In order to find the following information about Valentine’s Day I utilized the Google Search engine. I typed in the phrase “History of Valentines Day.” I explored the first seven websites that Google listed. Not surprisingly, most of the websites I visited had much of the same information. As a matter of fact, the www.kidsdomain.com website seemed to have cut and paste information from the www.history.com website. The repetition of the same information made me feel like it was unnecessary to search beyond the first page of websites listed by Google.
Overall, however, this assignment has helped me gain more appreciation for information put out in cyberspace by supposed non-authorities. I was surprised by the depth of the chronologies I read. Many of the detailed nuanced stories did not even com from www.wikipedia.org or the www.history.com websites!! I wonder about the reasoning behind putting so much information about such a miscellaneous subject on the web. While scholars supposedly participate in scholarly exercises because of pure love for knowledge I have assumed (due in part to my training in the academy) that others are fueled by impure money hungry agendas. This exercise has prompted me to possibly reconsider. Much of the information that I came across while completing this assignment seemed to have the genuine mission of simply informing the general public.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Many Contributions to Valentine's Day
Every February 14th lovers and friends flood the United States Postal Service with Valentine's Day greetings trimmed in red and pink. In addition, jewelry companies use advertisements to convince consumers that purchasing diamonds conveys the Valentine's Day spirit of devotion to loved ones. As people rush to demonstrate their feelings for others through purchases many do not contemplate the history of Valentine's Day. The legend of Valentine's Day dates back hundreds of years to many varieties of the same story. The multiple versions of the same events and long chronology of Valentine's Day history make it almost impossible to factually pinpoint how Valentine's day became popular.
Among the many Valentine's Day cards and love notes one might find the popular image of cupid. Therefore, the origins of Cupid is intrinsic to Valentine's Day history. Cupid is the son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Not surprisingly, Cupid's name roughly translates to desire in Latin. According to the legend of Cupid, he has the likeness of a boy that uses arrows to force love on both mankind and the gods.
While Cupid's image marks all kinds of Valentine's Day paraphernalia one would be hard pressed to locate an image of St. Valentine, the man whose life sparked the lover's holiday. According to legend, Valentine was a Catholic man of the church in third century Rome. At the same time the Emperor of Rome, Claudius II, felt concerned about protecting his borders from the Huns, Gauls, Mongolians, and Slavs. The Emperor wanted to ensure the strength of his army and valued the drive of unmarried soldiers. For this reason he prohibited marriage in his land. In response to this law, Valentine enlisted the help of his friend Saint Marius and began to marry young couples in secret. Claudius II grew livid as a result of Valentines defiance and ordered for Valentine to be beaten with clubs and eventually decapitated. Claudius' disgust for the future martyr swelled as Valentine tried to convince the emperor of the virtues in Catholicism as opposed to Roman paganism. This is one chain of events that many believe made Valentine's Day a great holiday.
In prison, Valentine felt inspired by a jailer named Asterius' daughter. The form of inspiration differs depending upon the version of the legend. Some say that Valentine fell in love with the jailers' daughter. Others say that Asterius asked the prisoner to pray over his daughter and relieve her of blindness, a request that Valentine fulfilled. Regardless of the relationship between Valentine, Asterius, and Asterius' daughter the important event took place right before Valentine died. Before executioners dragged Valentine away to his doom he signed a letter to Asterius' daughter "from your Valentine," a phrase that many still use today. Claudius finally had Valentine executed in February of 269 or 270.
According to legend, around 496 a pope named Gelasisus popularized the story of Valentine and Valentine's day in order to sway people away from participation in the Lupercalia festival. During the pagan Lupercalia festival participants placed women's names in a lottery. Men then blindly selected a name, and consequently, a companion for a year. After a years time the process would begin all over again. Church officials did not agree with this practice, and used the history of Valentine to promote habits that aligned with church principles. This version and/or extension of the legend credits church officials more so than cupid or Valentine with the popularity of Valentine's Day.
