macdonald

As I wrote previously in my blog for my semester project I am interested in looking at why there is no national monument for John Adams. This web review was extremely helpful, as now I know what I would like to do for my semester project. The first thing I noticed when conducting my web review is the surprising lack of information about a memorial to John Adams. There is a good amount of information on the proposed memorial written between the summer of 2001 and the end of 2002. However, after 2002 there is virtually no information on the memorial. This makes it extremely difficult to tell what is going on with the memorial. So, part of my website will be dedicated to updating the current state of the Adams Family Memorial.

I have divided this web review into two sections. First, I will comment on some of the websites whose purpose is to provide historical information on John Adams. The second section will discuss websites containing information on the Adams Memorial and also websites on other planned memorials.

Being America’s first political dynasty there are many webpages devoted to the Adams family. The White House has online biographies of every American president. However, the White House’s website on John Adams does not have any information about a national memorial to him and his family. The White House’s biography of John Adams is also very brief and contains one portrait of Adams and no external links. The White House presidential biographies are anything but critical of their subjects. They also lack footnotes and references.

Wikipedia has information on the MLK Jr. Memorial and the Victims of Communism Memorial, yet it surprisingly it also does not have any information on an Adams Memorial. Despite this wikipedia provides an excellent model for creating a brief online biography of John Adams. Unlike the White House website, Wikipedia has a few images of Adams as well as links to sources and other sites.

The National Parks Service like the White House has very little information on John Adams. Of course the National Parks Service information on John Adams is mostly has a website for the Adams National Historic Park located in Quincy, Massachusetts. However, this site concentrates on visiting the Adams National Historic Park and gives very little history about the Adams family. I was able to find a pdf page of a brochure to the Adams National Historic Park, which contained a lot of information about the historic site. Since it was in pdf format it was difficult to maneuver through.

C-SPAN’s The American Presidents: Life Portraits website provides numerous video links on John Adams. The website contains video links to historians such as Joseph Ellis and David McCullough discussing John Adams. The website also has a list of facts about John Adams. It also has links to his inaugural address and a bibliography. However, the “Key Events in Administration” link is very disappointing only containing sentence for both the XYZ affair and Adams’ appointment of midnight judges.

Yale University’s Avalon Project has numerous documents written by John Adams during his presidency. The website divides the papers by: inaugural address, annual messages, messages to Congress, and proclamations. The website does not; however, have any of Adams’ papers or letters outside of his presidency and does not contain any letters between John and Abigail. Though there are letters from Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson to John Adams.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has an excellent webpage on the Adams family. The focus of the webpage is on the Adams family manuscript collection; however, it contains much more than that. It has a detailed family timeline with scattered images from 1735 to 1889. On of the things I really liked about this timeline is that it scrolls down the webpage and the comments are rather brief for each date. So you do not need to open a new window or a pdf file to view the timeline. The website also provides rather short biographies of eight members of the Adams family. One of the best features of the website is its selected manuscripts link, which contains six original digitized documents. One example is Abigail Adams’ famous letter to John Adams reminding him to “remember the ladies”. The webpage provides a transcription of the letter and also the digitized original letter, which you can click to enlarge for reading. Of course the purpose of the website is the Adams family manuscript collection. So the website has extremely informative links on using the microfilm manuscript collection. Finally, this website has a helpful page devoted to links to other professional websites on the Adams family.

In terms of the websites devoted to provide historical information on John Adams many audiences are represented. Wikipedia, the White House website, and the National Parks Service provide information specifically targeted for the public. These websites are designed to provide basic information on the president. The National Parks Service’s websites is intended to aid visitors and teachers by providing information on the Adams National Historic sites. C-SPAN’s website targets the public, but also buffs or historians, who might want to watch the fifty-eight minute video of Joseph Ellis discussing Adams. The Massachusetts Historical Society’s webpage is for the public as well, but also is tailored for historians interested in conducting research on the Adams family. Yale University’s Avalon Project is also designed to aid historians. The Mass Historical Society and the Avalon Project are specifically intended to increase access to primary documents.

