Mary Thomas

"Generative Rhizomes: Extending Digital Discovery of Mexican American Art" builds a new gateway, Rhizomes of Mexican American Art since 1848. Informed by the software that comprises Umbra Search: African American History, a digital aggregating portal created at University of Minnesota, Rhizomes is a post-custodial tool that harvests over 7,500 assets from the Digital Public Library of America, Calisphere, the Portal of Texas History, and the Smithsonian Institution. It becomes the first national-level digital portal focusing on Mexican American Art. The project integrates diverse and interdisciplinary communities through workshops training new users on both portals. Communities vary: from the Smithsonian Latino Center to Hispanic-serving institutions, such as the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; the Universities of Houston and New Mexico; K-12 educators and teacher trainers; and graduate and early career scholars interested in Latinx Digital Humanities careers. Generative Rhizomes also creates a toolkit to support cost-effective methods for future post-custodial gateways.