Digital History Project Proposal:
Analysis and Needs of the Web

In looking for Web sites similar in content or genre to my proposed project, I had to look at some sites focused on lighthouses and others that dealt with buildings no longer in existence. There was a slight bit of overlap but for the most part these were two separate searches.

The Great Buildings Web site contains an unbelievable amount of information on some of the greatest architectural achievements in history from The Parthenon to the World Trade Center. That site also includes buildings that no longer exist. Among the demolished buildings are Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion in Spain which only stood for a year before being demolished in 1930. The Pavilion lacked what architects refer to as a functional program. It served only accommodate a reception for the King and Queen of Spain as they officially opened the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. Although that original structure did not outlive the exposition in Barcelona, the Pavilion was rebuilt in 1959 to the origin specifications. In 1983, interested parties organized the non-profit Mies van der Rohe Foundation which preserves the new pavilion and promotes contemporary architecture in Barcelona. The basic outlines of the Pavilion's plans are available through the Great Buildings Web site. Although those with a greater interest can find more detailed plans on the CD-ROM available through the Web site.

The Larkin Building, designed by the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright, survived for a longer period than the original Barcelona Pavilion but ultimately met its demise in 1950. Neither the architect's reputation nor the building's standing as a turning point in Wright's architectural development could save the Larkin Building from demolition. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation has more to do with preserving the architect's legacy than the buildings he designed. There is no one group looking after the preservation of the physical manifestations of Wright's work.

Both the Barcelona Pavilion and the Larkin Building appear on the Great Buildings Web site. This Web site includes extensive information on some of the most famous buildings in history and includes architectural reviews, comments by the architects, and photographic collections. A company named Artifice developed the Great Buildings Web site, that showcases both of the building discussed earlier. Artifice specializes in 3-D modeling software so it is not surprising that visitors can take a "virtual tour" through a 3-D model of many of the featured buildings. In some cases this allows users to look at the interiors of famous structures, and in other cases it can show a building that had been demolished many years earlier.

For years Dr. Paula Petrik felt her graduate students were missing key pieces of information in their required reading. In one case her students were having difficulty visualizing a crime scene based on court records. To assist her students, Dr. Petrik created a three dimensional representation of the crime scene. I found the computer program's ability to generate a "fly-by" of the recreated building the most stunning part of the presentation. The moving point-of-view gave life to the building in a way that photographs simply cannot.

Like the foundations preserving the Barcelona Pavilion and the Frank Lloyd Wright legacy, there are a number of organizations that are dedicated to the preservation of lighthouses such as The Lighthouse Preservation Society, The U.S. Lighthouse Society, and The American Lighthouse Foundation. There are other organizations looking after lighthouses of a particular state like The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society or the New Jersey Lighthouse Society, and some groups are organized around individual structures like the well-known Cape Hatteras Lighthouse or small Cape St. George Lighthouse in Florida. The common element in all these organizations is there interest in preserving existing lighthouses.

I looked at innumerable sites dedicated to the lighthouses. Among those I surveyed at was Grandma's Lighthouses which is fairly typical of the lighthouse appreciation sites. These loving tribute sites consist of personal collections of scanned photos and recollections of trips to see distant lighthouses. "Grandma's Lighthouses" is maintained by Grandma Carol and is her personal, digitized scrapbook of favorite lighthouse memories courtesy of the free webspace and site building tools provided by Tripod.

"Grandma's Lighthouses" appears in stark contrast to the large amount of historical information provided by the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office under "Lighthouses, Lightships & Aids to Navigation." The vast majority of sites surveyed in preparation for this digital project proposal easily fell between these two extremes, and in that middle group there are many very good Web sites. The Internet Index of Lighthouse Links boasts "Over 3,000 links to the best lighthouse pages in the Internet." The administrators of this site deliver on their promise in very clean and effective Web site.

I did locate one site on the Internet that offered 11" x 17" reproductions of architectural drawings of lighthouses for sale. HistoricLighthouses.com markets the plans of 23 beacons culled from national, state and private archives. Although these drawing are availible for anyone requesting them from an archives, the folks at this site have saved potential buyers the trouble of searching for and requesting these documents.

Without question there is great interest in anything having to do with lighthouses. The problem is that when a lighthouse is gone there is little incentive to rebuild it due to the high cost and the fact that it would have no practical use. Popular interest in demolished lighthouses quickly fades. There are very few locations on Web where you can find more than a passing reference to a demolished lighthouse. Jeremy D'Entremont's "New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide" is one of the few places where you can find some detail on lighthouses that no long exist. D'Entremont has amassed a considerable amount of information on nonexistent lighthouses through tireless primary research and interviews with the families and descendants of lighthouse keepers. He began collecting information and photos 15 years ago and greatly accelerated his research since starting this Web site in 1996.

In design "New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide" looks much like a lot of other lighthouse appreciation sites. Organizationally, the site is laid out with all the lighthouses grouped together by state. The lighthouses are listed and color-coded so the visitor can easily tell if they are no longer in existence, still standing, or even if they are available for overnight accommodations. After selecting a lighthouse, a visitor is then sent to a page that gives the particular specifications of the beacon such as construction materials, signal characteristics, and significant dates. A typical sub-menu then offers information on such topics as history, bibliography, cruises, photos, postcards, and even maps.

The "New England Lighthouses" site has a number of sponsors and affiliates, but D'Entremont places most of the banners or links at the bottom of the pages so they don't detract from his content. There are the occasional advertisements that appear higher on a page, but these are found mostly on the introductory and table of contents pages. Financially, D'Entremont's enterprise showed a loss last year and despite the number of ads on his site he expects only to break even this year after figuring in the costs of his travel and photography.

Unlike most lighthouse Web sites "New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide" gives equal treatment to lighthouses that no longer stand. Even the St. Croix Island Light used in the mock up of my proposal received a 500 word historical essay written by the Webmaster. What these sites lack are the primary sources and any history prior to the lighting of the beacons.

Would there be any interest in a Web site like the one I am proposing? When I contacted Jeremy D'Entremont to ask him about his work on "New England Lighthouses," he expressed interest in the types of documents I would be collecting and suggested helping each other. Perhaps if there is not enough funding to support a separate Web site my collected documents could find a home on a compatible site like "New England Lighthouses."