Primary Source Material is Ever-Growing More Accessible, Searchable; and Research More Comprehensive

                Investigating the past and contributing professionally or otherwise soundly to the collective understanding of the past and the former lives that occupied its eras is dependent on the Historic Record.  The Historic Record is any primary evidence or source of the past, which is not limited to just written texts, but also includes, oral histories, images, statistics, things constructed by nature or man, and any artifacts that have survived the past.  Historians know that while primary sources do not change (save for lack of preservation) historiographies and interpretations of historic records and of the past do evolve and change over time.  This fact then is the essential difference in primary sources and secondary sources.  Primary sources are authentic materials of the past, and secondary sources are the critical on -going dialogue and contributions made based on the Historic Record which puts these materials into context and examines their meaning to the means of further understanding our ever distant past.

                Research is one of the elemental practices and skills that define a historian’s duties, and one of the first steps in the process of history.  This process of doing history is changing (which is the theme of this blog’s ongoing posts), along with everything else it seems, in the now and emerging digital age; the way historians do research, evaluate research, and present their interpretations, and how the public receives these histories is changing exponentially along with changing technologies.  Part of this digitally motivated evolution in the discipline of History (although evolution is far too slow a term to relate) is how research is done.  Beyond the preservation benefits, it is the access of sources that has been revolutionized with computers, digital technology, and the internet.  Whereas in the very recent past it was necessary for a researcher to scour sometimes far apart libraries, museums, and archives, today much of this research can be done from a swivel chair in front of any computer with internet access.  Library materials and archives are evermore becoming available online for researchers to examine and print – secondary sources and primary sources.  One such database that provides instant access to scanned digitalized copies of primary source materials is the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) Historical Periodicals Collection.  This online resource’s materials comes directly from the AAS collections and, although it is currently still in the process of being created, it will consist of over 6,500 American periodicals published between 1691 -1877.  According to the EBSCOhost Publishing website, this particular resource surpasses all other online resources’ in the comprehensive collection of American periodicals within this early American time period.

                The AAS Historical Periodicals Collection will be categorized in five different series, of which two are currently available: Series 1 -- 1691 –1820; and Series 2 -- 1821—1837.  With the use of digital character recognition technology, all documents scanned into this resource can be key-word searched, which means that documents do not have to be searched only by subject or title or author, and it makes possible for researchers also to search an extensive database more comprehensively about a particular focus and more efficiently .  For instance sometimes a particular object of a researcher’s interest or focus may not necessarily be the focus or subject of a document that can indeed provide some primary evidence for the researcher.  In this case a key-word search will turn up relevant material for a researcher that a particular subject search would not.  This is an example of how digital technology is changing the discipline of history and not only the efficiency, but the comprehensiveness of research and scholarship.

Traditional More Than Technical; but Indeed Practical

Student Website Review of the Historical website "Common Place" for the HIST3999--Digital History course at Shawnee State University. The Review is based on guidlines from the Journal of American History.

Common Place: A common place, an uncommon voice. http://www.common-place.org/. Sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society in association with the University of Oklahoma. Edited by: Catherine E. Kelly, University of Oklahoma; Trudy Powers, American Antiquarian Society; John McCoy, designer. Reviewed September 12, 2010.

    

        Common Place is a quarterly web Journal or magazine that is available free to the public online, to browse, read, search content by key word, critique and give direct feedback, and subscribe to; and it bills itself as

“The interactive journal of early American life”.

