December 05, 2005
screen resolution
I returned home and my site looked normal...
However, my screen resolution is 1600x1200. Is this why my site looked so odd in class? I'm looking at my site in both Firefox and IE here, and it looks completely normal...
and, for neato pulldown in Dreamweaver (for those interested): Insert>Form>Jump Menu. Follow directions...easy.
Posted by ejonese at 11:16 PM | Comments (1)
October 29, 2005
Liz's Digital Proposal
While I was doing my first assignment for this class, I noted a dearth of scholarly sites that provided an overall history of advertising. I realized that an all-encompassing history of advertising would be a tad bit much, so I decided to narrow my topic to investigate how soap and beauty aid manufacturers have transformed American society.
Prior to the Civil War, Americans were not the cleanest lot. This situation began to change after the war, begging the question, how did this happen? Using innovative techniques that would become standard practice for other products, personal hygiene hawkers not only changed our nation’s cleaning habits, but the advertising industry as a whole.
While my site will be an archive, it will also include a narrative, detailing how the soap folks changed our personal grooming habits. Most of the sites I saw in my initial project were archival—a sort of “create you own narrative”/”choose your own adventure idea.” As we’ve discussed, an archive can has a narrative, based on the choices made by the site author. However, I was rather unhappy with the limited narratives presented. I would presume site authors felt a need to not spoon-feed their audience, but I thought some of the sites could have used more thought, and not throw us a bunch of ads.
There are several books on this topic. However, with the number of photos that I would propose using, it would not make sense to put this in a print format. I intend to allow users—scholars or laymen—to zoom in on advertisements, allowing for closer examination.
So, if you have thoughts/criticisms, I’m always open…
Posted by ejonese at 01:48 PM
October 11, 2005
Web sites reviewed
Click here to see the assignment
I reviewed several sites dealing with the changes in advertising in American culture and how certain Web sites have covered this topic.
I was quite surprised with some of the sites, a couple of which I deemed of little use to average students. Perhaps it is because I have not had the opportunity to go to Duke University to check their boxes; however, I found some of their site’s were less helpful than that of a small museum in Wisconsin (see http://www.eisnermuseum.org/home.shtm).
I reviewed the following sites:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/hartman/ (by virtue of their holdings, where I spent the most time). There are four projects, of varying quality—in my estimation.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d-7.htm
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d-7.htm: The Ivory Soap part redeemed this site, in my estimation.
http://www.old-time.com/commercials/: An individual, unaffiliated with any institution, turns an avocation into a full-fledged Web site
http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger Houses the collection of Rick Prelinger. Has those odd instructional movies from the 50s, when kids were headed down the path of destruction, threatened by many vices—Perversion for Profit was… interesting.
http://www.ec2.edu/dccenter/archives/ia/index.html this defunct site was just sad … very sad. The timeline ends in 1997.
The Internet, I conclude, needs to catch up with books on this topic. One can find many resources at Amazon.com (book); however, Web folks need to do a lot of work.
Posted by ejonese at 04:45 PM
September 26, 2005
Cronon’s “story”
Cronon is an environmental historian who has raised a lot of eyebrows.
Cronon is an environmental historian who has raised a lot of eyebrows. With “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative,” Cronon demonstrates how historians put environmental changes in a narrative structure. As an environmental historian, Cronon deems it necessary to tell the story of nature’s place in man’s past. He opposes the “endless postmodernist deconstruction of texts that fails to ground itself in history.” (Cronon, 1374) These postmodernists make their subject the “least human and least storied of worlds.” (Cronon, 1374) Cronon would like the story of how humans have lived in and utilized the natural world to be heard. He also acknowledges, however, that historians should recognize nature and the past as real things, lest their works become something other than history. Historians might differ on how this relationship between man and nature co-exist, even if each has the same set of facts. To illustrate his point, Cronon discusses how historians have portrayed the Dust Bowl.
Writing in the late 1970s, Paul Bonnifield sees the story of the Great Plains demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit. Farmers, though tested by the great dust storms that plagued the Great Plains during the Great Depression, prevailed, symbolizing the determination of rugged individualism. However, if you ask Donald Worster, man was bested by nature—in other words “The story of the Dust Bowl is less about the failures of nature than about the failures of human beings to accommodate themselves to nature.” (Cronon, 1348). To Worster, who wrote at the same time as Bonnifield, the story of the Dust Bowl showed the contradictions of capitalist expansion.
The same set of facts, two different stories. However, both versions grab the attention of readers. When people learn about history, they like to hear a good story. Indeed, few people would listen to a vague chronology, listing the history of the Great Plains that includes people fighting a lot, disappearing bison herds, and Indians living on reservations. (Cornon, 1351) To spice things up, one author might focus on how the disappearing bison herds impacted the region. Another might focus on the rise of Indian reservations. As storytellers, they have the power to report some facts and ignore others—whatever fits their overarching theme. However, they need a plot to keep their audiences interested.
Posted by ejonese at 07:36 AM
September 23, 2005
Review Essay Proposal...Liz
The evolution of advertising in U.S. consumer culture.
I am going to review sites that document the history of advertising. At present, I plan to look at all forms of media—from print, radio, television, and, to the extent I am able, the Internet.