Through the web review I discovered that the House of Representatives and the Senate both passed legislation allowing the Adams Memorial Foundation to raise private funds for construction of a monument to the Adams family in Washington, DC. The bill was then signed by President Bush in October 2001. Hoever, this is where the web trail ends. Is the Memorial still in planning and fund raising? If so, what is happening? Or did the plan fall through? Last semester I was searching through Google for information on the Adams Memorial and found the Adams Memorial Foundation’s website. In conducting this web review I spent about an hour on Google trying to find the webpage again, yet I was unable to find it. From my previous visit to the webpage, I remember the links did not work and all you were able to do was view the main page. I will continue to try and find the webpage again.

Right now two major memorials being planned for Washington, DC are the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial and the Victims of Communism Memorial. Both have websites devoted to promoting awareness about the memorials and their subjects and also for fundraising. The MLK Memorial foundation website is easy to use while at the same time it is very comprehensive. It provides a history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and also a history of the proposed memorial. It also has information and links for making donations, numerous news links, and the foundation (there are numerous other links as well). The Victims of Communism Memorial has similar features to the MLK Jr. Memorial: history of communism page, news, contribution page, and an overview of the memorial. Both memorials need more private funding to reach their goals, thus fundraising is a major objective. Therefore, the websites are very much devoted to getting people to donate. They are both highly professional in design and appearance, and contain a great deal of information. Obviously these websites are run by their respective organizations and a tremendous amount of effort continually goes into keeping them running. However, they are great examples of how to model a website about a proposed memorial by.

It is clear that people are opposed to the Adams memorial for two main reasons. Either they oppose to the memorial on historical and or political grounds. Or they believe the National Mall should be preserved and so there should be limited construction if any on the National Mall. Save the Mall is an organization for the preservation of the National Mall in its current state. Their mission statement states they are against any encroachment towards “the Mall’s historical and cultural integrity”. The website provides news to its members and concerned parties. The organization is not just critical of construction on the Mall, but also security measures and commercial events on the Mall. The website only mentions the Adams monument in a few places, as possibly being considered for a spot on the National Mall. However, it too lacks detail on the Adams Memorial.

Most of the online sources about the Adams Memorial are from news organizations, such as CNN (pro-Adams memorial by Bill Press) and newspapers. An interesting webpage on the proposed Adams Memorial is on Common-Place.org. On this webpage Jeffery Palsey is highly critical of the Federalists in general and John Adams for his use of the Alien and Sedition Acts. The webpage has a great link to the actual Adams Memorial Legislation in pdf format. Palsey is outraged that liberals, such as Ted Kennedy, would support a monument to John Adams. He sarcastically compares our conservatively controlled nation to that of the conservative rule of the Federalists to conclude that it makes sense that now is the time to honor someone such as Adams. However, those against the Adams monument focus only on the negative aspects of his political career, such as the Alien and Sedition Acts. They overlook everything else Adams accomplished.

So there is not much web material on the Adams Family Memorial. The websites that are out there have very limited information on the memorial. Those online sources that do have information on the Adams Family Memorial tend to be news articles. The professional websites for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the Victims of Communism Memorial provide excellent examples of how to design a website dedicated to fundraising for and providing information about a proposed national memorial. However, they do provide some great ideas about what to include on a possible website, such as history of the subject, history of the memorial, external links, and references to name a few.

The main method I used in conducting the web review was to search in Google. I started off with general searches for John Adams and then John Adams Memorial. I tried numerous search terms to try and find the webpage for the Adams Memorial Foundation and looked through the first 100 hits in Google for each, but to no avail. In an attempt to find individual websites about memorials I searched for recently completed memorials and ones in planning. There are not as many websites devoted to planned memorials than websites about current memorials. I would skim through each website and if it seemed relevant or interesting I would spend more time searching through it. I found links to other websites to be tremendously helpful. As well as finding different search terms to look for, especially when trying to find information on the Adams Memorial Foundation.

