Assignment #2
29 January 2008

Approaches to History on the Internet

Digital History is an essential element in the expanding world of Public History. The internet is critical in bringing the ideas, theories, and methods of historians to the public. The internet has the ability to present a broad range of historical topics and methods, thus bringing these ideas to an even more broad audience. The internet may be used as a way to bridge the distinct gaps between academic historians, public historians, and ultimately the public. In order to bring these historical ideas to the forefront, four types of historical websites are designed and used; they are (1) archival, (2) exhibits, films, scholarships and essay, (3) teaching and learning, and (4) discussion and organizational sites.[1] A review of the following websites, The Valley of the Shadow, The History Channel, Do History, and National Museum of American History reveals the different ways in which history is presented, used, and discussed on the web.


Each of the historical websites listed above falls into a particular genre of historical website. Although labeled in a specific genre, these sites will often share qualities with the other genres. The Valley of the Shadow topic specific website “details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown’s Raid to the era of Reconstruction.”[2] The site has a digital archive for examining and interpreting evidence, in order to further your understanding and perception of these two different towns. The Do History website is similar in that it presents a specific topic, a case study of Martha Ballard, while providing digitized primary sources. The History Channel website covers everything from different television specials, interactive discussion blogs, “this day in history” clips, historical video clips, to different History Channel related gifts you can purchase. The National Museum of American History website presents information on many of the exhibits and collections of the museum. The site also offers helpful teaching guides, along with ways to plan your visit to the museum. Each of these sites was created with a specific genre and audience in mind.


In creating history websites, an essential element is determining who the intended audience is. By doing this, the website may be structure in such a way to reveal the most useful information and to hopefully create repeat visitors. The Valley of the Shadow and the Do History websites are topic specific sites that are to be used for teaching and learning. The intended audience for these sites is mostly teachers in K-12. These sites are also effective in reaching people with a general interest in history and that desire the tools and methods in order to conduct their own historical research. The History Channel and National Museum of American History websites are intended for the broadest range of audience members possible. The diversity and variety present on these sites reveals the extensive range of people these sites intend to reach. Through the “glitz and glam” of video and sound clips, as well as state of the art digitized archives and exhibits, these sites are perfect for almost any world citizen. Once the given audiences have been determined, the ways in which these websites function may be developed.



Through the use of their “invented” digital archives, The Valley of the Shadow and the Do History websites offer interactive ways for people to engage with history on the web.[3] These sites differ from traditional archives for they present the reader with archive material that has some interpretation, traditional archives do not have this element.[4] At these sites, people are taken through step by step activities in interrogating the historical evidence. The Valley of the Shadow website offers a multitude of digitized primary sources; these include photographs, church records, newspapers and maps. The Do History offers similar amounts of digitized primary sources, including Martha Ballard’s Diary, as well as letters written around the same period. Each site challenges the reader to examine, explore, and to critically think about these primary sources; what do they mean, what story do they tell, and how are they significant? This type of historical site, a teaching and learning site combined with digital archives helps to further bridge the gap between academic historians and the public. By inviting the public into the detective world of the historian, the public may have a greater appreciation and understanding of the historical works ultimately published or produced.


The “exhibits, films, scholarships and essay” genre of historical website is also very effective in bringing historical themes and ideas to a broad audience. The History Channel and National Museum of American History present a variety of ways of capturing the audiences’ attention. The use of digitized exhibits, colorful photographs, enchanting historical movie clips and sound bites, all combine to form a spider-web network of digital history presentations. Both sites are filled with visual stimuli, followed by links that bring you little factoids about history (Academic historians would argue that some of this information a little too current to be interpreted as history). The use of these websites creates a sense of accessibility to the stories and exhibits being presented.


Although the National Museum of American History is closed until the summer of 2008, people are still able to explore the many riches of the museum’s exhibits. The online website creates a timeless space for many exhibits, enriching the length and accessibility of the presentations.[5] This site also offers useful information for teachers and tourists. For teachers, lesson plan ideas are presented using many of the rich resources of the museum. For tourists, entire itineraries may be planned in order to yield the highest quality experience possible. The many facets of the website all work towards bringing quality history to the greatest amount of people possible. Accessibility to rich and enlightening history is also enhanced through the use of discussion boards and blogs on these sites.


The History Channel website not only offers exciting “exhibits and films,” it also hosts an extensive network of discussion boards and blogs. These message boards cover a broad range of historical and current topics; including religion, military, and sports history. The large amounts of posts, some ranging into the thousands, reveal that this message board system is an effective way to engage people in discussion about historical and current issues. The discussion boards create dialogues that help to bridge the gaps between academic historians, public historians, and the general public. These message boards also reveal that the general audience is very interested in historical topics and that they are willing to sit down and share their ideas on many of these issues.


History websites are crucial to the guild of history. As historians, in order to convey our historical ideas to a broad audience, we must use the web. We would be doing the public a disservice if we choose not to share our historical methods and interpretations with the world via the web. Through the use of these different types of historical websites, archival, teaching, exhibits, and discussions, historians can effectively convey their messages in interactive, informative, and engaging ways. In order to most efficiently reach and inform the public of “the story of the past” (history), historians may indeed use this modern invention, the internet; the websites reviewed in this essay reveal how this can be successfully accomplished.




[1] Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/.
[2] Edward L. Ayers, The Valley of the Shadow, The Valley Project, Virginia Center for Digital History, http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/.
[3] Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/.
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid