Caroline Brittingham
Digital History
19 November 2014
“ Writing History in the Digital Age”
“ I have a good deal of
interest in how members of the public who are not academically trained
historians “do history.” For me, then, “public history” does not mean just
projects, programs, and exhibits created by professional historians for the
public, but rather the very broad and complex intersection of “the public” with
historical practice. Provision those occupying this intersection with freely
available digital tools and platforms, and things become interesting quickly.
Because setting up a blog, wiki, or discussion forum means only a few mouse
clicks, and archival resources are increasingly digitized, we are seeing a
burgeoning of sites that coalesce communities around historical topics of
interest. Even those who have no interest in setting up their own websites can
participate in history-specific Facebook groups, blogging communities, and
genealogy sites.”
Personally, I found this quote from, “ Writing History in
the Digital Age” the most interesting specifically because I myself am not a “Historian”.
I write this blog post in irony to this quote. I say this because of the
project I have created for this class. I have thought of two historical
timelines concerning women and wanted to bring them together to show something
profound from a historical stand-point. I have researched, gathered, and
displayed information. However, is this not true history? Is my history in someway
lesser than that of someone with a degree. I beg to disagree. I may not be a “historian”
by trade, but I can still portray and have an interested to delve into history
and share my findings with “the public” at large. Though, I think there is a
line of expertise. Yes, my findings came from historical databases. These
databases are derived from historians, no doubt. Because of this, I think that
there is a subset of historians. This is where I fall into place. I am taking
historian’s information and combining it with another historian’s findings to
show something new. I think that larger, foundational historians’ work is not
the place for non historians ( so to speak), but I also would not agree that
history displayed from a non historian’s ( with the historical data) work
should be considered unreliable or not real history. I think this idea expands
history to the public to make it ever-interactive and alive.