Perhaps I am just now noticing this or maybe it is new.  Anyway, google now has a new link right under the search field which reads, “New! Google Desktop: Personalized info anywhere on your desktop.”  I haven’t had time to play around with it, but I wanted to point it out for anyone like myself just noticing it.  I am not really sure what it does, but I figure it might fit in with our discussion last week of piling vs. filing on desktops.  

This weeks chapter in Digital History was extremely helpful.  It gave me a better understanding of the basic technical aspects of the web.  While it is true that to use the web you really do not have to know anything about how websites are created.  After reading this chapter, I would think that being knowledgeable about how websites are created and why would better enable a user to get more out of a website.

I really enjoyed the chapters discussion of openness in regards to knowledge within the digital history community.  Cohen and Rosenzweig suggest that after you have down your web review that you contact the creators of the sites you thought were the best.  It reminded me of our frequent discussions in Public History about contacting similar historic house museums to gather information and advice.  It is just good to see that people would be willing to help others out.

It was also interesting to learn that three main multimedia products (Real Media, Windows Media, and QuickTime) all have different advantages for creators and also for users.  And that both the needs of creator and audience must be considered when thinking about a project.  This was totally new to me.  I was aware of the various devices and that each is widely used, but I was not really aware of why a website would use one over the others.  Cohen and Rosenzweig point out that Dan Arthurs of StreamingCulture, recommends historians use Windows Media, because it most people have it pre-installed on their computer.  While I can understand the availability aspect of this, which I will go into a little more detail below, I cringe at the thought of choosing Windows Media because Microsoft already installed it on your computer.  Especially when it seems that QuickTime may provide overall better quality to the viewer.  Most websites have a link to a free download of any necessary programs anyway.

What I liked most about the discussion of video and multimedia was the authors reminder to think about the audience.  They noted that there are still tens of millions of internet users who use dial up service, which greatly hinders their ability to download files quickly.  It is so easy to think of how the computer has become a staple in many American homes that one can quickly over look the fact that many Americans still cannot afford a computer, let alone an expensive computer or monthly internet fees.  So I think it is really important designers remember to think about all internet users, which is why perhaps it maybe worth considering Windows Media Conversely.  However, what if this means possibly sacrificing the quality of your product?  What is more important the quality or the accessibility of the product?

Okay, for my topic I am thinking of either creating a webpage on John Adams and how there is no national monument for him, let alone a statue in Washington, DC. There was a push for a monument for Adams (including Abigail and John Quincy) in 2001, but from what I have been able to find online that seems to have failed. So, for this project I would create a website which discusses previous attempts to have an Adams monument, as well as the difficult process of getting a monument on the Mall, and also a bio of John Adams. Those are just a few thoughts to start.

So here is a picture of the Jefferson Memorial, which I took over the weekend. I played with the contrast and brightness, as well as sharpened the waves some. I also edited out a tree branch in the top right corner and then colored it to match the rest of the sky. Obviously, Washington and Jefferson are two of the four presidents to have monuments on the National Mall.

Donald Owen Case’s article reminded me of my current job at a law office. At my current job we scan numerous documents and place them on our network. Also when we close a client’s file we scan pretty much everything from the file onto the network. While it is easy to find current client information on our network; it can be difficult to locate closed files on the network. This is mainly due to the fact that my boss is the person who decides the naming criteria. The problem is my boss tends to be highly irregular in file names and locations. While she does tend to save by document form, we have files back to the mid 1990’s and she has changed how she saves things numerous times. So it can be rather difficult to find files from lets say five years ago. I took me about a half hour to find one file about two weeks ago. Also, I think this issue is very much related to the issue of searching databases we discussed a few weeks ago.

I really do not have any questions for this week. Rather I have a few examples and thoughts on the readings from my experience in the wonderful world of work.