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Pitt-sponsored Exhibition, Free at Last? Slavery in Pittsburgh in
the 18th and 19th Centuries, Now Accessible Online
Web site takes users on a virtual tour of award-winning presentation
based on handwritten documents of local slave transactions
 PITTSBURGH-The
University of Pittsburgh-sponsored exhibition Free at Last?
Slavery in Pittsburgh in the 18th and 19th Centuries, which was
on display recently at the Senator John Heinz History Center,
lives on in a compelling Web version.
By visiting
www.library.pitt.edu/freeatlast/, a site built by a team from
Pitt's University Library System (ULS), viewers are guided through a
virtual tour of the award-winning exhibition seen by thousands
between October 2008 and April of this year.
Free at Last? writes a new chapter in the early history of race
relations in this region by exploring the little-known fact that
slavery persisted in Western Pennsylvania through the years
immediately preceding the Civil War. The exhibition centers on 55
handwritten records of legal transactions in Pittsburgh between 1792
and 1857 that were discovered in 2007 by staff in the Allegheny
County Recorder of Deeds Office. Those faded records, now property
of the Heinz History Center, document this area's decades-long
involvement with Black slavery and indentured servitude.
"I believe that this effort captures the essence and feel of the
original, physical exhibition," said Rush Miller, director of ULS.
"The ULS Web design team did an outstanding job of converting
exhibition content into a first-rate online presentation, and the
video commentary by Dr. Glasco is an added feature that enriches the
experience of the documents and artifacts."
Highlights of the Web exhibition include:
- Five sections that organize the story-Middle Passage to Early
America, The Freedom Papers, Fugitive Slave Laws and Escapes,
Abolition, and Civil War and Aftermath
- Video segments narrated by Laurence Glasco, Pitt professor of
history and the exhibition's historical director, that explain the
significance of the documents and the gripping tales of some fugitive
slaves' escapes to freedom
- A zoom and navigation tool to closely inspect the original 55
hand-written documents
- A typed transcript of the hand-written text
- A photo gallery of 81 thumb-nail images with a slideshow or the
option
Pitt Web services librarian Jeff Wisniewski and designer
Kari Johnston were provided with a CD of audio files, PDF files,
and the hard copy of the exhibition catalogue. They reassembled the
pieces online in a way that mimics the experience of viewing it at
the History Center, but with more options.
Ed Galloway, director of Pitt's Archives Service Center,
digitized the slave documents. To show the information in context, a
portion of each slave document is shaded in grey. The unshaded
portion is a record of human sales, slaves freed by their owners, or
requests for freedom papers. The shaded portion is a sales record of
other property, like plots of land.
Even though it's not the oldest material he's worked with, Galloway
says it's among the most significant. "These records touch upon the
lives of men, women, and children," he said, "and that's what makes
them remarkable."
Galloway says he envisions additional links that could be placed
throughout the site, leading to other resources and related
digitized documents in the ULS archives.
Pitt's Office of Public Affairs developed the content for Free at
Last?
The exhibition won six 2009 Golden Triangle Awards from the
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC),
including the award for Best of Show.
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