Ideas for Digital Final Projects

1. Interview some public history professionals and make a podcast.

2. Map some historical data with Google Maps, Google Earth, or a GIS package. You could do one-room school houses or cemeteries of Spokane County, or stops on Mark Twain's tour around the world, or important places on the Mullan Trail, or scenes of fighting in the Boer War, or...

3. Create a website for a historical event or an online exhibit. Use Omeka or Google Sites of a similar free and easy tool to do so.

4. Create a rephotography album based on historic pictures. Write extended captions telling us what we learn from the exercise.

5. Make a short historical documentary using Windows Movie Maker or Photostory or some silly Mac application. Put it online at YouTube or Google Video. Your documentary could use still images, interviews that you conduct, or snippets of film from the Library of Congress or Archive.org or other sites.

6. Create a guidebook for a local historic site such as Greenwood cemetery.

7. You tell me--if it has to do with preserving or presenting history to the public, it is fair game for this course!

A Visit to the MAC

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How cool was our visit to the MAC? A big thanks to Senior Curator Marsha Rooney for taking the time and giving us access to the back rooms of this great institution. If you enjoyed the visit and think that the museum is a worthwhile use of public funds you might let your local representative know, as the fate of the museum will likely be decided in the next few weeks.

Reaction to the Reaction Papers

Esteemed Students: You first batch of reaction papers are very good. Because we will not have time at our meeting today to go over them in any detail, I thought I would give you some feedback this way.

The strengths of the papers were that you all seemed to have done the reading, that you took the assignment seriously and used proper spelling and grammar, That most of the papers fell in the proscribe range in their length. All of you are competent writers and a couple of you are really good.

Potential areas for improvement include:

1. Make sure you are engaging the assigned text, not going off on some philosophical discourse of your own. The way you do that is with quotations or references to specific facts and examples. Remember my first goal in this assignment is to make sure you have done the reading, so prove to me that you did.
2. Proofread your finished paper carefully for typos and sentences that do make sense.
3. Refer, at least glancingly, to all of the readings. Given the schedule and problems of the first week I did not mark you down if you did not, but I will in the future.
4. Grad students only: When you use a quote, I want you to footnote it. History students will use Turabian citation format, Anthropology students may use whatever inferior format is the standard in their discipline.

Also, I am surprised that a number of students did not turn in a paper. Some of you spoke to me and others did not. Since we are dropping the lowest two grades on the reaction papers this might not be a problem, but make sure you get me a paper from now on.

Some Examples of Website Reviews

Here are some examples of website reviews from The Public Historianand elsewhere, along with links to the website. The review links are to ProQuest and JSTOR, you will need to be on campus or logged in remotely to use them. Contact the JFK library (not me) if you have any difficulty. Use these as a model for your own review--though some are shorter than yours should be.

Review: Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in World War II Arkansas
Website: http://ualr.edu/lifeinterrupted/

Review: Evolutionary Infrastructure
Website:http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/backbay/fenssite/html/header/home.html

Review: Flash Over Substance: The National Archives Experience
Website: http://www.digitalvaults.org/

Review: Oral History Interview with Robert G. Stanton
Website:http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/director/index.htm

And here a whole passel of reviews of historical websites, originally published in the Journal of American History:http://historymatters.gmu.edu/webreviews/

Propose Your Website to Review Here

Students: In the comments section propose a website for your review. I will get to it promptly.

Model Website Review

[Below is a particularly good example of a historical website review witten by a student in this course.]

[Student Name]

HIST 542

20 January 2009

Review: Chocolate, The Exhibition

www.fieldmuseum.org/chocolate

Motivated by a sweet-tooth and tasked with the assignment of reviewing an online exhibit, I stumbled upon Chicago’s Field Museum and its digital presentation of Chocolate, The Exhibition.  The online exhibit is a follow-up and companion piece to a real-time offering installed in the museum in 2007.  After the initial showing, Chocolate went on the road for a national tour.   The online exhibit pulls the reader through page after page of decadent graphics, clean, easy text, and interesting side notes.  As the reader dives deeper into the text, however, the richness of the web designs fades as the words fail to engage.  Chocolate becomes a good example of an interesting subject, chosen perhaps to be provocative and for its rich programming possibilities, but short on critical analysis or lasting significance.  It does, however, open the door for Public Historians to address important issues of audience, the treatment of controversial history, and balance.  

