I love history. I can spend hours exploring archive collections and the artifacts they hold. The Alice Paul Institute (API), a small non-profit with a mission to celebrate women’s history and promote civic engagement, was gifted a large private collection of suffrage artifacts. Working with Erin, a college student working on a degree in library science who was working part-time to help accession the collection, we crafted the #InTheArchives campaign to highlight both the new items joining API’s collection and also some really amazing objects held in the permanent collection.
The #InTheArchives campaign ran throughout Women’s History Month in March of 2020. The project shared the stories of the women behind the suffrage movement that helped ratify the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. It also spotlighted some of the pivotal events and moments in the fight for voting rights such as the first Woman Suffrage March in Washington D.C., publications like The Suffragist that kept women across the nation informed and connected, and memorabilia from the movement.
For this campaign I created layered images to add dimension to each of the objects, and overcome the 1x1 square format for Instagram. #InTheArchives posted to API’s Facebook and Instagram platforms. I was very pleased with the level of engagement, comments, and shares.
