Under Contract: Nurses in the Spanish-American War is a component of an exhibit section planned for new web pages highlighting the work of the Collections and History Office of The Women's Memorial. This office is the repository for the memorabilia of women who have served in or with the US military from the American Revolution to the present.

The historians and curators in this office conduct seminal research on the history of servicewomen, placing their experience within the context of social history and relevant subdisciplines such as women's history, labor history and military history. Journalists, scholars, younger students, authors, veterans, other military institutions, women's organizations and historians are among those who contact History and Collections for information and access to photographs, documents, artifacts and research papers.

Assignment

The course syllabus states that this assignment is intended “To demonstrate your understanding of the history of design and its application to the presentation of history on web. To that end, choose a historical period or topic and develop an interface design consonant with the period. Compose a web page that integrates the design theme into its typography, composition, color, and layout so that it enhances the presentation of the historical content and creates a visual identity for a prospective site. ”

Implementation

The photographs and documents selected for this exhibit highlight fragments of the experiences of nurses serving in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. I chose a script typeface, Fine Hand (one of the typefaces included in Adobe Photoshop 6). Fine Hand has a bit of a flair and the lyrical flow and flourishes seem to offer a hint of Hispanic influence and to reflect the calligraphic shadings of the handwritten documents of the women themselves. (Visit page two of the exhibit and open the new browser window linked from the italicized words contract nurses to see a handwriting example.)

The use of photographs and a background document on the splash page presage the contents of the exhibit. You may visit the exhibit here.