The initial impression given an exhibit visitor is of rich promise.  From its opening page, Chocolate tempts the visitor with “eye-candy.”  Colors chosen are rich, deep, royal hues of green, brown and purple.  Overlaid into that base are images of cocoa leaves, mortars and pestles, and royal chocolate molds, giving the reader a sneak-peek at the chronological explanations that are to follow. Text is then presented in white or pale yellow, complemented with one or two pictures per page.   The mechanics of each page offer picture roll-over, links to other facets of the exhibit at the top of each page, and a link connecting the visitor to the next intended stop on the tour at the bottom of the page.  The picture roll-over is a feature that provides a slightly enlarged rendering of the image on the page and a short caption.  In cases where an artifact is pictured, the caption is followed by its provenance, a helpful tidbit for marketing the institution who owns the object and for serious researchers who may want to glean this exhibit for more information.  Providing provenance also demonstrates collaboration between several museums in presenting this exhibit to the public.  The links offered are also helpful.  Once in the maze of the pages, the links at the top of each page allow the visitor to easily navigate away from a subject area, while the directional link at the bottom keeps the reader on the desired course if moving forward.

Once through the digital threshold of the exhibit, Chocolate moves in several directions.  Satisfying the museum’s departments of exhibits, education, and marketing, the options include, All About Chocolate, Educator’s Resources, Planning Your Visit,  Events & Programs, Chocolate Tour, Field Museum, and Credits.  Focusing solely on the actual exhibit, All About Chocolate, the explorer enters and is introduced.  “Journey through history to get the complete story behind the tasty treat that we crave in Chocolate,” greets the reader first.[1]  Seven additional selections are provided to guide the reader to specific areas of interest, including 1) Growing Chocolate, 2) The History of Chocolate, 3) Eating Chocolate, 4) Making Chocolate, 5) The Chocolate Challenge, 6) Books, Films, Resources, and 7) Just for Kids.  Each section reads like a textbook, following the time-honored tradition of chronological narrative.    This simple approach to a subject hints at the reading level of the intended audience, a fact that seems evident at first, but becomes clouded as the reader moves on. 

Audience for any interpretive writer is a difficult thing to pinpoint.  In her book, Exhibit Labels, Beverly Serrell implores the writer to select a reading level that is not simplistic, but not written for experts in the field, either.  “All labels should strive to be appealing and suited to as many visitors as possible, the casual tourist, the layperson interested in the subject as a hobby, the person whose job is related, the family group visiting to entertain the children, the new immigrant in the city.”[2]    Chocolate initially seems to abide by this sage advice.  The reading level is fairly low, perhaps too low for some of the adult audiences Serrell refers to.  In fact, it seems to be written specifically for grade school children.  While that ensures an exhibit is not missing out on a target audience, the simplicity of the text loses the adult reader’s interest fairly quickly.  In some panels, Chocolate commits another offense in writing at two different reading levels.  On the Growing Chocolate page, the text supports the initial claim of a very basic level, stating that “Thirty to 50 of these almond-sized seeds, covered in yummy pulp, sit nestled together.”  Even without mentioning the numerical inconsistency, this suggests a reader of a very basic level.  Just two pages away, however, the leading sentence referring to planting techniques reads, “Cross-pollination in the wild – and human intervention that created hybrids to improve cacao’s yield and disease resistance – has resulted in different varieties of cacao.”  This language suggests a much higher understanding than “yummy.”   

Added to the confusing language levels, are examples of differing age appropriateness in the graphics chosen to represent the text.  On one page, an interactive game is offered that allows the visitor to look at two drawings and choose either binoculars or a microscope to examine the plant growth further, with the goal of finding cacao pods.  This game is a fun, simple way to disembark from the generous text for just a moment, and seems to be directed at a very young exhibit visitor.  On the other hand, just a few pages away is a picture of a European woman drinking chocolate in bed, with her gown draped as to expose her breast.  This form of art expression, while popular in Europe during its time, may not be popular for the parents of the first grader who just finished finding the cacao pods without some explanation as to why the woman is uncovered.  While the subject of nudity and spectatorship in art remains controversial for curators and patrons, it does have its place in history, and the fact that an art museum piece is featured in this exhibit is appreciated.  However, the issue arises again in the tricky art of interpretation.  If the language of our exhibit is going to assume that the reader, adult or child, struggles with complex meanings, then the caption on the picture should not assume an

in-depth knowledge of nudity in the history of French art.  