"Interactive", because subscribers are invited to comment on scholarly contributions to the site, and "early American life", because the site focuses on American History before 1900. The first issue goes back to Volume 1, Number 1: September 2000; and all the past issues since are easily available from a link located in the footer at the bottom of every page. The journal includes columns, feature articles, and reviews, as well as various ways for subscribers to interact in a public forum, with the feature authors, and creators of the site. In many ways this site embraces new technology of the digital age and in some ways it shuns it. While it does utilize the medium of the internet and format of the web magazine, its focus is on traditional arrangement and appearance of historical scholarship more than progressive digital presentations. In overall design this makes for a great contrast in technique and content, and the medium in which the content is presented. However, the mass communication aspect of the technology is utilized well here, but the spirit of the website is still very much traditional--in terms of the discipline and study of History--and it caters to those who are comfortable with that; which makes the transition to the internet for some history buffs and history enthusiasts seem not so much different than the techniques of learning history that some may be used to or loyal to. This website also stands to show that this traditional spirit does have a place on the internet, and that not everything on the web is flashing and moving, or distracting and void of contemplation and thoughtful reading; and most importantly, good and pleasurable writing.


        A great element of Common Place is--even with its caliber of scholarship, writing, and editorship--that it is not meant to communicate only to professional historians, and doesn’t include a ton of professional jargon. This web site’s readership is meant to be that interested and history-engaged public. The articles are readable and relatable to the generally interested public, and the site boasts a standard of enjoyable reading over the technical or tedious and tiresome variety. However, this site is not disconnected from timely scholarship and the professional discipline of History. The features, columns, and reviews written in each quarterly issue are in-fact written by professionals working in the field of history. The first feature in the current issue is titled Lifting the veil of race at the U.S. Capitol: Thomas Crawford’s Statue of Freedom, written by Vivien Green Fryd, Professor and Chair in the Department of History of Art at Vanderbilt University. As is the case with all Feature author’s some of Fryd’s credentials are listed with her article, including books she has written about politics, art, and race. In the article Fyrd comprehensively analyzes the symbolism and cultural significance of the Statue of Freedom that sits famously atop the U.S. Capitol Building's grand dome in the context of its specific art history and iconographic influences, and the current politics and literary works of the time it was created--1855 to 1863. While tracing the roots of some of the fascinating art history, she references the relevant works of Herman Melville, W.E.B. DuBois, Stowe, and Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly among other relevant context of the time, and analyzes the politics, society, and racism of the era as well. Fryd argues that the symbolism of “bondage and freedom are intertwined” in this famous supposed icon of liberty, which was commissioned by then secretary of war Jefferson Davis, who was also in charge of decorating the Capitol building. The article is articulately written but is best described I think by its thorough scholarship, while at the same time remaining engrossing and comprehensible. In this readable context the site does a good job serving as a link or bridge between the engaged and interested public and professional historians; and it functions as a great way to disseminate historical scholarship to the public in an educated, but relatable and jargon-free way. These are the kind of sites that bring the public in and serve an elegant but pragmatic purpose as well.

        Common Place may not be the exemplary example of historiography in the new digital age as far as utilizing the most recent of technology and design features, and even some more common ones—like video—that other sites may use, but the site does incorporate the use of the internet well in presenting its history. Common Place makes use of hyper links in its text and its design allows for easy to read content and navigation. As well, the audience is clearly presented and understood in the

“Why a Common Place?”

link in the footer of the site’s pages. One popular web-based technology that the cite does use well also, is the use of the blog feature. Subscribers to the site can engage authors and other readers with comments to the journal’s articles. This feature of the web site certainly defines the greatest advantage that the medium of the internet brings to this kind of historical scholarship that traditionally published journals cannot. With the Republic of Letters--the online message board--the creators of the site boast that while it may not focus on the emerging medias and technologies of the internet, it does utilize the internets most important feature, “bringing people together to discuss ideas”.

        Common Place serves also to bring a part of history to the internet that is somewhat disconnected from it, and today’s media-hungry public. The “post-photography” American History as the creators put it, is more vogue because of the relative ease to produce more media friendly history presentations--utilizing more photographs, audio, and video of our more recent past. The editors cite sites as the Journal for Multimedia History, American Memory Project, and NPR’s Lost and Found Sound as examples of these kinds of “wonderful” and “valuable” history web sites that are out their, but all “focus disproportionately on post-photography America”. Thus this site serves a specific purpose and helps to fill a sort of void that the creators attend is problematic; and they write that,

“Common-Place won’t dazzle you with snazzy graphics”.