Unit 3: The Multi-Talented Blog & Social Media

This unit we are exploring the many functions a blog can perform and historic locations social media presence.

Ferry Farm, George Washington's Boyhood Home, in Stafford use a blog to document and catalogue artifacts found during archeological digs. Every item found is given an individual post which allows for quick recall and counting. It also keeps the public informed on all their findings as well as an easy way to keep a large team informed on all objects found and dated. Check it out here.

Kenmore, which is also run by the same folks as Ferry Farm, runs a blog devoted to documenting the restoration and refurnishing of the Kenmore Estate.  It covers everything from the installation of a new rug to jewelry placed on a nightstand. And the most interesting part for someone who likes history is that they go into detail about why and how they came to the decision to include those items. It is like a small insight to their official furnishing plan. That blog can be found here. 

In this day and age nearly everyone has a Facebook, and Ferry Farm and Historic Kenmore is no exception. Though not nearly as inventive as their use of blogs, it still is updated regularly featuring photos or posts about upcoming events. That can be visited here.

One of my favorite blogs to follow is People of Color in European Art History which does exactly what its title suggests. In some cases there is a longer discourse about the people in the paintings, why they were painted and the general history of the piece. There is the occasional lengthy debate about the depiction of the Middle Ages in media and the racial diversity or lack there of.

The Fugitive Leaves is a blog for The Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. According to the about tab, it is run in the likeness a newsletter and often highlights interesting tidbits of their collection. It is updated regularly and as a side note The Historical Medical Library website uses Omeka which is Rosenzweig's project at GMU (link). The college's website can be found here, and the library's here.

For new pages to follow on Facebook, I've decided to follow Omeka, the Getty Foundation, and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. I like to at least try and stay up to date on technology and Omeka seems to have many uses and I'd like to see how people make use of it. And to be honest, I am a bit ashamed that I haven't heard about it before this class. The Getty Foundation and American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works both focus more on visual art and its preservation which I would like to learn more about. The Getty Foundation is more involved on a global scale, while the other is more about networking in the States.

Also, I will be following a blog Caitlin discusses, Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century. It aligns with my interests and I find how it presents historical information a great way to to thoroughly learn about a time period. I only wish it was on tumblr, which I find to be easier to stay updated on content.

Unit 2: The Local Digital History Scene

While reading the introduction for Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, found here, I was very struck how relevant Rosenzweig's seven qualities and five hazards of digital media still are despite the publication date. I knew they had to have some useful information or else its reading would not have been assigned, yet time moves very quickly in regards to technology and web design so anything written usually requires frequent updates. By sticking to some core universal content and design concepts, the introduction was able to withstand the test of time. Hopefully the rest of the book holds up as well.

Of the concepts presented, the concept I believe which is most discussed today is the problem of inaccurate data on the web. We judge the credibility of information based on the design of the page we read it from. A well laid out page with a well designed business logo is usually a sign of a credible source who has at least fact checked their information before presenting it with their usual biases. But through that unwritten rule of well designed websites and skillful naming of web pages, an alarming amount of websites spouting incorrect data have been able to pass themselves off as news sources, beguiling the uninformed readers who then share and spread the misinformation. Yet now there has been a push through social networks to educate people not only on the dangers of misinformation, but how to spot and then stop the spread of it in the first place. Here is a recent CNN article about the involvement of Facebook and its attempts to stop the spreading of fake news (link).

While the text discusses at length the issue of photoshopped images and forgeries, today a simple reverse image search can help trace the image to its source and then compare to see if or how much it had been altered. And now with the rise of memes, there are plenty of photoshopped images of impossible scenarios, whether it is the gifs of Confused John Travolta or the many iterations of President Trump in Saudi Arabia touching an orb. And yet no one is trying to argue that those are what actually happened because of how they are usually presented.

For the final project, I am toying with two possible ideas. The first being a continuation of my project from Historical Archaeology class, The John Poultney Mill and the two years it was in operation along the Old Carolina Road. The second being researching the Chapman's Mill; it was suggested to me since the Field Survey of Archaeology Techniques class I am also taking is going to feature a fair amount of time devoted to the Mill.

As far as commentary on local university and public library's websites, I find it is very useful that many of them allow for their collections to be searched without having to physically be in the libraries. It makes trips to them far more productive since that allows you to plan out which books or documents will need to be pulled.

Last semester I spent a lot of time in the Balch Library in Leesburg, and I would have to carefully plan my visits making many lists of what material would need to be accessed when I finally was able to take a half day from work to get to the library during their hours of operation. Many libraries may fear putting too much information online will stop patrons from actually visiting their location, when in fact it would make the information available for people not in the immediate area. This idea is touched upon in Rosenzweig as well and I cannot wait to get to that chapter.