Reflection #4

For my data collection, I mostly focused on archival research. I went to the archives around 3-4 different times. I worked in the SIUE archives and went through the Mayor Alvin G. Fields collection. This collection highlighted all the work that he did during his time. I was only focused on the work that he did that applied to environmental efforts, given that my project was on implementing a tree canopy into East St. Louis. I really enjoyed my experience in the archives. I found looking through the folders very interesting because I was unpacking history that isn’t commonly known. I also think it was fun to get to read all the papers and draw conclusions like puzzles. I was expecting the archives to outright tell me the historical context, but instead there were a lot of long papers and letters that I had to read and depict. This made it feel like a mystery which was very intriguing and fun. Also, I really enjoyed talking with the archivists. They were very helpful at explaining the whole process and helped me understand the story better. A problem that I ran into was that there was a lot of filler information. Sometimes, it was difficult to know which papers I should look at were important to my project. I chose to go through the archive titles and pick the titles that seemed the most helpful. I did this because without this elimination process, it would take so much longer. Archives are very time consuming to go through. It took me around 4 hours to go through 4-5 folders.  

I wish that I had spent more time going through the collection. I feel like there was so much left unread that I must have missed something important. Also, I do wish I wasn’t working with others around me because it distracted me a lot. I think I would work better in the archives alone so I can fully give it my attention. Overall, I did collect a lot of data about East St. Louis history with environmental efforts. I learned that they had a beautification committee that was made up of community members. They aimed to get rid of hazardous trees and plant new ones. Additionally, they had a fall clean up month project where they put up posters around town to motivate the community to clean up their neighborhood. They wanted the community to look better and feel better. They also had a parade kick this month off. Furthermore, they had an awards dinner that they said would go to the cleanest district after they did a post survey of the land. To conclude this, these plans did not end up being implemented due to lack of funding and the political climate of the state.