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DoHistory http://www.dohistory.org/ Created by the Film Study Center at Harvard University. Reviewed September 15, 2002. DoHistory leads the visitor through the process of understanding what ordinary people’s lives were like in the past. “It is an experimental, interactive case study” which draws on the book and film A Midwife’s Tale to explore tools available to historians in chronicling lives of the past. Based on A Midwife’s Tale, the site draws on the current, sound scholarship of Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, as well as an array of primary source material. The site incorporates interactive tools as well as traditional web presentation of primary sources, including graphics of the original diary and typed transcription. It also presents the story of making the film A Midwife’s Tale, as well as a collection of resources for visitors to begin pursuing their own research. It was created primarily for those who wanted to know more: more about Ulrich’s experience, more about Laurie Kahn-Leavitt’s experience, and more about “doing” history. It is a refreshingly in-depth web site, with careful interweaving of the various components through hypertext. The navigation and layout make it easy to move around the site without getting lost. One of the few aesthetic details that would benefit from slight tweaking are the rollovers present on the home page: the text that appears to further explicate the link is too crowded, and difficult to read. One of the interactive tools for exploring history, “One Rape. Two Stories. ”, shows the developer’s perceptiveness about visitor’s likely web behavior. Instructed at the beginning to follow one story all the way through, then look at the other story, I nonetheless jumped between the two stories at will. At the conclusion, after asking the visitors what they think, the developers nudge visitors to return to the beginning and follow one path in order to understand better the information available: “If you are like most people, you probably jumped back and forth between Martha's story and the official story. If that's the case, try reading just the official history . . . and then just Martha's story.” One of the few minor disappointments with the site is at the top of “Teaching with this Web Site,” where there is an outdated announcement for a workshop. In the peculiar manner of the web, that one outdated statement detracts from the rest of the excellent material presented on the page, simply because users have different expectations about a web site’s currency of information than a printed information packet. (Although anyone producing a print resource probably would not put that kind of dated information on their packet, but reserve it for a separate flyer.) Another minor disappointment is that I wish I could see the map of Hallowell with the detail of JT Imaging technology, found at the Center for History and New Media site (http://chnm.gmu.edu). Overall, the site is an excellent combination of information and technology. It provides more than just paper or film alone could provide, taking advantage of the unique qualities of new media to further visitor’s exploration of history. It also fosters and encourages a sense of wonder and excitement about “doing” history. Allison Meyer |