{"id":1759,"date":"2013-08-30T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T18:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjhblog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/30\/out-of-the-archives-when-facebook-was-an-actual\/"},"modified":"2018-06-27T16:40:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T16:40:54","slug":"out-of-the-archives-when-facebook-was-an-actual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/30\/out-of-the-archives-when-facebook-was-an-actual\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1759 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/30\/out-of-the-archives-when-facebook-was-an-actual\/attachment\/1760\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/tumblr_mscvroW5mA1r3qmd1o1_400-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/30\/out-of-the-archives-when-facebook-was-an-actual\/attachment\/1761\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/tumblr_mscvroW5mA1r3qmd1o2_500-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span><em>Out of the Archives<\/em><br \/>When Facebook Was an Actual Book<br \/><\/span><\/strong><span>by Alyssa Carver,\u00a0<\/span><em>Project Archivist, Center for Jewish History<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>This pretty bouquet comes from a circa 1828 <em>Poesiealbum<\/em> in the Pinkus-Peters Family Collection (<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/findingaids.cjh.org\/?pID=1645558\" target=\"_blank\"><span>AR 25520<\/span><\/a><span>) held by the LBI Archives. Once belonging to Ernestine Fr\u00e4nkel of Neustadt (now Prudnik, Poland), the small, handmade volume contains personal greetings, drawings, embroidery, paper-cut art, handwritten poems and other mementos. The German word <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/de.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Poesiealbum\" target=\"_blank\"><em><span>Poesiealbum<\/span><\/em><\/a><span> literally means \u201cpoetry album,\u201d but in English we would probably call it a friendship book, <em>album amicorum<\/em>, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Autograph_book\" target=\"_blank\"><span>autograph album<\/span><\/a><span>, or scrapbook\u2014formats that, in any case, are rapidly being replaced by digital and web-based media. Interestingly, the paper-based friendship book remains relevant in German-speaking countries, which is where the tradition seems to have originated sometime in the 16th century. \u00a0See a contemporary twist on this old idea in the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goethe.de\/ins\/us\/saf\/prj\/sig\/mus\/mcv\/en8516707.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span>music video<\/span><\/a><span> for German hip-hop artist Samy Deluxe\u2019s song \u201cPoesiealbum\u201d (and a link to translated lyrics <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.goethe.de\/ins\/us\/saf\/prj\/sig\/mus\/mcv\/en8516707.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span>here<\/span><\/a>, <span>via the Goethe-Institut). <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">One of the biggest issues facing the archival profession right now is the question of how to deal with the digital scrapbooks, online photo streams and ephemeral media being created in vast quantities every day. Ernestine\u2019s friendship album is 185 years old\u2014maybe a little faded, but in remarkably good condition. It is unlikely that electronic media today will be compatible with tomorrow\u2019s software or as-yet-unimagined devices. So how do we preserve it for future generations? The Library of Congress is currently working on establishing standards for digital stewardship and offers some advice for personal archiving <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalpreservation.gov\/personalarchiving\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. Local nonprofit organization <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rhizome.org\" target=\"_blank\">Rhizome<\/a> is dedicated to the study of \u201ccomputer age\u201d media and digital preservation, and is notable for pioneering community-sourced projects like the current <em>XFR STN<\/em> exhibit at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newmuseum.org\/exhibitions\/view\/xfr-stn\" target=\"_blank\"><span>New Museum of Contemporary Art<\/span><\/a> and the upcoming panel discussion on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newmuseum.org\/calendar\/view\/born-digital-conservation-in-the-computer-age\" target=\"_blank\"><span>Born Digital Conservation<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Returning to 1828 for a moment, the <em>Poesiealbum<\/em> presents technical difficulties of its own, although the software involved in this case is the archivist\u2019s. On the page opposite this ornate floral illustration is a personal dedication from the artist, stained slightly by the aging pigment of the bouquet. (See image above.) What makes the text difficult to read, though, is that it\u2019s written in an antiquated <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fraktur\" target=\"_blank\"><span>German script.<\/span><\/a><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>Transcribed, this reads:\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\"><em><span>Die Freundschaft ist die sch\u00f6nste Blume<br \/><\/span><\/em><em><span>Die auf der weiten Erde bl\u00fcht<br \/><\/span><\/em><em><span>Und die sich frisch erh\u00e4lt, zum ew\u2019gen Ruhme,<br \/><\/span><\/em><em><span>So viel auch Neid und Stolz des Giftes um sie spr\u00fcht.<\/span><\/em><em><span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\"><em><span>Zur freundschaftlichen Erinnerung Ihres Freundes und Musiklehrers.<br \/><\/span><\/em><span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"MsoNormalCxSpMiddle\"><span>Many Americans today (including <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/roomfordebate\/2013\/04\/30\/should-schools-require-children-to-learn-cursive\/the-benefits-of-cursive-go-beyond-writing\" target=\"_blank\"><span>educators<\/span><\/a><span> and <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/roomfordebate\/2013\/04\/30\/should-schools-require-children-to-learn-cursive\/cursive-handwriting-is-a-cultural-tradition-worth-preserving\" target=\"_blank\"><span>archivists<\/span><\/a><span>) have expressed concerns that students who are <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/articles.washingtonpost.com\/2013-04-04\/local\/38274984_1_cursive-students-districts\" target=\"_blank\"><span>no longer learning cursive in school<\/span><\/a><span> will soon be incapable of reading historical documents, let alone birthday cards from Grandma.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span>But perhaps that\u2019s what we archivists are here for?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Out of the ArchivesWhen Facebook Was an Actual Bookby Alyssa Carver,\u00a0Project Archivist, Center for Jewish History This pretty bouquet comes from a circa 1828 Poesiealbum in the Pinkus-Peters Family Collection (AR 25520) held by the LBI Archives. Once belonging to Ernestine Fr\u00e4nkel of Neustadt (now Prudnik, Poland), the small, handmade volume contains personal greetings, drawings, embroidery, paper-cut art, handwritten poems and other mementos. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[785,563,212,786,789,2,793,791,782,787,784,226,8,137,537,794,792,38,781,783,788,581,582,790],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-album-amicorum","tag-alyssa-carver","tag-archivists","tag-autograph-album","tag-cursive","tag-digital-archives","tag-digital-humanities","tag-digital-preservation","tag-ernestine-frankel","tag-flowers","tag-friendship-book","tag-german","tag-history","tag-leo-baeck-institute-collections","tag-library-of-congress","tag-new-museum-of-contemporary-art","tag-online-media","tag-out-of-the-archives","tag-poesiealbum","tag-poetry-album","tag-samy-deluxe","tag-scrapbook","tag-scrapbooking","tag-script","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1762,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/1762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}