Doing Digital History with Palladio

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Palladio is a web-based platform and so there is no need to download software. All you need to do is to drop your .csv or spreadsheet on the start page and click “load” and all your data will be loaded and ready for analyzing. It allows you to create tables in which more data is loaded and networked.

In my exercise, I uploaded three types of data to Palladio: where the former enslaved were interviewed, data on where they were enslaved and finally data on the interviews. Palladio allows you to view your data in three ways. You you can visualize it in map view, in graph view and as a list. When you are in the map view, your data is shown as points on the point. You can edit that data on the point view and determine what kind of information shows when you hover your cursor on a particular point of the map. In the list view, you can see the data that you uploaded, rearrange the data list.

Palladio shines in graph view. This is because it allows you to see the network or relationships that exist between two nodes. Nodes are simply the point of intersection between two dimensions of your data. As the platform page says, “Nodes can be scaled to reflect their relative magnitude within your data.” These nodes are connected by lines. In these interviews, you can graph the relationship between the interviewers and the interviewees. For example, when I loaded my data, I could see a graph showing that the female interviewer interviewed all the female interviewees and the male interviewer conducted the interviews with the male interviewees. You can also graph the different topics that were discussed in the interviews with the different interviewers. There are different ways to graph these networks and relationships.

You can use Palladio’s graph to visualize relationships . To get the different network graphs you want, you have to make some settings (this is like an algorithm telling the platform how to graph your data.) To achieve this, I went to the primary table where I had put my original data on the interviews. I clicked on “Interviewee” and then clicked on “Add a New Table.” I then dragged and dropped my data on where the interviewees were enslaved. In the “Edit dimension” window, i clicked on “Extension” and then selected the location where they were enslaved. After, I then added a new layer by clicking on the map icon on the top left. Under “Map Type,” I selected “Point to Point” and under “source places” I selected “Where Interviewed.” After this, I selected “Where Enslaved” in “Target Places” and selected “Place names.” As confusing as these may sound, it was not that complicated. The process is simpler when you start using it. With all of these initial settings in place, I can create different network diagrams by just a few steps.

Having had these initial settings in place, I wanted to visualize the relationship between the location where the interviews took place and the location where the interviewee was enslaved by creating a network diagram. To this, all I need to do was to go to the Graph and under “Source” select “Where interviewed.” In the “Target” I selected “Where enslaved.” This was how Palladio graphed that relationship. In the image above, the graph shows you where the interviews took place (Livingston, AL) and Where they were enslaved (Jackson, MS). Where Interviewed and where enslaved are considered as nodes. You can increase the size of the nodes by clicking on the circles and that reflects the number of interviews. This graph is completely interactive. We can even make this network even more detailed. I can even use this graph to visualize the networks between people. Another example I will use is to visualize the network between one of the interviewers Susie O’Brien and the people that she interviewed. In this instance, I will select “Interviewer” in the “Source.” Notice that in the last example, I selected “Where Interviewed” in the “Source.” In the “Target” rather than select “Where Interviewed,” I selected “Interview Subject.” The reason for the change here is because I am trying to map a different kind of relationship.

You can now visualize the people that Susie O’Brien interviewed. You can even play around with the data by using Facet Filter which is found on the bottom left of the window. What it does is to limit what data appears on the graph. You have options such as male and female. Just a few more images of some other examples of visualizations done with Palladio.

The graph above visualizes the different topics in the interviews.

This graph visualizes interviewees that were 90 and 91 years old and the topics in their interviews.

This graph visualizes the relationship between the interviews conducted by Ruby Pickens Tartt and Susie O’Brien and the topics of the interview.

To save your graphs on palladio is easy. All you need to do is to click download and the whole graph is downloaded. I find Palladio very easy to use and intrigued by how it can graph different relationships depending on your settings.