Research Excursions

The first research excursion that I looked at was Kate’s Omeka exhibit on medicine and the middle passage. I thought it was so cool that Kate was able to research something that she is actually interested in (medical history and epidemiology). I also really like how she used Omeka, which gave me an idea for what platform to use for one of my next research excursions. She described what smallpox was like at the time in Equiano’s narrative and how physicians recommended certain drinks and foods for people with smallpox. Smallpox even had a vaccine at the time. There were also a lot of other diseases on slave ships that Kate pointed out, and many of them did not have vaccines. It was also interesting to learn about what kinds of foods the people ate during this time period.

The next research excursion that I looked at was Rian’s Timeline JS exhibit on quakers and abolitionism. Again, I liked seeing how she used a new platform called Timeline JS, which also gave me an idea to possibly try out this platform as well. I liked the pictures on this exhibit and the timeline. I learned a lot about historical events leading up to the abolition of the slave trade. One specific historical event that I learned about from her exhibit was that Philadelphia passed a tax on importing enslaved people. Also, I learned that an antislavery society in Philadelphia formed in 1775 by the Quakers with Benjamin Franklin as the president of the organization eventually.

Great job to both of them!