More recent events not only continue the narrative in Valentine's Day history, but offer other entities and occurrences to credit for the great lover's holiday. Valentine's Day gained widespread fame in seventeenth century Britain. Many British citizens participated in the exchange of personal notes every February. A note sent in 1415 by Charles Duke of Orleans to his wife represents one of the oldest examples of these kinds of activities. New technologies like the printing press prompted accessibility to the tools necessary to participate in the holiday.
In America, years after the printing press sparked a ripple of change throughout the world, Americans learned to appreciate Valentine's Day. Esther Howland became the first person to mass produce valentines trimmed with ribbon and lace in the mid nineteenth century United States. Howland got inspired in her father's stationary and book store. Many credit Howland for sparking the appeal of Valentine's Day. Contemporarily, Valentine's Day falls shortly behind Christmas as the holiday when people send mass amounts of greeting cards to loved ones. Women almost single handedly support the greeting card companies in February since they send the majority of Valentines Day Cards.
People attribute the popularity of Valentine's Day to many legends and events. It is more than likely, however, that Valentine's Day exists as it does today because of a combination of people that include Valentine, Cupid, Claudius, Gelasisus, and Howland.
Among the many Valentine's Day cards and love notes one might find the popular image of cupid. Therefore, the origins of Cupid is intrinsic to Valentine's Day history. Cupid is the son of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. Not surprisingly, Cupid's name roughly translates to desire in Latin. According to the legend of Cupid, he has the likeness of a boy that uses arrows to force love on both mankind and the gods.
While Cupid's image marks all kinds of Valentine's Day paraphernalia one would be hard pressed to locate an image of St. Valentine, the man whose life sparked the lover's holiday. According to legend, Valentine was a Catholic man of the church in third century Rome. At the same time the Emperor of Rome, Claudius II, felt concerned about protecting his borders from the Huns, Gauls, Mongolians, and Slavs. The Emperor wanted to ensure the strength of his army and valued the drive of unmarried soldiers. For this reason he prohibited marriage in his land. In response to this law, Valentine enlisted the help of his friend Saint Marius and began to marry young couples in secret. Claudius II grew livid as a result of Valentines defiance and ordered for Valentine to be beaten with clubs and eventually decapitated. Claudius' disgust for the future martyr swelled as Valentine tried to convince the emperor of the virtues in Catholicism as opposed to Roman paganism. This is one chain of events that many believe made Valentine's Day a great holiday.
In prison, Valentine felt inspired by a jailer named Asterius' daughter. The form of inspiration differs depending upon the version of the legend. Some say that Valentine fell in love with the jailers' daughter. Others say that Asterius asked the prisoner to pray over his daughter and relieve her of blindness, a request that Valentine fulfilled. Regardless of the relationship between Valentine, Asterius, and Asterius' daughter the important event took place right before Valentine died. Before executioners dragged Valentine away to his doom he signed a letter to Asterius' daughter "from your Valentine," a phrase that many still use today. Claudius finally had Valentine executed in February of 269 or 270.
According to legend, around 496 a pope named Gelasisus popularized the story of Valentine and Valentine's day in order to sway people away from participation in the Lupercalia festival. During the pagan Lupercalia festival participants placed women's names in a lottery. Men then blindly selected a name, and consequently, a companion for a year. After a years time the process would begin all over again. Church officials did not agree with this practice, and used the history of Valentine to promote habits that aligned with church principles. This version and/or extension of the legend credits church officials more so than cupid or Valentine with the popularity of Valentine's Day.
More recent events not only continue the narrative in Valentine's Day history, but offer other entities and occurrences to credit for the great lover's holiday. Valentine's Day gained widespread fame in seventeenth century Britain. Many British citizens participated in the exchange of personal notes every February. A note sent in 1415 by Charles Duke of Orleans to his wife represents one of the oldest examples of these kinds of activities. New technologies like the printing press prompted accessibility to the tools necessary to participate in the holiday.
