Exploring the Evolution of the Digital Web

This blog post will take a somewhat different shape. While my first two entries were written in more essay format, this one will be a review of some digital history projects from the last 15 years, and some personal notes on the subject of digital history.

The Valley of the Shadow Project - Copyright 1993-2007
-  Sponsored by the Virginia Center for Digital History and University of Virginia, this archive of primary resources comparing two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon line during the Civil War has a very simply designed, but is pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate. The archive is broken down into three chronological sections, the Eve of War, the War Years, and the Aftermath, and further broken down into the two communities being compared, and different types of primary and secondary resources, such as church records, maps, letters and diaries, newspaper articles, and memories about the war.

Dickinson Electronic Archives - founded 1994
- One of the first things I saw on this site is their invitation to participate in a virtual conference and exhibit on the new Emily Dickinson Collection. This invitation was not just to scholars and archivists, but to teachers, readers, and anyone else interested. The website is pleasant to view and easy to navigate. Unlike the other projects I've reviewed, this one has a link to its original archive format from 1994-2012, so you can see the much simpler format of the archive.

Romantic Circles - founded 1996
- A collaborative project from University of Maryland started in 1996, this project is still active and hosts a wide range of media where people of all walks of life can access information and scholarly debate on literature and culture in the Romantic period. There are sections for peer-reviewed articles, teaching resources, electronic archives of materials from the Romantic period, scholarly resources, galleries of curated image collections from the Romantic period, audiocasts of Romantic literature being read and reviewed, and a blog. There's a seemingly endless amount of information on the Romantic period, and all in a cohesive and well-organized layout. The authors and site managers are all plainly displayed, giving credit to each individual collaborator at all times. It would be interesting to have seen how complicated the original site design would have been compared to today's active project. I hesitate to use the word "community," because while there seems to be a lot of information available to anybody who wishes to access it, there does not seem to be much interactivity among readers, not even a space for comments on the blog.

Lascaux - founded 1998
- Since the Ministry of Culture and Communication in France originally put the prehistoric art at Lascaux online in 1998, the website has developed into a state of the art resource to learn about the caves. Flash animation allows viewers a POV journey through the caves to see the prehistoric art they might otherwise never have the opportunity to see outside a history textbook. Computer animation will only get more and more realistic, which allows sites that are difficult to access (or need to have restricted access for preservation purposes) even more of an opportunity to share their treasures.

Hawthorne in Salem - copyright 2002
- While this site may seem out of date because of its design, its content was last updated August 26 this year. This site is a collaboration of three Salem, MA museums about Nathaniel Hawthorne. It was an endowed project for a local community college and created by professional web designers in 2002. One thing that sets this project apart from others I've reviewed is the invitation extended to anyone who would like to contribute to do so. The site contains interactive maps of Salem and the surrounding area, appearing as they would during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, during Nathaniel Hawthorne's life (author of The Scarlet Letter, about the trials), and today.

Persepolis: A Virtual Reconstruction - copyright 2003
- I was very fortunate to be able to see the Persepolis3D digital images while at the British Museum in 2009. While the website itself is underwhelming and lacking in updates since 2008, there is no denying the herculean efforts that have gone into this project. Seeing the reconstruction images in the context of a museum exhibit was much more helpful than seeing a small rendering out of context on their website.

Hurricane Digital Memory Bank - Copyright 2005-2012
- This project was organized by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and the University of New Orleans in order to preserve the first-hand accounts of people who lived through Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. This site currently serves as a repository for photos, maps, stories, oral histories and videos. Very easy to navigate.

The Avalon Project - copyright 2008
-  This project by the Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library is ordered chronologically, by major collections, and links to other Yale libraries, Project DIANA for human rights cases, and a collection of the Nuremberg Trials. It has a plain web design, is easy to navigate, but takes the historical documents out of context and denies readers a certain experience they'd get by seeing the actual document virtually. There are only transcriptions of the historical resources, no facsimiles or photos that I found, and only one PDF linked from 2003. The sources span a vast amount of time, all the way from Hammurabi's Code, to the Magna Carta, to a congressional hearing on Middle East peace progress in 2003.

Digital Karnak - copyright 2008
- This digital history project digitizes the ancient city of Karnak. Like the Lascaux digital project, a site that could have preservation issues and need to be protected can benefit greatly from being digitized. People can still learn about it in an interesting way (like Karnak's videos, Google Earth images, and photographs), and realize the importance of preserving such a site. The site is simple in its layout, but highly organized and easy to navigate.

The April 16 Archive - copyright 2011
- This is an archive of memories and photos of the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007, and its aftermath on the community. While the copyright is dated 2011, the most recent date I was able to find is from a year after the event in 2008. The site itself is simple in layout, though somewhat confusing to navigate and understand. There are quite a few places with broken code and thumbnails, but every photo I came across was still working in its original link. It will be interesting to see how this archive is maintained over the years, as well as what other entries will be made as they will rely on memory of those affected.

Amiens Cathedral Project - estimated 2012
- I knew nothing about this project before I looked at the website, and I feel as though I still know nothing about the project. I felt rather silly as I kept looking and looking for the name of the cathedral they were studying before realizing it was in the title of the project. There is no information provided on the actual project itself - nothing about who is studying the cathedral, who is taking all the photos, compiling all the maps, sketches, and text resources, who is sponsoring the study - and there is a wealth of knowledge here, but no credit given. There was once a discussion area, but it was taken down in 2012 because the platform they used to host the discussion was removed. The photos, categories, and links were difficult for me to make out - it felt like everything was too small in the design. I think they attempted to create a technically-complicated website, but sacrificed accessibility in the process.

American Memory - unknown
- Unfortunately the "About" page on the Library of Congress' American Memory site is not working, so I was unable to read about the start of the project or how it differs from the other collections in the Library of Congress. This site seems to be a hodge podge of different websites showcasing their collections. Unlike the Avalon Project, the Library of Congress has scanned copies of their collections available, which I feel adds so much more to the experience. For example, on a pamphlet of a speech Frederick Douglass, you can see where notes were written in the margins. I'm not sure whether these were by Douglass himself, someone there at the time of the presentation, or someone at a later time, but it humanizes the subject and puts it into context.

The Oyez Project - 2011 - 2015
- This blog has up to date publications of SCOTUS cases in the news. It has a more complicated web design that is very appealing to the eye, and makes it easy to process and take in lots of information as it's organized well. Because this project is in blog format, readers are able to subscribe for updates, and leave comments on posts. One thing I noticed that is different from the other projects is the use of other tools on the website, such a video posts from the faculty. Monthly archives go back to September 2011, and it seems to have been well maintained up to this current month.

Life Outtacontext, In Our Path, and Eye Level - Various - Present
- These three blogs all by the same man show the wide range of things you can do with blogs these days. First, his personal blogs, Life Outtacontext and In Our Path, showcase his personal talents as a "meta-narrator" and photographer. Eye Level is a mouthpiece for the Smithsonian Institute. All three vary greatly in design, layout, and function, and utilize different tools (such as a Twitter feed on Outtacontext).



To summarize, it seems that even with the advent of new technology and tools available to digital history projects, some won't take the opportunity to update. Appearance is very important, as is functionality and navigability. It is interesting to see the sites that have chosen to update, especially when given the opportunity to see how they used to operate, in the case of the Dickinson Electronic Archives. Funding and public interest drive projects forward, and a lack of technology no longer stands in the way of sharing information. It is impressive to see the projects that started at the beginning of the Internet's growth, and are still thriving today.