Guide to the Amanda Brown Photograph Collection, Online Archive of California

For the last few months I have been a volunteer for the LEADS (Leveraging Encoded Archival Description Skills) project here at Simmons, and have been encoding old finding aids from the Simmons College Archives. My analysis of the Guide to the Amanda Brown Photograph Collection at the African American Museum & Library of Oakland is inspired by the work I have completed with the LEADS project and the various issues I have come across when discussing finding aids.

                The overall finding aid is not unlike most finding aids, the descriptive summary (DS) includes standard information like access restrictions, origins, indexing terms, and provenance of the object. The descriptions are very brief and the abstract was used to describe the scope of content. The collection is small, and so are most of the descriptions used for the summary. According to the scope of content, the Amanda Brown Photograph Collection consists of thirty-seven photographs and portraits featuring Browns’ family and other African American residents of the Bay Area circa the 1920s. The images are not available online, so it’s important that the item-level descriptions are clear. The arrangement of the collection is confusing – there is only one box with one series, but according to the aid the photographs have been separated into three different folders? It is not quite clear what 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 refer to, and the photos are not organized by numerical order (please see screenshot below). It is also unclear if any of the subjects in the photos are members of the Brown family or residents of Oakland. Even so, it’s great that the collection contents section was broken down by item level, and each photograph has a unique caption. The captions indicate that some of these photographs were either taken or published in other locations (Boston, Houston, Dallas, Little Rock). After reading the various captions it became evident that there may be some information missing from the content summary. The scope specifies that these are supposed to be Oakland residents, but the photos may consist of relatives that live in other places as well. 

                It is difficult to critique this finding aid because I have no idea how much information the creator was given before encoding this collection. With LEADS, my information stubs are not very detailed and I find myself using the abstract information for the scope of content section. As much as I would love to research the subject and add more information to the aid, it can be very time consuming. With that being said, this finding aid can be used as an example of why taking the time to properly research a subject might be useful. One photograph in the collection is of artist Sargent Johnson’s wood carving, Forever Free. Not only is this work from 1933 (there is no date for the photograph), but there is no connection made between the artist and the Brown family. Johnson was an important African American artist, WPA worker, and Oakland resident (one of his pieces, valued at six figures, was erroneously sold by UC Berkeley for $160 in 2009). The photograph of Forever Free should be included in the scope of content and Johnson should be included in the index. The indexing terms should also include children and portraits. Most importantly, there needs to be a <bioghist> or biographical section added to this summary. It would be helpful to at least have her dates. I did not anticipate finding any major flaws in this aid, but I was surprised (and a little excited) to work on this collection after reviewing the finding aid.

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c81n82t0/admin/#arrangement-1.3.8

More info on Johnson: http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/163

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Free-to-appreciate-Sargent-Johnson-3099706.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/arts/design/art-by-sargent-johnson-berkeleys-loss-is-museums-gain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0