In America, years after the printing press sparked a ripple of change throughout the world, Americans learned to appreciate Valentine's Day. Esther Howland became the first person to mass produce valentines trimmed with ribbon and lace in the mid nineteenth century United States. Howland got inspired in her father's stationary and book store. Many credit Howland for sparking the appeal of Valentine's Day. Contemporarily, Valentine's Day falls shortly behind Christmas as the holiday when people send mass amounts of greeting cards to loved ones. Women almost single handedly support the greeting card companies in February since they send the majority of Valentines Day Cards.
People attribute the popularity of Valentine's Day to many legends and events. It is more than likely, however, that Valentine's Day exists as it does today because of a combination of people that include Valentine, Cupid, Claudius, Gelasisus, and Howland.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Four Websites, Four Agendas, One American History
Website designers convey all kinds of purposes with their creations. A browser has to ask them self why one website may have so many advertisements or if simple graphics indicates inexperience. The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War, Do History, National Museum of American History, and History Channel websites all display information about American history, but simultaneously express subtle agendas.
The Valley of the Shadow website presents a mini Civil War archive to browsers. The main page looks like a map of a library with ‘rooms’ titled newspapers, maps, or soldiers’ records, for example. A click on diaries and letters leads to the personal entries of historical witnesses like John B. Baldwin or the Long family. Unfortunately, most of these entries do not include a digitized version of the original record. Most pages of the website include a link at the bottom of the page that leads back to the “full valley archive.” The website does not include interpretations of the archives. Instead it seems that someone recognized the value of gathering archives concerning one historical event for other historians to navigate and interpret.
Like Valley of the Shadow, Do History has more to do with the historian’s craft. Unlike Valley of the Shadow, Do History does not assume that the browser already knows methodology. Do History trains browsers on the process of piecing together events based on the contents of historical documents. The website uses Martha Ballard, an 18th century midwife, as a case study. Browsers can find Ballard’s entire diary digitized online, and learn how to read the diary with the help of various tools. A click on multiple icons can lead the browser to a small description of Ballard’s spelling and abbreviation style, a magic lens, or a transcribing exercise. The magic lens replaces words in Ballard’s diary with Times New Roman characters that make for easy reading. In addition, the transcribing drills prompt fledgling historians to decipher fragments of Ballard’s entries. The culmination of all of this training includes a “who dun it” task during which young historians utilize Ballad’s journals to decide if a judge raped Rebecca Foster. High school or college students could use this website to learn about the type of work historians do.
Unlike Valley of the Shadow and the Do History websites, The National Museum of American History Website offers a more commercialized version of American history. Website creators packaged all the history the museum has to offer for mass consumption by site visitors. The links to collection and exhibitions descriptions, for example, indicates the site designer’s desire to provide visitors with the ability to navigate the website easily and quickly. The website advertises events like “Cure for the Broken Hearted: Artificial hearts in America,” and collections like The Family Photo Album. Of course, at the bottom of the home page is the link for people who want to donate to the museum. Most of the descriptions only give readers enough information to wet their interest, and prompt them to eventually visit the museum.
On a more positive note, the museum’s website does have links to pages indicating outreach to the community. The history explorer time line is interactive, but unfortunately only lists and promotes previous museum exhibitions. The kids and educators link connects to mediocre lesson plans, and ideas of how to amuse kids with historical lessons.
Beyond any portion of The National Museum of American History Website, the History Channel Website is the most commercialized of the four. It is a big commercial with sub commercials manifested in advertisements for A&E programming, and insurance companies. The site also displays snippets of programming like The History of Valentines Day that has a full version on the channel. The store section of the website presents DVDs like Victory at Sea, and Combat Diary for sale. In addition, the site lists the descriptions and timetables for all of the History Channel shows. Even the classroom link connects to more descriptions of shows and programming.
