Valentine's Day

The history of Valentine’s Day is varied and different stories surround this famous holiday. Though there were countless early Christian martyrs known as “Valentine,” one story concerning the history of the holiday holds that the Valentines honored are the Valentine of Rome and the Valentine of Terni. Both martyrs met their demise during the 3rd and 2nd centuries, respectively (Wikipedia).
Another version of the story claims that Valentine was a priest who was killed as a result of his actions, either performing marriages illegally or helping Christians escape Roman persecution (History.com) A common story holds that Valentine’s Day originated in February as a response to the coinciding pagan holiday in mid-February, known as the Lupercalia festival. Just as Christmas exists in December to offset the corresponding pagan holiday, some believe “the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to ‘christianize’ celebrations of [Lupercalia] (The History of Valentine's Day).
Over the years, Valentine’s Day became a day to celebrate love and romance. This link between February 14th and love did not fully develop until the Rennaissance, when Romantic art and poetry set the stage for the holiday to follow (www.holidays.net). The 19th century saw the development of sending actually valentines. A young girl named Esther Howland is credited with first sending valentines in the United States, after receiving a valentine (in the paper form we know them today) from a friend overseas. “The earliest [valentine] in America was sent to Miss Howland in 1849…it had an elaborate border of fine lace paper and was decorated with green paper…” (First American Valentine). Her success in the Valentine card industry resulted int the devopment of the The New England Valentine Companty in the 1870s (www.jsbeads.com). Today, Valentine's Day has been labeled a "Hallmark Holiday," with a focus on greeting cards, flowers, chocolates, love, and romance.
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I was quite surprised at how difficult I found this assignment to be. There was plenty of information out on the internet concerning Valentine's Day, though it all gave conflicting stories. These various websites had some entirely different histories of the day, whether it was the multiple Christian martyrs or a pagan holiday. After surfing through a variety of websites, I found all sorts of varying time frames in which the "love and romance" essence of Valentine's Day came to the forefront.
Another problem I tended to encounter involved websites borrowing from one another. The first Valentines Day sites I visited had clearly taken their information from Wikipedia (usually without even referencing that fact), and I felt the need to skip over these pages and try to locate some new versions of the story. One technique I found useful involved Googling names or titles I found in these histories to see what arose. When I searched the name "Esther Howland" (a name I found tucked away in one website's history) a slew of websites concerning the early American origins of Valentines Day came back in the search. These were sites that I had not originally encountered on my original history search. This assignment exemplified that vast information sits out on the web, though emphasizes the fact that it can conflict and a consistent story can be difficult to locate.

A crowd gathers outside the New York Stock Exchange just after the devastating crash of late October 1929. Stocks plummeted, causing financial panic and further crashing of the system. This catastrophic event led to the worst depression ever faced by the American population. By the early 1930s, one quarter of the workforce was umemployed, and just as many were homeless. Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division).

The stock market crash and subsequent depression left many Americans homeless. This mid-1930s picture depicts an 18 year-old mother from Oklahoma, now homeless and penniless. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library & Museum.

"Hoovervilles" or shanty towns that appeared across the country amidst the Great Depression made for some disheartening photographs. This particular 1930s photo shows a man in one such town in Circleville, Ohio. The nickname "Hooverville" intended to mock the U.S. President in office at the outset of the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover, and his lacking efforts in restoring order and economic relief. Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division).

The inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought new hope--and a New Deal--to the American people. Amidst the Great Depression, the hopeful FDR presented his New Deal policies and government programs as a way to pull Americans out of the economic depression. Theodor Horydczak took this picture at FDR's first inaugural on March 4, 1933 in Washington, D.C. Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Division), Theodor Horydczak Collection.

As a part of Roosevelt's New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) provided work for America's young men. It sent them to help improve parks and forests, and quickly became one of the most popular New Deal programs. Here one such worker stands in the CCC's Jackson Camp (517). National Archives and Record Adminstration .

Website Evaluation: The Library of Congress

As one might expect, the United States Government’s Library of Congress website contains a vast wealth of information. The site exists as a means to advertise current exhibits at the Library of Congress, keep the public posted on new findings and additions to the collection, offers resources for teachers, and perhaps most importantly gives the public access to the main catalogue. From the site’s main page, various links bring visitors to an assortment of other pages. The Library of Congress web page has some wonderful content and possesses top rate scholarship, though lacks consistency and can be somewhat overwhelming to the average web browser.

When first arriving to the Library of Congress home page, the viewer is confronted with a constantly changing banner advertising the Library’s exhibitions and pages focusing on particular topics (i.e. Veterans’ history, Thomas Jefferson). The page divides into roughly three columns, with a listing of general resources and information on the far left hand column. Other columns include “Library Highlights,” which brings attention to recent additions or developments (African American History Month, headline news, etc.), a section on Popular Topics and Collections, News From the Library, and the Library at Work. Links at the very top of the page bring visitors to some frequently requested spots: Ask a Librarian, Digital Collections, and Library Catalogs. As is standard with many large history websites, and websites in general, a search engine box resides in the upper right hand corner of the page.

