Website Evaluation

Do History
http://www.dohistory.org/
Harvard University Film Study Center
Reviewed September 2004

The Do History site is a combination online exhibit and archive of primary source documents that explores “how to piece together the past from the fragments that have survived.” To illuminate this process, it presents both the 200-year-old diary of Martha Ballard, a midwife who lived in Maine in the mid-1700s, and University of New Hampshire historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s 1990 book based on the diary, A Midwife’s Tale. Through a complete transcription and digital copy of the expansive diary, excerpts from Ulrich’s book and information on how she went about writing it, a section on the film A Midwife’s Tale, an archive of additional primary sources, and several interactive tools and online exhibits, users gain both an understanding of how historical narrative is created and of daily life in 18th Century New England.

The site is well-organized and easy to use for people with differing areas of interest. The five main sections of the site are accessible from the site’s main page. “Martha Ballard’s Diary Online” allows users to browse and search the diary, both in transcribed form and through scans of the original document. It also draws out common themes and stories in the diary. To help users understand historical recreation more fully, several interactive tools accompany the diary, and are accessible at this corner of the site. “Magic Lens,” “Try Transcribing,” and “Decoding the Diary” show users how historians treat primary source documents. “Archive of Primary Documents” presents close to 300 primary source documents drawn from variety of sources that allow users to historically contextualize the diary . These documents include maps, public records, prints and photographs, letters, newspaper articles, and additional diaries and can be easily browsed by thumbnail, title, author, document type, and topic. “Doing History” presents two interactive exhibits, one on the changing relationship between male and female midwives, and one on a trial about a rape, that encourage users to piece Ballard’s stories into historical narrative. “A Midwife’s Tale, the Book” presents excerpts from Ulrich’s book and includes an interview with her on how she went about turning the diary into a narrative. “A Midwife’s Tale, The Film” includes information on how to make a historical film and presents video clips from behind the scenes of “A Midwife’s Tale.” “On Your Own” encourages further study of the topic by recommending additional secondary sources.

Though the transcription of the diary is the site’s most extensive section, no one area of the site takes precedence over the others. Thus, the site’s design encourages individual users to determine for themselves which aspects of the site are most interesting or useful for their purposes. For example, the online exhibits are featured just as prominently as the discussion of the film and the transcription of the close to 10,000 diary entries spanning 27 years of Ballard’s life. As such, the site does not limit its audience to those interested in the process of historical reconstruction. Instead, it makes itself accessible to users with differing interests by organizing its content into several genres. The site’s main page includes a function that points users towards selected portions of the site based on a primary area of interest, be it genealogy, midwifery, how to use primary sources, teaching, or Martha Ballard herself.

Kristin Lehner
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia