Creating Community: A Geographical Approach to Inclusive History at Oakwood Cemetery

FAIN: HAA-281028-21

City of Austin (Austin, TX 78768-2287)
Jennifer Elizabeth Chenoweth (Project Director: January 2021 to November 2024)

The creation of an innovative digital model to help determine the location of and provide historical context for marginalized individuals in unmarked graves in an Austin, Texas cemetery.

To construct a digital model of a three-acre segregated section of a historic cemetery. Men, women and children buried in the 1800s were of African American, Mexican American, and European American heritage; segregated due to race and class. This Level I grant project completes a 3D spatial analysis of monuments and adds the potential burial locations of approximately 88% of burials that people cannot “see.” Less than 300 monuments exist in this three-acre area that holds 2,731 burials. Therefore, it is difficult for the public to imagine that this grassy area is full of the unmarked graves of people who were marginalized in both life and in death. Poorly kept and incomplete records add to the frustrations of people researching their ancestors or cultural history. Our model of this area combines photography and lidar, adding historic data including photo, video, exhibits and legacy maps. The project culminates in community outreach call for additional historical information.

Associated Products

Oakwood Legacy Project (Web Resource)
Title: Oakwood Legacy Project
Author: Ryan Piper
Author: Jennifer Chenoweth
Abstract: This website was built by Esri in Experience Builder to host the 3D digital model, associated list of burials, and contextual digital exhibits about the Historic Colored Grounds, a segregated section of burials in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, Texas.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://austintexas.gov/oakwoodlegacy
Primary URL Description: This is a redirected URL for the link below.
Secondary URL: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/7d0132d1167c4cabb43cf46b3378fae8

To Change: Austin Geography and History (Web Resource)
Title: To Change: Austin Geography and History
Author: Jennifer Chenoweth
Author: Greg Farrar
Author: Ryan Piper
Abstract: Any city holds evidence of change: change in population, demographics, geographic area, leadership, culture, beliefs, laws, industry, economy, ownership, architecture, transportation, and much more. Though any decade or moment could be viewed as a moment within a city's continually evolving definition, certain moments determine the direction of history. To Change shows Austin as a place with beautiful natural resources that has attracted people for over 16,000 years. These people created the culture and communities that define Austin. With colonial settlement and land development, economic and social factors did not create equitable experiences or opportunities for all its residents. This exhibit looks at land use, demographics, and family histories. The exhibit shows the process of digitizing information about the 23,000 "residents" buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Community members give feedback on a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Using land expansion maps and demographic charts, Austin's growth is visualized through the decades. The exhibit allows readers to consider how much our approaches to equity, race, and ethnicity have changed as our awareness as humans evolves.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/1243d8347a2e4a4ca61ecd67e50e3d8b
Primary URL Description: This digital history exhibit is hosted in an Esri StoryMap Collection and was produced by the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department as context for the NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant to create a 3D model for a segregated section of a historic cemetery in Austin, Texas.

To Emancipate: From Slavery to Freedom (Web Resource)
Title: To Emancipate: From Slavery to Freedom
Author: Jennifer Chenoweth
Author: Greg Farrar
Author: Christopher Ndubuizu
Abstract: To Emancipate includes biographies of some of the people we are continually learning about, as well as oral histories of descendants. To give greater context to their lives, we share an interactive map of Freedom Communities in Austin, a timeline of relevant history, and genealogy tools for further research. The museum exhibit The African American Presence in 19th Century Texas by the George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center debuted in March 2020. Some of the exhibit content has been included here, though the artifacts are best experienced in person. To Emancipate gives context to the lives of enslaved people brought to Austin, Texas beginning in the 1830s. There are those buried at Oakwood who died while enslaved, many more who were formerly enslaved, and their children who would come to find their final resting place at Oakwood after emancipation. Many had children, some by choice, some by force. Through generations of brutality, poverty, and struggle, their descendants survived and some thrived. These ancestors are known through family stories, recipes, photographs, and records.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/f2792615f8a24e47b31ce5f23ca95eea
Primary URL Description: This digital history exhibit is hosted in an Esri StoryMap Collection and was produced by the Oakwood Cemetery Chapel of the Austin Parks and Recreation Department as context for the NEH Digital Humanities Advancement Grant to create a 3D model for a segregated section of a historic cemetery in Austin, Texas.

---