Our project is starting to take shape as we gather information and reconsider our initial research questions. We have narrowed our field of focus and decided to break down our first question (What was the student dining experience like on Carleton College’s campus in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?) into smaller questions. We have gathered material from the Carleton College Archives and we will be using this information to guide our questions. To that end, we are now considering the following questions:

1. What food traditions existed at Carleton College? How did students celebrate special events with food? Examples: banquets, teas, Thanksgiving, Hash House, etc.

2. Where did students eat on a regular basis? Examples: Gridley Hall, picnics, Archer House

3. What was the difference in the dining experience between men and women?

4. How was the dairy farm used? Who sourced Carleton’s food supply?

5. What social function did dining serve on Carleton’s campus? Examples: dating, friendship, relationships with professors, discussion groups, literary societies

6. Where did students eat off campus? Examples: Seldom Inn, Kandy Kitchen, The Crystal, Archer House, Dundas, Faribault

We have also readjusted our project’s scope. We have decided that instead of making a full length documentary-style film and a companion website we will make a website with separate pages to answer each of these questions with smaller length films (a minute to two minutes each). In this way, the website will be a stand alone product and the film will more seamlessly be integrated into the website.

Based on how the website progresses, we may still add an interactive map showing locations where students ate both on and off campus. If time permits, we may also combine all of the short videos into one product.

Currently, we have many primary sources from our visits to the Archives. We met with Tom Lamb who showed us many scrapbooks and other fun documents. We looked through these scrapbooks for pictures, menus, and programs. We were also able to access oral histories and written diaries, both of which have provided us with meaningful sources. He also told us about a book that we are using for information. We are working on documenting our sources in a Google doc and we have assigned questions to each person. We will continue researching and producing content for the website in the coming week. Then we will focus on making the videos and producing our final product.

We are making our website in Google sites. One thing that has challenged us is figuring out how to make changes in Google sites and figuring out a reasonable structure for our site. While we originally intended to have a companion website to a documentary film, we decided instead to organize our site by pages, with each page containing a short content essay answering one of our six research questions. We think this organization makes sense and will yield a logical, user-friendly site.

So far, we have not run into any insurmountable problems but we will keep you all updated!