In the Fall of 2008 I studied abroad in Ireland for four months. Living in a new city full of history, I wanted to see everything historical I could find. However, as you could probably guess I was a broke college kid and I had a tough time finding free things to see and do. I wish I had a better understanding of what I could have seen that was historical, fun and better yet FREE!
Living in Washington DC now, I feel somewhat the same as I did in Ireland. There is so much history around me and I want someone to guide me to the places where I can learn DC history on a limited budget. For my digital history project, I plan to help those like people like myself who want to explore DC and see what historical sites and monuments the city has to offer. Thus, I will write a blog, via WordPress, with the best places to go and things to see relating to history in DC. Since this is a history minded site, each blog post about each site will have background historical information on each of the free sites that will be profiled. I want people to explore their city while wanting to learn the history behind it.
How will I decide which sites or monuments will be profiled on the blog? That’s easy, I plan on visiting each site myself to give people a poor college student’s historical perspective. I want people to get a better understand of what they will see and learn if they choose to heed the advice of a fellow penny pincher like myself. In addition to the blog posts about each free historic site or monument, I will also be taking pictures. This will allow for the visual people out there to get a better sense of what they will see if they want to see it. Therefore, I will create a Flickr profile where I can display all of the photos that I will take. I will include a link in the blog posts to Flickr where people can get an idea of what they will see. I do plan on having a couple teaser photos on the blog page itself though.
What is great about using WordPress and Flickr to help people to decide what to do in a new city and to teach them some history that they might have never known is that it creates a forum for historical discussion. Whether commenting on a blog post or on a photo, crating a dialogue about history is one of the goals of this project. In the digital age in which we live today it is much easier to get history across to many people via the internet, and that is what I am doing here. I hope to inspire people to get out, see their city, and most importantly learn and talk about history!
Great proposal. A blog with first person reviews and tips on DC’s historic sites sounds like a great plan. So you have a clear audience, a practical plan, and goals that I think fit what you plan to do. In short, great work! Now I think the task is to 1) get the blog up soon and 2) come up with a schedule/calendar for what you want to get done on this. So, decide on how many posts you want to get done this semester and start cracking on that.