Credits

About the Project

The work for this project was largely conducted at Bryn Mawr College. The land on which Bryn Mawr College and Germantown YWCA stand on is part of the ancestral homeland and territory of the Lenape people. We openly recognize the Lenape Indian tribe as the original inhabitants of eastern Pennsylvania. We acknowledge the Lenape people as the indigenous stewards of their homelands and also the spiritual keepers of the Lenape Sippu, or Delaware River, and we do hereby commit to actively supporting our Lenape [siblings] in whatever way we are able, helping to maintain the cultural identity of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and southern New York.

Germantown YWCA: A Social History of a Building is an on-going collaborative project aimed to preserve the neighborhood’s rich history, to nurture community relationship, and to share stories of the many people involved with the building and the organization. The intention is to create an interactive website to educate the public about “the Y” and understand the critical significance of the civic center in enriching and grounding the Germantown community.

“Social history” refers to a foregrounding of the social relations that constitute the building’s significance over time. The term was first coined as a reaction to the kinds of history that centered “great men” as figures who caused and willed change. “Social histories” were meant to represent how historical events were part of a large context of people, communities, and societies. The idea is that a historical event is a result of many different social forces, actors, and everyday people. In this project, then, the focus is on the everyday people — often women — who used, lived and worked in the building, and many who hold memories of the place.

The project was first conceived in 2022 by the Praxis office at Bryn Mawr College, through Dr. Liv Raddatz’s engagement with local community groups. It then grew into a series of courses taught by Professor Min Kyung Lee from the Department of the Growth and Structure of Cities in collaboration with many different residents and Germantown organizations and groups, including the Friends for the Restoration of the Germantown YWCA Building. Through the support of Educational and Scholarly Technology team, led by Dr. Alice McGrath, students worked to design and build the website and visualization features, which then other students filled in with materials, images, and writings.

If you wish to take the survey about the website, use the link here.