Collecting Disasters: Reading Cataclysm in an Insurance Archive

For the seminar, Expanding Forms, I propose to share two pieces of writing about an archival project that is in its beginning stages: an academic book/grant proposal, and a Scalar digital exploration, which is visual and... [ view full abstract ]

For the seminar, Expanding Forms, I propose to share two pieces of writing about an archival project that is in its beginning stages: an academic book/grant proposal, and a Scalar digital exploration, which is visual and textual, on nineteenth century conflagrations. 

My project, Collecting Disasters, examines archival collections dedicated to the industry of risk management and reframes the actuarial representation of risk and disaster to the realms of humanities scholarship. This project is the first effort to excavate and bring attention to rare materials in The Davis Insurance Library, New York, that deserve far greater attention by humanities scholars. 

This project will reimagine how landmark artistic and literary monuments are informed by a wealth of diverse vernacular material available for study in insurance libraries, including the calligraphy and imagery of insurance policies; objects such as fire marks; industry lectures and publications; and illustrations and photographs of, testimony about, and analyses of disasters’ effects on people and the environment. Primarily used by the insurance industry, the Davis library contains rare materials on wide-ranging subjects, 60% of which are unique to the Davis Library alone.  

I am eager for an opportunity to discuss strategies for telling a story about these materials and for bringing them to a wider public.  I've done some work with an archivist on an Omeka exhibit, and I've used Scalar to present short-form arguments about specific collections, but I am still exploring the digital and print possibilities for sharing this material with an academic and a general audience.