The Southeast Chicago Archive and Storytelling Project (SECASP) is a collaboration between the all-volunteer Southeast Chicago Historical Museum and a project team based at MIT. The project consists of a unique online archive and documentary media site that is both engaging and educational for local communities and the general public.
Southeast Chicago is a multiracial former steel mill community polluted by industry, yet also devastated by its closure. The project began with the digitization of countless artifacts and oral histories donated by community residents to a local historical museum. These digitized items were then used to create a visually striking online exhibition space. This space allow viewers to explore what “history” felt like from the point of view of diverse residents of this post-industrial community. It also explores key tensions in the American past that continue to resonate in the present, including those around immigration, industrial job loss, union struggle, racial conflict, and the environment.
The archive side of the SECASP website offers access to over 1,000 of these digitized objects and includes 13 “featured exhibits” on topics like “Black Experience in the Mills,” “Women at Work,” “Union Life” and “Having Fun” that bundle together engaging materials on key topics. The “stories” side of the website offers a choice of four interactive documentary experiences: Mexican-American Journeys; The Memorial Day Massacre; The Closing of the Mills; and From Wetlands to Waste. Each begins with a donated object, as well as contemporary video of a community member handling that object and discussing its significance. The documentary “story” then weaves in additional saved objects and the words of residents in ways that tell a larger story. Each story brings history to life through donated materials while also bringing different generations and groups into dialogue around topics crucial to both the American past and present.
Additional Credits:
Christine Walley, Director, SECASP
Rod Sellers, Director, Southeast Chicago Historical Museum
Jeff Soyk, Creative Director, SECASP
Chris Boebel, Co-Director, SECASP
Steven Walsh, Co-Designer, SECASP
Paige Mazurek, Co-Designer, SECASP