The only portion of the History Channel Website that does not seem to be an advertisement is the “this day in history” link. According to the site, on February 7th 1939 Germany prepared to invade Poland, and in 1964 the Beetles arrived in New York. Perhaps the web creators decided to include the “this day in history” trivia in order to sway browsers away from the feeling that they are looking at a giant advertisement.
People surf the net for all kinds of reasons. Some look to gain information, others use it for entertainment. Most certainly do not use the Internet so that someone will have the opportunity to sell them something. As historians learn how to utilize the web they will also have to decipher what websites can help them and what websites are ultimately commercialized wastes of time.
The Valley of the Shadow website presents a mini Civil War archive to browsers. The main page looks like a map of a library with ‘rooms’ titled newspapers, maps, or soldiers’ records, for example. A click on diaries and letters leads to the personal entries of historical witnesses like John B. Baldwin or the Long family. Unfortunately, most of these entries do not include a digitized version of the original record. Most pages of the website include a link at the bottom of the page that leads back to the “full valley archive.” The website does not include interpretations of the archives. Instead it seems that someone recognized the value of gathering archives concerning one historical event for other historians to navigate and interpret.
Like Valley of the Shadow, Do History has more to do with the historian’s craft. Unlike Valley of the Shadow, Do History does not assume that the browser already knows methodology. Do History trains browsers on the process of piecing together events based on the contents of historical documents. The website uses Martha Ballard, an 18th century midwife, as a case study. Browsers can find Ballard’s entire diary digitized online, and learn how to read the diary with the help of various tools. A click on multiple icons can lead the browser to a small description of Ballard’s spelling and abbreviation style, a magic lens, or a transcribing exercise. The magic lens replaces words in Ballard’s diary with Times New Roman characters that make for easy reading. In addition, the transcribing drills prompt fledgling historians to decipher fragments of Ballard’s entries. The culmination of all of this training includes a “who dun it” task during which young historians utilize Ballad’s journals to decide if a judge raped Rebecca Foster. High school or college students could use this website to learn about the type of work historians do.
Unlike Valley of the Shadow and the Do History websites, The National Museum of American History Website offers a more commercialized version of American history. Website creators packaged all the history the museum has to offer for mass consumption by site visitors. The links to collection and exhibitions descriptions, for example, indicates the site designer’s desire to provide visitors with the ability to navigate the website easily and quickly. The website advertises events like “Cure for the Broken Hearted: Artificial hearts in America,” and collections like The Family Photo Album. Of course, at the bottom of the home page is the link for people who want to donate to the museum. Most of the descriptions only give readers enough information to wet their interest, and prompt them to eventually visit the museum.
On a more positive note, the museum’s website does have links to pages indicating outreach to the community. The history explorer time line is interactive, but unfortunately only lists and promotes previous museum exhibitions. The kids and educators link connects to mediocre lesson plans, and ideas of how to amuse kids with historical lessons.
Beyond any portion of The National Museum of American History Website, the History Channel Website is the most commercialized of the four. It is a big commercial with sub commercials manifested in advertisements for A&E programming, and insurance companies. The site also displays snippets of programming like The History of Valentines Day that has a full version on the channel. The store section of the website presents DVDs like Victory at Sea, and Combat Diary for sale. In addition, the site lists the descriptions and timetables for all of the History Channel shows. Even the classroom link connects to more descriptions of shows and programming.
The only portion of the History Channel Website that does not seem to be an advertisement is the “this day in history” link. According to the site, on February 7th 1939 Germany prepared to invade Poland, and in 1964 the Beetles arrived in New York. Perhaps the web creators decided to include the “this day in history” trivia in order to sway browsers away from the feeling that they are looking at a giant advertisement.
People surf the net for all kinds of reasons. Some look to gain information, others use it for entertainment. Most certainly do not use the Internet so that someone will have the opportunity to sell them something. As historians learn how to utilize the web they will also have to decipher what websites can help them and what websites are ultimately commercialized wastes of time.
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