The next section explored is the History of Chocolate.  Here, the reader is introduced to the Mesoamerican cultures that valued cacao and the social, economic, and political impact it had on their interactions with each other and the Europeans.  Mesoamerican-European interaction described in the exhibit text offers another opportunity to examine the reading level offered to the public, as well as another important topic that challenges contemporary Public Historians; controversial history.  Movements in recent years have favored the telling of history from as many perspectives as possible, even when those stories may be unflattering to parties (usually whites) involved.  W.E.B. DuBois is quoted in Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, “One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over.”[3]    While Chocolate does address uncomfortable issues like conquering, slavery, and economic politics, it does so in a way that once again reflects an immature readership.  The page titled A Spanish Conquest has this to say about how Europeans acquired cacao: “Contact between Spaniards and Aztecs opened a gateway for the exchange of ideas and technology – and a new European market for foods like cacao.” Again on the page introducing cacao as a European import, text reads “Europe’s first contact with chocolate came during the conquest of Mexico in 1521.  The Spaniards recognized the value attached to cacao and observed the Aztec custom of drinking chocolate.  Soon after, the Spanish began to ship cacao seeds back home.”  While this account is not untrue, it glosses over an opportunity to educate more about the cultural upheaval taking place in Central America that enabled Spaniards to ship this seed home.  If, indeed the intended reader is in grade school, then the full picture of violence, aggression, and disease is not appropriate, and yet, this account remains too, well, “vanilla.”  To the exhibit’s credit, one picture, albeit a thumbnail, presented does depict a group of Spaniards hanging a Native in order to obtain his cacao.

The balance between offering a provocative subject and addressing controversial aspects of its history is difficult to achieve.  Here Chocolate provides a splendid example.   Because the sections are so thoughtfully divided and the presentation consistent, the meshing of different disciplines, including science, art, and history, is well-represented.   The design, organization and flow of the narrative go a long way in redeeming its drawbacks.   Touching on science, Chocolate gives a good overview on the cacao tree, its habitat, and its negative impact on rainforests.  The section on manufacturing chocolate introduces the chemistry involved in transforming a liquid into a solid and heating and additive process using for creating different types of chocolate.    Representing art are the various pictures that have been borrowed from other museums, including pieces from Oxford, the Newberry library, Museo de America, Madrid, and the Clark Collections of the Art Institute.  Although the artifacts suffer the digital fate of being represented only in two dimensions, they represent an excellent variety of paintings, objects, drawings and photographs.  This global offering further provides the exhibit visitor with a glimpse of the breadth of chocolate’s importance through the years for a number of cultures. 

The resulting impact of Chocolate is positive despite minor shortcomings. It provides an excellent example of an exhibit with universal appeal, worldwide relevance, and ageless charm.  The subsections cover a multitude of subjects, cross educational disciplines and tie chocolate to centuries of world history.  Still, several lessons can be learned, including lost opportunity to tell the stories of minority constituencies and careful and consistent approach to audience.  From the marketing standpoint of any cultural institution, thought, Chocolate is brilliant.  It undoubtedly inspired people to venture into its fold because of the subject, and lends itself well to educational programming and future events.  Fortunate also is the whimsical nature of the piece as evidenced in the books, films, and resources section.  Here, the researcher can and does find scholarly works on the history of chocolate, but also finds popular references like the “Job Switching” episode of I Love Lucy and the recent film Chocolat, proving that we need not take ourselves too seriously in order to enjoy history.  Overall, this exhibit is well-done and appealing.  Its lack of critical analysis, even at an elementary level, however, makes it sweet to the tongue but empty calories.            

---

[1] www.fieldmuseum.org/chocolate/history/ (accessed 01.18.2009)

[2] Serrell, Beverly. Exhibit Labels. (Rowman Altamira, 1996) 95.

[3] Loewen, James W. Lies my Teacher Told Me, Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. (New York, 1995) 18.

Some of the Discussion Questions

Tracy sent me her discussion questions in advance and so I thought to myself, why not share them now? None of these cover Linenthal, they are focused on the other readings:

Discussion Questions for Week 2 Readings

Public History Essays

1) What are some of the partnerships a Historical Park may form and what are
the benefits of these partnerships?
2) What are some of the ways Interpretation and Research play a part in
Historical Parks?
3) What sorts of issues do Historical Preservationists have to juggle?
4) What observations did you make from the video to help save Gettysburg
from the casino?
5) Why does the Civil War Trust believe saving battlefields are important?
6) What sorts of things can one find on the Civil War Trust website?

What do You Want to Ask Ed Linenthal?

Tomorrow we will get to speak to Dr. Edward Linenthal, a influential figure in the world of Public History and (as you have figured out by now) one smart guy. I will have some questions, but I urge each of you to think about what you want to ask him as well.

