The Research Lab

The Lab is where the encyclopedia shows its work: the datasets, maps, and methods behind the record — each published with its question, its method, its output, and its limitations.

Dataset

The Knowledge Graph

Question. Can Black Chicago’s cultural record be held as one connected, citable dataset — and kept honest about its own gaps?

Method. Every entity is built from named sources; every claim carries a citation and an evidence grade. The method is published, not promised.

Output. 4,111 entities and 2,527 relationships, released openly — dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.17635533, code and data on GitHub, free to reuse with citation.

Limitations. The graph is a record of its sources: where the archive is silent, the graph says so. Grades mark confidence, and corrections are public.

The knowledge graph → · Entity directory →

Instrument

The CultureTechLens Index

Question. What does Black culture leave behind — and can the weight of an artifact be scored in the open, with the basis shown?

Method. A published methodology (CTL-IDX-001, version 1.1) — every score carries its citations, its basis, and its stated limitations.

Output. Edition 2026-10: Artifacts (CTL-IDX-003), eight entries scored and published with a DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23081630.

Limitations. Scores are editorial judgments under a published method — which is why the method, the basis, and the downgrade history publish alongside every score.

The Index → · Index methodology →

Program

Maps — the Black Chicago Cultural Atlas

Status. The Atlas is the Lab’s mapping program. Three finished maps publish in the Color Maps briefing set (CTL-RA-CHI-000001); neighborhood maps for Englewood, Woodlawn, and Chicago Lawn are live, and the 27–8 census map is published. The Atlas’s fuller geocoded layers remain in research — the map room shows what is finished, and does not dress research as product.

The map room →

MethodologyHow CultureTechLens grades evidence and builds a record — the full working detail. Request Research DataAsk for the dataset behind a record — for research, teaching, and newsroom use. Primary SourcesThe documents and artifacts the record rests on, gathered in one place. By the NumbersThe site’s counts, stated with their ledgers — what is counted, and how.

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “The Research Lab,” 2026-10-26. https://culturetechlens.com/lab/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Apartment houses and funeral parlor in Negro section of Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Crowd outside of fashionable Negro church after Easter Sunday service, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Negro grocery store, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, Chicago, 1941 — CultureTechLensPhoto: Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, FSA-OWI, Public Domain, via Library of Congress

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.