For my archive, I was fortunate enough to have found an online version of the original LIFE magazine publication of the coverage of Evelyn Mchale’s suicide. Evelyn Mchale is essential to my research because the Empire State Building and her story are the ones that influenced me the most to do further research on this topic. Finding the original article and seeing the way it was published is so helpful in conducting my research. In this archive, I could see the way they dedicated a whole page to “photo of the week” and then give a short synopsis of what this picture means. Some systems I immediately think of are photography, romanticization, aesthetic, patriarchy, media, and patriarchal notions. Seeing this archive prompted several questions for me about how this was a different time but what really is the difference in the way we see a woman’s suicide? Upon conducting further research, I came across a feminist magazine that responds to media and pop culture. As I looked through some of their articles I found one of the romanticization of female suicide and of course Evelyn Mchale’s name came up in the article. This article seems to seamlessly bring up current issues around women’s condition now while referring to how we treat women (and their suicide) in the media now and in the past. This article brings great insight on my topic and touches each one of the systems I had already identified in the archive I found. Using the archive elevated my research and helped me find some interesting and up to date commentaries on my research topic.
