DoHistory
http://dohistory.org
Created by Film Study Center, Harvard University and hosted by Center for History and New Media, George Mason University.
Reviewed September 2004.
The DoHistory website focuses on Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s impressive book, A Midwife’s Tale, and the subsequent PBS film by the same title, both of which are based on the diary of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived in Maine during the turn-of-the- nineteenth century. The site is a detailed and useful resource both as a teaching tool and as a digital archive of the life and time of Martha Ballard. DoHistory not only invites visitors to examine Martha Ballard’s diary and the conclusions that Ulrich drew from it and other sources, it also provides visitors an opportunity to explore the process of interpreting primary materials.
The site’s presentation of Martha Ballard’s diary is superb. The entire diary (from 1785-1812) is featured in both image and interpreted text versions. Viewers can scan the image version with a “magic lens,” or roll over tool, which translates selected portions of the handwritten image into text. In a clever and interactive section titled “Try Transcribing”, visitors can also test their own ability at reading Ballard’s handwriting. By providing viewers with opportunity to type their own translation beneath the handwritten image, the site confronts viewers with one of the challenges that often exist when using primary materials. The site also assists visitors with interpreting the layout of the diary by explaining Martha Ballard’s spelling and abbreviations as well as her systems for dating and accounting.
The site offers a section which discusses Ulrich’s research process and the various sources that she used which not only assisted her understanding of Martha’s diary, but also enabled her to write a history which reveals a lot about what life was like in Hallowell, Maine at the turn-of-the-nineteenth century. By exploring the method that Ulrich used to make sense of the diary, we begin to understand what she meant when she said that “The problem is not that the diary is trivial but that it introduces more stories than can easily be absorbed”
(http://dohistory.org/diary/themes/index.html).
As it states on the homepage, the site sets out to teach others how to locate stories within primary materials by giving people the tools to “piece together the past from the fragments that have survived.” The site defines various primary sources and explains how to use them. For example, there are sections which instruct visitors how to read probate records, graveyards, diaries, deeds and how to conduct oral histories. There is also a section which addresses the handling, organization and storing of materials.
All of the primary sources that were used in the website are archived and cross-referenced by thumbnail, document type, topic, author and title. The archive itself, which is easy to search, provides a rich resource for exploration and instruction. There is also a bibliography for further reading and links to other sites about a variety of related topics including women’s history, history and film, midwifery sources, genealogy and the history of biomedicine.
DoHistory offers a clear layout, is easy to navigate and serves as a terrific example of how the World Wide Web is changing the way in which history is studied. Through its use of interactive tools and its presentation of extensive archives the DoHistory website offers viewers something that can only be achieved through the use of digital media.
Olivia Ryan
September 20, 2004