respectfully describing side show performers

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 This is very interesting to me. Back in 2007 when I had an exhibit in the Clarke on MI circus and carnival one of my guest speakers was Erin Foley, then the reference librarian at the Baraboo, WI, Robert L. Parkinson Research Library, which has a massive collection of circus and carnival historical collections. She delivered a fantastic presentation at CMU which discussed the impact of circus and carnival on the US and the challenges and limitations within the Library of Congress subject heading system to accurately and respectfully describe circus and carnival performers. Well, finally someone else is tackling this and with the omnipresent digital everything now has a broader audience to make more people aware of these issues. Here is a link to the blog: https://saadescription.wordpress.com/2022/11/14/putting-a-name-to-harm-remediating-the-titles-of-the-sideshow-performers-collection/ The blog which describes how an archivist is approaching and dealing with the challenges of describing sideshow performers.


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