There is no denying that history has made its way to the world wide web. One can find countless websites, blogs and discussion boards dedicated to the work of presenting history to the wide audience of Internet users. This essay will examine the ways in which four history websites: The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, The History Channel, Do History and National Museum of American History have approached doing history on the web. Each takes a slightly different approach but in investigating these four examples, it becomes clear that the web can provide an outlet for history that can reach a wide audience and be a solid source for research, instruction and entertainment--sometimes all at once.
The Valley of the Shadow website was put together by Southern historian Edward Ayers. The sight offers an extensive digital archive of two counties—one in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia—containing maps, diaries, letters, photos and records from antebellum years, the war years and postbellum. The website is simple in its presentation, but quite remarkable in its content. While it does offer teaching resources and a bit of interpretation, the site's is as an archive. Though very academic in its approach it is easy to navigate and very accessible to students, scholars and the "general public" interested in the Civil War. The site does not try to do too much beyond providing a vehicle to access primary source documents and set the stage for comparing Northern and Southern experience during the Civil War era. The site heeds the advice Roy Rosenzweig and David Cohen offer in their book, Digital History, in that it does not try to be all things for all people. It is an archive and a valuable resource for amateur and professional historians alike. The site also benefits from being the creation of a well-respected historian, increasing the credibility of the site for those who are aware of Ayers respectability in the profession.
The website for The History Channel is an altogether different web browsing experience than Valley of the Shadows. First and foremost, the site was created as a commercial entity, used to promote the television station and incite web browsers to tune into History Channel programming. However, The History Channel site also gives access to historical information. Different from the Valley of the Shadows, the site is propelled by its multimedia approach to presenting history. The site offers pod casts, clips of video and famous speeches and many images. This site is better suited to amateur history buffs and the general history consuming public. It is not specific to any one topic or even country, while the focus is the US, there are links to historic information of world issues. The History Channel’s approach to history is to inform by entertaining, but behind all of the useful facts and historical insight is the ultimate commercial interests to drive ratings. This commercial interest could be seen as an impediment to the credibility of the information presented.
Offering a completely different approach from both the History Channel and Valley of the Shadows is the website called Do History. Do History takes a very specific and narrowed approach to history on the web. The purpose of Do History is to instruct. The site uses a case study (Martha Ballard’s diaries) to show how to do primary source research. The visitor can view an archive of all available documents that historians have used to create both a film and movie about Martha Ballard. The point of the site is to offer a practical guide for students on how to successfully read and interpret primary source documents and apply that knowledge to reconstruct the past. The sight is interactive and extremely useful. It’s audience are students of history—but is user friendly enough to be of use to a wide range of burgeoning historians—from high school to college level. Do History is using history on the web to inform and instruct using archival resources and truly demonstrates the ways that the Internet can be used to reach and influence many students of history in an effective way.
The fourth site reviewed was website for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. This site’s approach to history on the web, much like that of the History Channel, is primarily to promote the museum and its collection. The Smithsonian's site offers something for everyone. One can access web exhibits, virtual tours, teaching resources, an archive, as well as interactive activities for kids. The site is accessible and useful to a wide range of audience members and is not focused on only one event or issue, but covers a breadth of historical information. As the site must consider its wide range of audience members, it does an admirable job of trying to offer a variety of resources. The downside of the site is that many of the interactive elements require a flash plug-in, limiting full access for some visitors. The site is also a bit confusing to navigate and finding the “history” is sometimes difficult.
While all four sites offer a slightly different approach to history, they all provide a wealth of information and creative ways of presenting history to the wide and varied audiences of the Internet. While some, like Valley of the Shadows and Do History offer a much more specific view of history, geared more toward students. They offer instruction, however, in a way that is effective and useful and provides a way to see the ways in which history can be interpreted and reconstructed. The more commercialized and generalist sites such as The History Channel and the Smithsonian offer a much more media-intense experience as they both need to attract a much broader audience that includes amateur history buffs, curious citizens, professionals, and children of all ages. These website are more appealing to the eye and offer good substance but also approach history as entrainment more than history as learning. Both ways of providing history on the web have a place and offer useful resources and increased accessibility to historical information and documents. These four sites provide beginning models for the way that the Internet can provide a successful medium for consumers to be informed and entertained by the world of history.
