Overview
This is the initial release of the Rosenwald Fund Collection Omeka S theme developed for Fisk University’s Mellon-funded Rosenwald Project: Forging Future Pathways Forward: Building a Portal to Rosenwald Collections for All at Fisk University.
The theme provides the public-facing visual and structural foundation for the Rosenwald digital collection site. It was designed to support the presentation, discovery, and long-term accessibility of digitized Rosenwald Fund materials, with an emphasis on usability, institutional branding, and future replication by other HBCUs and cultural heritage institutions.
This first release establishes the baseline theme architecture for the Rosenwald Portal and supports the customized browse, search, item, and collection presentation needs of the project.
What’s Included
- Custom Omeka S theme structure for the Rosenwald Fund Collection site
- Fisk-aligned visual styling and layout direction
- Public-facing page templates and theme overrides
- Custom homepage presentation support
- Responsive styling for desktop and mobile views
- Theme-level support for collection discovery and navigation
- SCSS/CSS asset structure for maintainable styling updates
- Integration points for custom Rosenwald modules, including search and filtering functionality
- Public interface refinements for item browse, item display, and collection-facing pages
Technical Notes
- Built as an Omeka S theme using the standard Omeka S theme directory structure
- Uses theme assets, view overrides, and compiled CSS to control public presentation
- SCSS source files should be edited directly where applicable, then compiled into CSS before deployment
- Generated CSS should not be treated as the primary editing source when SCSS is in use
- Designed to work alongside custom Rosenwald modules, including United Search, Search Filter Plus, and Zip Import
- Intended for deployment within the Rosenwald Omeka S environment hosted on AWS infrastructure
Intended Use
This theme is intended for the Rosenwald Fund Collection site at Fisk University. It supports a public digital archive experience for researchers, community members, educators, students, and partner institutions seeking access to Rosenwald Fund materials.
It also serves as part of the project’s broader technical blueprint for HBCUs seeking to build sustainable, open-source digital collection websites using Omeka S.
Known Limitations / Future Work
Future releases may include:
- Additional accessibility refinements
- Further mobile layout polish
- Expanded theme configuration options
- Additional page templates for future Rosenwald collection areas
- Continued alignment with stakeholder feedback and final launch requirements
- Improved documentation for HBCU replication and reuse
Release Type
Initial public release.