly impossible for researchers to access the fantastic material stored in Wenner. Once the materials are processed, they will be easily searchable and accessible for researchers looking for connections to the Band. In the future, researchers may not have to come in person to dig and sort through unlabeled boxes of material in hopes of what they’re looking for, but will instead be able to reference detailed finding aids to locate exact information. For this reason, institutions like Moravian and Wenner Hall would benefit from updating processing techniques that would expedite the process and allow for easy and universal access to materials.