Over the past semester, I have been a part of the group working with J. Murrey Atkins Library collection on Charlotte Architecture. Together with Jacquelyn McGuire, Melissa Barnett, and Christine Wilkie, we have worked towards creating a website that highlights three specific architects featured by the library's archives: Martin Boyer, Louis Asbury, and Charles C. Hook. I chose to utilize the Mary Boyer collection of postcards in hopes of incorporating their vision of early twentieth century Charlotte into our website in a way that would enhance the site's theme: Building My Charlotte. While initially this project seemed a bit daunting, the past months have proved that through our group's consistent work ethic, communication, and coherent vision, we were more than capable of creating an informative, interpretive, and aesthetically engaging site that will hopefully attract and educate web-goers of all types.
Early
on, Jacquelyn, Melissa, Christine and I decided to focus on specific architects
and highlight their stylistic contributions to the Queen City. While we could have chosen four
architects—one for each group member, thus facilitating task assignments and
work distribution—we were particularly drawn to the Mary Boyer collection of
postcards located within Special Collections.
I was especially fascinated by their artistic representation of
Charlotte, of their views of a city long-gone yet still very much present. As a newcomer to Charlotte, I was
particularly delighted to comb through the old postcard images and then
research the featured buildings and streetscapes. Were these buildings still around? What does this street look like today? Additionally, finding postcards that featured
buildings designed by our group’s chosen architects was especially
intriguing. After skimming through the
postcards, I then had to figure out a way to cohesively incorporate them into
the overall meaning of our project.
Initially,
we decided that the postcards could serve to illuminate areas of Charlotte
before the erection of Asbury, Boyer, and Hook’s designs. This “before and after” concept would
emphasize the change that these architects brought to commercial and
residential areas of Charlotte’s community.
Then we began to discuss the prevalence of postcards that featured one
of our architects’ buildings, wondering how exactly to utilize these
images. How prominent a role should
these postcards play? Can they serve a
purpose other than merely displaying artistic renderings of Charlotte? These discussions led me to seek a new path
of research, one that would eventually inspire a different facet of our
website.
While my group mates continued thorough
research on their chosen architect, I began to think more broadly about
postcards. I researched their history
and soon discovered that the concept of what we recognize today as a postcard
dates back to the 1860s. These cards in
turn evolved from calling cards, or visiting cards. These cards simplistically yet creatively
conveyed a sense of presence, intimacy, and identity to its recipient. Applying this research to the Mary Boyer
collection, I began to read the messages on the backside of the images,
learning about the people who visited Charlotte, where they came from, and what
they thought about the Queen City. Yet
as fascinating as this information was, I still needed to find a way to
incorporate these concepts into the website cohesively. Further research led me to the work of John
A. Jakle, who stated that postcards are
“instructive as to what places once had been. More importantly, they were
instructive as to how places had been represented.”[1]
For the purposes of our website, Mary Boyer's collection allows us to see
Charlotte before the Louis Asburys and Martin Boyers and Charles Hooks implemented
their own vision of the city. Returning to the original “before and
after” concept, I decided to utilize the postcards in this collection to offer
insight into those who visited Charlotte and how Charlotte was sent throughout
the country. In this way, we would be
able to expand on our website’s vision slightly. Not only would we pursue the ways that three
architects designed their Charlotte, but we would also represent how that
vision was disseminated, historically and today.
With
very diverse schedules, our group maintained contact via email throughout the
majority of the semester, ensuring that each member was completing tasks
assigned by our group contract in a timely fashion, and also aiding one another
through research snags. The final few
weeks proved to be the most productive.
Once each member had completed significant research and was nearing
completion of her collection, we scheduled a meeting to storyboard exhibit
ideas and themes. From here we decided
to discuss each architects’ contributions to the community—whether through
residential, cultural, municipal, or educational designs—, their role in bringing
new styles to the Charlotte landscape, and the ways in which Charlotte has
changed over the years. We actively incorporated
feedback from Dr. Cox and classmates to hone and reconfigure various aspects of
our exhibits. Through information gained
from Professor Heather McCullough’s Omeka workshop, and from many hours of
trial and error, our group worked together to understand the technological
layout of Omeka.
Each group
member contributed equally in enabling the success of our project. Everyone was included in the creative process
that decided on which exhibits to create and how each one would tie into the
theme of our site. Jacquelyn worked on
the visual theme and color settings for the site, provided descriptions for
each section of the exhibits “Architecture and Community” and “Introducing New
Designs,” created the Martin Boyer Collection and incorporated these items into
all four exhibits. Melissa created the
Louis Asbury Collection and incorporated these items into all four exhibits,
and templated many of the sections and pages for each exhibit during meetings
to ensure that we would implement the ideas discussed. Christine created the C.C. Hook Collection and
incorporated these items into all four exhibits, and prompted the idea for our
“Reviving Historic Spaces” section of the “Charlotte: Then and Now”
exhibit. I created the Mary Boyer
Postcards Collection, the “Early Twentieth Century” and “Queen City Today”
sections of the “Charlotte: Then and Now” exhibit, wrote the descriptions for
the “Charlotte: Then and Now” sections, designed our custom logo, and compiled
the resources page.
Overall, each
group member supported the main objective of our site, which is to demonstrate
how Louis Asbury, Martin Boyer, and Charles C. Hook contributed architecturally
to Charlotte. Postcards from the early
twentieth century and photographs taken today were utilized to create a context
into which these architects and their designs could be placed. In some instances, these architects’ designs
implemented unique, innovative styles and functions into the community of
Charlotte. Their designs can be seen
throughout all areas of the Queen City—residential spaces, municipal and
commercial districts, and cultural centers.
I believe our site represents a visual and textually supportive vision
of Asbury, Boyer, and Hook’s Charlotte.
[1] John A. Jakle,
Postcards of the Night: Views of American Cities (Santa Fe: Museum of
New Mexico Press, 2003), 8.
