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.