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Digital Project Proposal History of Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park _________________________________________________ |
Introduction
The Past and the Present of Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park are inextricably linked, as Steve Coleman from the "Friends of Meridian Hill Park" points out. If one wants to understand the park -- the way it looks, the way it is used and the way it is perceived by the public, one should look at its history.
The proposed digital project on the history of the park would be one way of approaching the complex history of the park -- it is not the only way and it certainly doesn't claim to be the best way. The project aims to be not a presentation of knowledge from a group of "insiders" to "the public", but a "history in progress" -- a history that is developed and altered while it is presented, a history that is constantly growing -- both in size and, more importantly, in content and in analytical precision. Both project proposal and web page are a draft, and any suggestions and comments are welcome.
For a discussion of the challenges, possibilities and difficulties facing a digital project on the history of the park, it is necessary to preface the discussion with some background information on the history of the park. In the paragraphs thereafter, the audience, scope content and structure of the site will be discussed and similar web sites reviewed. Brief interviews with designers of similar web sites are included in the review section. The essay concludes with a discussion of the technical plan for the site and a presentation of a homepage-draft.
Note on the Materials:
A lot of documents on the history of the park are available - the "Friends of Meridian Hill Park" have been collecting a wealth of photos, maps and documents on the park history. Many documents, especially on the construction and design history, are in the National Archives, and, last but not least, quite a few documents and photographs of the park are available online through the American Memory project. This essay is based on the Cultural Landscape Report, a voluminous but, according to the "Friends of Meridian Hill Park" flawed report (abbrev. as: CLP), and on newspaper articles.________________________________________