Project Description

Documentary Focus
The focus of the archive is on the laborers of Mackinac Island, with a more specific lens on workers who were employed through the H-2B program. We aim to showcase a variety of documents recognizing who the laborers are, what their work entailed, and the circumstances of their employment. 

Consideration of Archival Concepts and Practices
As we have a wide range of document formats, our design reflects the users’ different desires when navigating our online archive. Working on the core archival concept of “archives as evidence” as introduced by Sir Hilary Jenkinson (Jenkinson, 1948). We are presenting our documents as evidential presences of the H-2B workers and their livelihood. Maintaining the original order of records acquired allows us to showcase the items in their proper cultural and historical contexts to provide a greater understanding of the documents at hand whilst also respecting the order the institutions and collections these documents originate from placing them in.

The archivists also emphasize “slow archiving” as a guidepost. Slow archiving has been defined by scholars Kimerly Christen and Jane Anderson as a decolonizing methodology with an emphasis on building collaborative relationships with the community being collected from (Christen, K. and Anderson, J., 2019). H-2B workers, while recognized as an important and vital aspect of the island’s workings, have not been presented or platformed with their voices. Through slow archiving and showcasing the voices of H-2B workers by acquiring documents whose provenance are H-2B workers themselves and individuals/organizations who are related to and/or represent H-2B employees. At the same time, we enact the practice of impartiality and make an effort to also exhibit documents that show a more objective view of the workers and their livelihood. 

Criteria for Record Selection

We primarily focused on documents that enrich understanding of life for H-2B visa holders on Mackinac Island. Because our goal is to understand their daily lives and working conditions, our criteria is quite broad: any digital or digitized record related to H-2B workers on Mackinac Island would be considered. This may include webpages, community forums, social media posts, or text files. We prioritized materials created by H-2B employees themselves, as their firsthand perspectives are often missing from public records. To provide context, we also included documents from employers, U.S. workers, and local policymakers. Documents where H-2B labor may have been mentioned, but did not add substantive insight were excluded. For example, general tourism materials or general local history. These guidelines helped us distinguish between in-scope and out-of-scope documents. 

Target User Group

The target users of our archive are primarily individuals who are interested in the sociopolitical workings and implications of laborers (particularly those of H-2B workers) on the island. By extension, our secondary users are any individuals who have a personal relationship with the island and its businesses (such as those who worked on the island or are related to individuals who did.) 

Perspectives

We chose to focus on a perspective of Mackinac Island not often highlighted by mainstream media. The H-2B workers make up a large portion of the island’s population during its open season. Their contributions to the island create the “Mackinac Island experience” tourists flock to Michigan for each summer. The community’s voice, however, is difficult to find when researching the island. This archive is designed to create a space where the voices of H-2B workers on Mackinac Island can easily be found and recorded. In our research, we found that H-2B visa holders from Jamaica were both the largest and best documented. 
 

Positionality Statement: The four website creators recognize their standpoints as American citizens who are graduate students at an American university. They are not viable to apply for the H-2B visa and have not worked as staff on Mackinac Island, though they each have visited the island as guests. They understand that this position has affected their work on this project to an extent.