As one site I am reviewing notes, “Advertising… is such a pervasive feature of American life that our culture from the late 19th century onward cannot be fully understood without studying ads and the industry that created them.” It will be very interesting to see how advertising has changed since the 18th century, and just what these changes say about our tastes and our culture as a whole. It will be intriguing to see why certain ads have worked at certain points in our history (and why others have failed miserably), as well as how advertisers have changed their tactics as different forms of media have come to the forefront.
Sites under study:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/hartman/: Extensive collection that Duke University has amassed.
http://www.adage.com/century/index.html: Advertising Age did a retrospective of the past 295 years of advertising, featuring some of our most popular icons. The contents include the 20th century's top 100 advertising campaigns, top 100 advertising people, top 10 jingles, top 10 slogans, top 10 advertising icons, and a 295-year timeline of the century's most important advertising-related events.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d-7.htm: Smithsonian Museum’s project on advertising. Includes a section specific to Ivory Soap, a collection of cigarette packs (foreign and domestic), and records associated with the “Pepsi Generation” advertising campaign.
http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger: A simply fascinating collection of ads. Includes those warning ads from the 50s and 60s, warning parents about the rampant sex and violence in which their children were engaging. Much of his collection was purchased by the Library of Congress (see http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/).
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/seusscoll.html: Library collection of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s pre-Dr. Suess ads.
http://theimaginaryworld.com/page4.html: Is this scholarship? Good question. It’s an individual’s site, unaffiliated with any institution. We should see how he stacks up. As we’re all aware, ads came in all sorts of forms.
http://www.ec2.edu/dccenter/archives/ia/history.html: Advertising on the Internet.
Posted by ejonese at 03:31 PM | Comments (2)
September 21, 2005
Brainerd
Going back to Brainerd after the class...
Initially, I was tempted to say that it reminded me of a county Web site--though I acknowledge that county Web sites contain valuable info, e.g., precinct voting patterns and such.
Upon reviewing further, however, I was very intrigued by the site. The site suggests new avenues for scholarship--studies on small cities, familial studies, etc. I guess the viewer needs to seize the opportunity, as with a book. The creator of Brainerd provides this opportunity with his bibliography. If I were to create the rules of a good historical web site, I would say that it must hint at further avenues of study--something the Brainerd does well.
Posted by ejonese at 09:53 PM
September 18, 2005
Liz's Web
definitely a work-in-progress
Posted by ejonese at 10:41 PM
September 03, 2005
The hunt, by Liz
I began my hunt on Saturday at 2:10. Unfortunately, I have dial-up (until this Wednesday).
Um, in Dogpile, I found the results of last year's hunt (didn't read until after)
1. Tito/Eleanor/Amin: Photos were sloooow, so I gave up, seeing that it could take a while for me to download anything...watching the time tick by was enervating, but I intend to find it...
2. Went to www.dogpile.com, a site that searches the search engines. Alice Duer Miller
Evolution
SAID Mr. Jones in 1910:
"Women, subject yourselves to men."
Nineteen-Eleven heard him quote:
"They rule the world without the vote."
By Nineteen-Twelve, he would submit
"When all the women wanted it."
By Nineteen-Thirteen, looking glum,
He said that it was bound to come.
This year I heard him say with pride:
"No reasons on the other side!"
By Nineteen-Fifteen, he'll insist
He's always been a suffragist.
And what is really stranger, too,
He'll think that what he says is true.
3. Went to Google and found this site: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html. You have to go into the search engine on the site to retrieve, though. 3 March 1797
4. I found--I hope--the speech here: http://www.duboislc.org/html/WillieLynch.html. After reading the caveat, though, I think more research is in order...
5. I became a bit flummoxed here ... I thought to use the Wayback machine...but I had to obtain the site for the President of the Czech Republic. But, in my rush to get things done, I completely missed the top bar on the page that allowed one to go to the old site in English, and gazed with wonder at the page the foreign writing. I glanced back over the page after the 30 minutes, and found the speech here: http://old.hrad.cz/president/Havel/speeches/index_uk.html. Oops.
6. I didn't have access to JSTOR archives, but I was led there by Google and here. Setting it up so I can retrieve articles from home...
7. Here. Had found this before when trying to locate books.
8. The Wayback machine. Used that one at work when we were reconstructing our Web site...Always useful...
9. Google images didn't yield anything, but I believe I was on the right track... I only had a couple of minutes left, so I went to number 10.
10. ...which I found--I hope--here...
Posted by ejonese at 01:31 PM
August 29, 2005
Introduction
Hello! I'm Liz Jones. I have lived in Chicago, Nashville, Wilton, Connecticut, and Bloomfield Hills, MI, where I went to high school.
Deciding I didn't want to attend U of M, I headed out to California, where I received my undergraduate degree at Claremont McKenna. At Claremont, I dual-majored in government and history.
After graduating, I moved to the D.C. area. My experience at Claremont persuaded me to persue some sort of job in the government arena. I've held several positions, the last being an assistant editor/web site person/intern coordinator at a small think tank downtown. I received an M.A. in Political Management at GWU.
I have two large Great Pyrenees, who like to destroy the house (but they're very cute!) I also love to run--actually I am pretty obsessive--and am doing my first marathon this October (Marine Corps).
Posted by ejonese at 07:12 PM | Comments (2)