Sample Reaction Paper

(This a sample of a high-quality reaction paper. Note that the student does more than summarize the readings but goes on to give opinions and observations. Do it like this!)

[Smart Student]
Hometown History
[date]

Reader Reaction: Nearby History Ch. 7, 8, 9;
Blood Passion Ch 1-5.

Nearby History

These three chapters of Nearby History address the physical types of primary sources: visual documents, artifacts, and landscapes and buildings. The term visual document refers to photographs, motion pictures, and video tapes. Tips for “reading” photos for detail and background evidence seems to be most useful; photos can also be used as a memory aid. The section with the women from the St. Louis garment workers strike was very interesting. They seemed to recall many more details of the confrontation after viewing the photo.
Artifacts are material items, and can be as diverse as a hairbrush to a toilet brush and of course many other items used for countless tasks. The analytical approach to artifacts is an interesting section of the chapter. “Where and when it was made, by whom and for whom and why and successive changes in ownership condition, and function.” The section on museum dilemmas is also informative. It seems that bridging the interpretive gap between how a community views its history, and the story that historic evidence can tell about the same community is a risky endeavor. A museum can never forget that its funding is generated in the community about which it is telling an interpretive story.

Landscapes and buildings refer to all of the developments of a community, such as: roads, commercial and residential structures, utility delivery systems, and the changes which occur to areas of development. Tips included for the analysis of the cultural landscape are: “form (the principle of coherence), balance (one element offsets another), harmony (good visual sounds), and unity (things fit together to give the impression of oneness).” As well as looking for these components, one must look for their absence. A very interesting point closed the chapter. The trash heap is a valuable source for routine, daily use items which would have been of little value at the time, and thus were not preserved, and are a great aid to historians to interpret the past.

Blood Passion

The early stages of Blood Passion explain the fundamental problems which led to the Ludlow massacre. Interestingly enough, some of the key factors to the violence had nothing to do with the labor dispute, directly. The relative value of coal was increased by the simple but not always obvious developments: steam power for locomotives, and the use of coal to fire the steel industry. Steel production and the ability to transport it cheaply were key factors is the wealth building of the industrialists of the era. Rockefeller was the main robber baron involved in this particular episode of labor history.

This story is about more than economics, it is also about class struggle. Most of the miners were poor immigrants from many different European nations, while their direct opposition, the state militia, was composed of white middle class men. The mine owners were white men who had become wealthy by exploiting labor and natural resources for many years in many different industries. There was another class of individual involved, the corrupt police officials. Sheriff Jefferson Farr of Huerfano County is just one example. “Sheriff Farr would always have his men look out for them [union organizers] and run them out of the county and make things disagreeable for them the moment they would spot them.” The Sheriff’s idea of disagreeable included: threats, beatings, and outright murder. Farr never faced prosecution for a litany of crimes that he committed, and died a relatively wealthy man.

Prior to the massacre, Rockefeller brought in Lamont Bowers to run the mining operation, and hopefully make it a profitable venture. Bowers may have been a good executive and capable of running a large business interest, but he harbored an intense hatred for immigrants that made it impossible for the miners to receive reasonable treatment from management. Bower’s dim view of immigrants is clear in a letter he sent to Rockefeller in 1909. “66% of the employees at the mills are not Americans…selling their labor to the highest market…they will go back there to enjoy their bread and beer…live like rats in order to save money.” This perspective is frightening on its own, and even more disturbing when realizing how similar it is to recent rhetoric about illegal immigrants from South America coming to the U.S.

Martelle proceeds to exhaustively document the progression from hard feelings, to the strike, and the entrenchment of positions. This is a riveting narrative mainly due to the intense subject, labor/management violence. However, this also the only criticism, so far, of Martelle’s work; he lacks an analytical perspective of the people involved. His account of the events is well researched and documented, but more insight into the social setting surrounding the mine strike would helpful. Where did the scab labor come from? What kinds of living conditions were available for families of miners? How did the non-mining public react to the violence and corruption? These are just a few topics that would make this book a more rounded study of the Ludlow massacre.

Great First Class!

Thanks everyone for a great first class. I hope it wasn't too intimidating. The course is both a lot of work and a lot of fun. If you have any questions, post them below. I'll see you next week.

Welcome to Class!

This is the website for History 398/542, Introduction to Public History. I will use this site to post our syllabus and schedule, to post announcements, and to share resources. Check back every few days, or better yet set up an email subscription or RSS reader.