In the 21st Century, one of the most effective ways for historians to convey their ideas, scholarly works, or exhibits and collections to a broad audience is through the use of a website. The ways in which an individual website operates and presents information determines if the website is effective in capturing visitor’s attention and imagination. The New York Historical Society, a long established society and institution, has joined the modern age with its very own website. By analyzing the website’s usability, content, scholarship, presentation, and use of new media, one can determine the effectiveness of this site.

Upon visiting the New York Historical Society’s website, the first thing you encounter is a unique, unconventional menu page. Although the site receives points for originality, the vertically laid out menu options, with hard a difficult to view color scheme, forces the visitor to actually tilt their head in order to make a selection. The color scheme also makes this initial selection process difficult. Once past this problematic menu page, the rest of the site follows conventional menu and page layout methods. The site then becomes very easy to navigate and the form is extremely clear. Certain pages though, like their online database sites designed for locating digitized primary sources, are a bit confusing and could use some additional attention. The site promotes a sense of consistency by using the same color scheme, the same layout styles, and by having the New York Historical Society emblem located at the top of each webpage. The minimal amount of advertisements allows the visitor to believe that the site’s purpose is pure and directed solely by the mission of the New York Historical Society. The style and form of their website creates an accessible platform for a broad audience of internet users.

The New York Historical Society has an extremely diverse target audience. The well written site aims to reach educators, school children, college students, scholars, general interest viewers and also New York City tourists. This stated, the site offers a little bit of something for everyone. Educators will find content specific digital projects for use in their classroom, while general interest viewers and tourists will find current exhibitions, upcoming events, and podcast downloads available for their visit to New York City. All of this information is available, while scholars can browse primary sources and set up appointments to conduct research at the New York Historical Society Library. With such an extensive range in audience aim, purpose, and appeal, the New York Historical Society does an exemplary job of making the site accessible and useful to almost anyone.

As a history site, not a tourist destination, the site offers a shell of all of the historical scholarship available at the New York Historical Society. A bulk of the site gives you short descriptions of exhibits, collections, and of recent historical speakers’ presentations. The site works as a teaser; its prompts the viewer to dig further into topics of interest and to possibly even physically visit the society in New York City. As a research site, once again the site works as a teaser. You may browse the databases, their library, and many of their exhibits, but the extent to which you can really learn about these sources is limited. By setting up an appointment with the Collections Manager and by physically going to New York City, then yes, the visitor may take full advantage of the collections; for the purposes of the website though, many of the collections feel inaccessible.

There are though, certain topic specific websites sponsored in affiliation with the New York Historical Society, that offer a plethora of primary sources, historical interpretation, and new media presentations all using the resources of the New York Historical Society. These sites, which include Marion Mahony Griffin’s The Magic of America, Examination Days: The New York African Free School Collection , and the American Revolution Digital Learning Project, would be fascinating to the general viewer, as well to researchers and teachers. Due to the extensive amount of humanities scholarship the society is involved with, having these links may be the most effective way to present their extensive contribution to historical scholarship. These links point visitors to additional sources and also exemplify the society’s promotion of community interest and involvement.

The site uses a mixture of new media intermixed with classic textual presentation. There are podcast downloads, next to more detailed textual essays; there are digitized galleries followed by textual descriptions. If you browse long enough, there is a form of new media appropriate for almost any viewer. Their Media Center offers a range of podcast interviews with conversations and lectures by curators, authors, and historians. In displaying one of their latest exhibitions, Audubon’s Aviary: Portraits of Endangered Species, the site visitor is able to download an MP3 clip of the bird’s chirp. They may not be able to do this at the actual gallery; therefore the online exhibition is extremely useful. The use of MP3 clips helps bring to life the paintings and to further interest the site visitor.

The site does an exemplary job of organizing a vast institution that is involved with multiple layers of academia, community, society, and current events. Organizing such a site, while maintaining aesthetic appeal, visitor usability, and scholarly presentations, is quite an accomplishment. Although the site has some weak areas, overall, the quality of the site will continue to uphold the respected legacy of the New York Historical Society.