The “Historical Photographs of China” project conforms to good practices of digital humanities through the locating, digitizing, preserving, and publishing of online historical photographs of China. The historical material, the photographs, is being saved from deterioration with online tools, with Drupal, MySQL, Bridge, and Photoshop being a few. The HPC project aligns with the digital humanities practices in that they preserve photographs for long-term access, allow digital resources to be openly accessible, and guarantee the ethical use of data and materials.
Four key areas display HPC’s alignment with the best practices of digital humanities:
Transparency and openness: HPC is transparent about its sources, methods, and data. Their findings are openly accessible.
Collaboration and inclusivity: HPC is diverse in that they accept/collect photographs from those who live/lived, work/worked, or visited China. The project cross-searches a diverse range of collections that usually end up complementing each other.
Preservation and sustainability: HPC prioritizes the long-term preservation of data through publishing materials online to then be accessible long-term.
Ethical considerations: HPC keeps those who may have taken photographs or own historical photographs private unless they chose to be credited.
