Clio Wired (History 696)

1) Most states do not publish site reports. Many such as Maryland require researchers to submit a request to see the reports and then only at the State's facility. They do this to prevent looting. Many sites lay in shallow enough waters that treasure or souvenir hunters that could tear them apart.
2) Site reports exist in numerous places such as individual state archaeological field offices, Army Corp of Engineer district offices, university departments, avocational organizations, the naval historical center, and other locations as well. This makes even learning what has been investigated extremely difficult.
3) Up until the advent of the Internet the technology and determination has not been there to put site reports online. I have been surprised just how far behind the curve archaeologists are in utilizing the Internet for collaborative work.
My proposal then is to create a searchable online database that would house bibliographic information on maritime related archaeological site reports. In addition to publication information I would include the document's location, contact information needed to properly request use of the report, possibly an abstract for each report, and metadata for subject search. The various searches could include, Author, Title, Subject, Location (rough location perhaps down to the associated body of water i.e. Potomac River so as not to endanger the site) Year of publication, and Age of site.
The value of this type of tool would be to:
 Make the existence of the data know to both the historical and archaeological community,
 Informed researchers as to where they can get the report and who they need to contact,
 Encourage the use of this type of data by historians.
Practical concerns include actually getting this data. I contacted the state underwater archaeologists from Maryland, South Carolina, and Georgia. Each state has agreed to furnish the information I requested and has voiced support for the project. For this project I will create a mysql database with the proper tables and schema and use PHP to create the web interface. I have done this on a small scale in my current position with the US House of Representatives so I believe I am capable of writing the proper code. I would start with Maryland's data and spend some time in their office to gather the data and scan the abstracts. Dr. Langely believes they have about 150 to 200 reports. Once the initial problems are worked out I would try and set up screens that would allow other states to submit their own data sets in a way similar to the 911 archive created by the Center for History and New Media. After that I will be able to encourage other states, Universities, avocational groups, research institutes, and the Army Corp of Engineers to provide similar data sets. The Museum Underwater Archaeology would be able to host this project beyond my time at George Mason University.
Benefits
Besides providing a worthwhile research tool for historians and archaeologists this project would:
 Encourage a wider use of sources by historians,
 Gain some additional exposure for the museum itself so that other archaeologists might be encouraged to utilize the site to publish their research to the general public,
 Assist with my own dissertation research by gathering data on Chesapeake Bay excavations.
Problems
Would this be a scholarly site? I believe it meets the following criteria:
 It would be an original contribution to the field
 It will be subject to review by the very collaborative nature of the data gathering process
 It will provide information based on primary source material
Does it have an argument?
In and of itself an archival site does not have an explicit argument but the implicit argument is that archaeological evidence can be of use to historians especially if assessed on a large scale. By examining this data as whole rather than individually information previously unknown will become apparent and may inspire knew questions that can only be answered by viewing this data set as a whole. Potential examples could be incorporated into the site such as a map showing spatial relationships between different activities or events across time. Another example that could be included on the site could be an article that is site specific. For example one of the largest ship graveyards in the US lies in

Mallows Bay in the Potomac River. It is home to over 150 shipwrecks. Most of these vessels were wooden steamships built for World War One that never saw any service at all. Unable to do much with these vessels once the war ended they were placed in the bay and left to rot. Many have deteriorated down to the water line and have formed ship shaped islands with vegetation and animal life. These vessels comprise an amazing collection of maritime architectural features that highlight the change from wooden to iron and steel hull construction. It is an amazing snap shot of time. There are elements of their construction such as a V shaped concrete stern support structure that do not appear in any of the ship plans I examined from the Mariner's Museum in Newport News. This illustrates the point that hands on research in the field can add to the historic record. This type of multimedia approach using material culture lends itself well to the web.