This digital exhibit project began in 2016 when anthropology undergraduate Emily Warf began a collaboration under the direction of Cory Willmott, Department of Anthropology, and Therese Dickman, Library & Information Services. Through an internship and volunteer work leading up to and including her senior project, Emily worked with the Jean Kittrell Collection, housed in the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, to organize and ultimately digitize a set of still images and text documents to include in a digital exhibit. She also transcribed and assisted with Jean Kittrell’s photo elicitation interview completed in March of 2016 and began the exhibit design process. In April of 2018, Therese Dickman curated a physical exhibit in Lovejoy Library with support from Erin Vigneau-Dimick and Mike Whisenhunt of the University Museum. In late August of that same year, Cultural Heritage and Resource Management graduate student Dana Lewis began the necessary steps in exhibit design and additional collection processing to make this digital exhibit a reality. The project was completed at the end of May 2019.

In the following exhibit pages, you can learn more about the students and faculty involved in this project over the course of its unique timeline, find additional materials on local jazz history and helpful sources for developing a digital exhibit using Omeka, and explore photos from the April 2018 Jean Kittrell Exhibit. You will also find copyright and contact information, should you have questions or comments regarding an individual item in the Jean Kittrell Digital Collection or information presented in the exhibit.

We thank you for visiting this digital exhibit celebrating the life and legacy of the incredible Jean Kittrell. Check back soon for future digital exhibits using materials from the National Ragtime & Jazz Archive.