BREAKING THE SILENCE
“I remember the feeling of being somber and crying,” says Blanchard. “It made me think about the willpower and self-determination of the enslaved community because there is a big silence. I was disappointed I hadn’t learned more about their history when I was in high school and made it my mission to share their story and spread awareness.”
Mission in mind, Blanchard decided to pursue a master of arts in history at the College. As a first-generation university student, she was grateful for the financial support she received through the Karen Chambers Fellowship and graduate assistantships, including one with the College’s Lowcountry Digital History Initiative, which provides public access to the history of the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Blanchard’s first project at LDHI brought her full circle: the digital exhibit by her Queens University undergraduate professor and mentor, Caroline Grego. Based on Grego’s book, Hurricane Jim Crow: How the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 Shaped the Lowcountry South, the exhibit tells the story of Sea Island communities’ recovery efforts after a devastating hurricane. The exhibit was LDHI’s biggest mapping project, and Blanchard did the lion’s share of the calculations and data analysis to build out each map point. She also painstakingly conducted image research, including getting copyright permission, and then drafted layout options for images and text.
“Kayla tapped into how to use data to present the power and strength of Sea Island communities with a deep sense of historical empathy,” says Leah Worthington, digital projects librarian at the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library.
The Sea Island communities’ story lines up perfectly with why Blanchard pursued her graduate degree. Sharing the story through technology fed into her desire for people to see the full picture. Now she has a whole new way of sharing history with real-world applications.
To build her skills further, Blanchard began working as a graduate assistant at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. Mentored by Ashley Dennis, assistant professor of history, she helped put together both physical and digital exhibits commemorating Avery’s 40th anniversary. The physical exhibit opened Blanchard to the traditional way of sharing information with the public. Their first step was to take notes on Avery’s archival collection and review past Avery exhibits.
Now that she’s graduated, Blanchard plans to continue her work in public history and archival spaces while building on her research interests in African American spiritual traditions and preparing to apply to doctoral programs.
She’s got a mission in mind.