JPC Archive

Johnson Publishing Company Archive

Facilitating co-creation design thinking sessions between NMAAHC and the Getty Foundation.

OPPORTUNITY

To design an aligned approach towards digitizing, indexing, and publishing the JPC Archive

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A synthesized readout of insights and a tactical roadmap to support collaborative and standardized workflows.

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DELIVERABLE

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Entering a new venture

On July 2020, the Getty Research Institute and the NMAAHC acquired a significant portion of the Johnson Publishing Company’s archive¹ and are now partnering in an effort “to ensure the broadest access for the general public and use by scholars, researchers, journalists, and other interested parties.”²

Due to the success of past working sessions, the Accenture team has been brought in to help facilitate that both institutions create a unified vision for this new undertaking and determine how to best work together.

1 The archive includes over 40 million photographic prints and negatives of some of the most important visual documentation of the African American experience from the past seven decades.
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2 Smithsonian Institute

To begin laying the foundational groundwork, two 90-minute working sessions were conducted, along with asynchronous homework assignments.

Session 1

The first session was focused on gathering each participants perspective on the following elements:

Vision

Who is our audience (internal and external) for the Archive?  How will different audiences use the Archive once it is digitized?

Audience

How would you articulate your vision for this project? What are your short-term and long-term goals?

Dependencies

What is needed to achieve our 'co-created' vision?

Assumptions

What things may hold us back from achieving the 'co-created' vision? Are there any assumptions you’re making?

Success

How would you personally define the success of our ‘co-created’ vision?

The data collected was synthesized into six themes that illustrate the emergence of a collective understanding between both teams.

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Shepherding the Archival Process:

Empowering ownership throughout an aligned team by leveraging the varying organizational structure and design of both groups

Dependencies, Assumptions

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The Undercurrent of Digitization:

Ensuring we are positioned to capture and articulate all relevant data and metadata

Dependencies, Assumptions

Shared Values and Ways of Working:

Creating a standard for archival collaboration across organizations by establishing a shared vocabulary

Dependencies, Assumptions

Diverse Audience Engagement:

Designing and accounting for the widely varying audiences that will be using the archive

Vision, Audience, Dependencies

The Fabric of Community is Key:

Leveraging Resources Outside of Getty and NMAAHC to ensure the legacy and memories are honored for those who know the magazines

Vision, Audience, Dependencies

Tell Divergent Stories:

Shifting the narrative and empowering people to become renewed storytellers of African-American history and culture

Vision, Audience

WORKSHOP #1 Synthesis Consolidated Readout

Resources

For more information on the outcomes of the collaboration sessions please refer to the linked pdfs below. Consolidated readout Readout of collaboration session #1