In a message dated 02-06-20 11:47:28 EDT, Lynnea K. writes:

<< I would like to focus on the application issue concerning race.  Does
anyone
 utilize the Thesaurus for Graphic Materials 1 for the purpose of providing
 subject access to photographs?  The thesaurus states that "proper names for
 ethnic, racial, and regional groups are taken from the Library of Congress
 Subject Headings."

 Are any museum people applying this thesaurus in their cataloging? >>

Yes, I use that thesaurus and LCSH (sporadically, but hope to apply them more
consistently).  Since ethnic and cultural history are the concerns of many
researchers, especially regarding the subject associations of photographs, I
think it's important to provide that kind of access.  Many people are doing
research on African Americans, Latinos, and other groups (and indeed one of
our collecting objectives is precisely to support such research), so it's
reasonable to offer appropriate subject descriptors.  I'm always a bit uneasy
that we don't bother to index "white" people per se, due to the implication
that we're providing access only to minority groups, and that lack of an
identifying qualifier automatically means the subjects are white.  On the
other hand, practically speaking, would anyone search a database on a term
like Caucasian if it were added?

I also index "women artists" and "women lawyers" but wouldn't bother to say
"men" or "male" artists or lawyers, the uncomfortable reality being that one
assumes male without the qualifier.  This is clearly unfair, although there
are no such terms in authority lists, and regardless of whatever
interpretation you give such cultural coding, they're usually not necessary.
A picture of a white male lawyer would be indexed simply under "lawyers",
whereas pictures of African American women lawyers would get that specific
index term (plus "lawyers", so you could also access all lawyers regardless
of ethnicity and sex, er, gender--whatever).  These remarks are in response
to the caution that you should index all groups if you're going to single out
any!

While I wouldn't bother to add descriptors for whites or Caucasians, I do
differentiate individual white ethnic groups when they are known.  For
example, we've indexed Finnish Americans, Scottish Americans, French,
Germans, etc., when such distinctions are relevant.

Our database includes about 150 item-level entries in connection with an
"Ethnic Imagery" project for an exhibition which would cover, among other
issues, the history of ethnic stereotypes in advertising illustration.
Because the exhibition was postponed indefinitely, the project never actually
got very far into the "stereotype" area and resulted in the selection of some
picture postcards for cataloguing and scanning--a small fraction of the
material available.  The postcards cover primarily Mexico and the American
Southwest, and some are really just tourist hotel ads, although some depict
people in regional and "ethnic" costume, etc.  All of these use "ethnicity"
as a subject descriptor, which was a bad decision--I picked it simply because
nothing else in the database used the term--but I think I'm going to omit
that and add "Ethnic Imagery Project" as a better way to distinguish the
specific set.  The quality of this set of records varies (I didn't write
them, but now am responsible for editing and cleaning them up).  Many of them
lack any indexing descriptors for the ethnic groups represented.  I would be
much obliged if members of this list would take a look at the records with
their linked images and give me some feedback on search terms which would
make them more useful.  To view them, go to the database at:
http://www.siris.si.edu and select the "Archives and Manuscripts search" on
the circle; locate this group of records by doing a browse search on
"Ethnicity" (or "Ethnic Imagery Project" in case I've changed it by the time
you look), and tell me what you think.  Thanks for any suggestions.

David Haberstich

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