The creators of Library of Congress website have a huge responsibility. The largest library in the world requires an extravagant and full website. It appears that almost anything a visitor could want can be found on the site, whether by scrolling through the various pages or using the search engine. It provides resources (easily broken down into links) for kids and families, librarians, publishers, researchers, teachers, and regular visitors---the site covers all its potential web browsers.

While the site provides a vast assortment of information, that also proves to its major downfall. There is so much information collected on one page it’s difficult to know where to start. The Popular Topics & Collections link on the main page does prove useful, providing links to commonly requested pages like the National Book Festival and the Civil War. In order to see how usable the website actually was, I conducted a quick search. I wanted to know the hours of the Main Reading Room—a very simple question, and probably a frequently asked one. It took me quite a few minutes to navigate through all of the pages until I found one page tucked away three links deep that listed the hours.

Very much like the website for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Library of Congress has a continually flashing banner that rotates through a variety of topics: upcoming exhibitions, frequently searched topics, and the like. While it is supposed to function as a navigation tool, it ends up being somewhat distracting. As Paula Petrik explains in Top Ten Mistakes in Academic Web Design on George Mason’s Center for History and New Media, “any kind of motion attracts the human eye. Animations…divert the viewer’s attention away from the website’s content.” Though this site uses the banner as a navigational tool, which Petrik notes is an exception to the rule, it has a tendency to be distracting.

The very frustrating aspect of the Library of Congress website involves the web pages linked from its main page. While these pages still exist within the Library of Congress, they do not keep to the same format as the main page. For instance clicking on the news releases, such as James Forman Papers Donated to the Library will bring up a different page format than clicking on the Support the Library page, the Online Catalog, or the Today in History page. In trying to keep a massive website such as this usable, consistency should be vital.

The Library of Congress is attempting to incorporate new media amidst their massive website. They have an enormous collection of webcasts, such as Langston Hughes and His Poetry Webcast, which require only free media and speakers to play on a computer. In addition to webcasts, the Library also links to Library of Congress Photos on Flickr and has even joined the blogging community with the Library of Congress Blog ». Such uses of new media might not be expected from this grand government entity, but they are making all the efforts to keep up with history in the digital age.

Like other history websites, the Library of Congress website uses certain tactics to keep visitors returning on a regular basis. Just like The History Channel, the Library offers a Today in History section, as well as a Did You Know? link. Along with the changing exhibitions and frequently updated information, the Library of Congress seeks to keep visitors coming to the site consistently.

The Library of Congress web page is a fine example of a history website. The creators had a grand task before them, and they could really only show the tip of the iceberg. The physical Library of Congress has so much to offer, it would be an impossible task to get even a decent percentage on the web. The site offers resources for almost anyone—kids and families to publishers to regular visitors, and allows access to their catalogs online. Various pages of the website lack consistency, however, and formatting is vital for an elaborate website such as this. The Library of Congress makes attempts to stay up with new web technology, as the Library of Congress Blog » attests. Whether tourists to Washington D.C. hoping to see some exhibitions, or researchers in need of the catalog, the Library of Congress website provides a wealth of information for the people who seek it.

Four Websites: Four Approaches to Digital History

The internet has a vast assortment of what could be labeled “history” websites, some intended for public use, others under strict control (sites such as JSTOR require hefty fees for users to gain access). Four such history websites, The Valley of the Shadow, The History Channel, Do History, and The National Museum of American History all represent an assortment of approaches to conducting digital history. An essay by Daniel J. Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, “Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web” provides useful insight into the range of categories or titles that apply to history websites.

The Valley of the Shadow site offers free access to a vast assortment of primary source documents concerning two particular communities (one north and one south) during the years leading up to the Civil War, the years of actual conflict, and the time of Reconstruction. Now sponsored through the Virginia Center for Digital History, this site began as a result of one man’s interest and subsequent book project based on these particular documents. It has now transformed into a remarkably thorough archive, with transcribed and somewhat interpreted primary sources. It revolves purely around these primary sources, and thus is probably only accessed by web browsers in search of very specific information. Unless someone has an overwhelming interest in reading letters, newspapers, or official records of the Civil War Era, the site has an academic purpose.

The Do History website’s title is a very fitting one. Cohen and Rosenzweig would most likely place this website in the “Teaching and Learning” category for history websites. In a very user-friendly and encouraging format, Do History is an excellent source for teaching people (and students) how to do history. Using a very specific text, in this case Martha Ballard’s diary, the site offers links and lessons about the practice of history itself. The hope of the site is “that many people will be inspired by Martha Ballard’s story to do original research on other ‘ordinary’ people from the past” (Do History, “About this Site”). Visitors to the site have the chance to browse through Martha Ballard’s diary, looking at her day to day entries. Do History offers an interactive approach to history, and rather than just giving information about a historical topic, it actually encourages visitors to go and conduct their own historical investigations.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History site takes yet another approach to presenting history on the web. This site, unlike the archive Valley of the Shadow, changes frequently. It encourages visitors to keep returning to the site to check for new information. For museums and historic sites, one of the most exciting aspects of the internet is its capacity to hold online exhibitions. Cohen and Rosenzweig explain, “online museum exhibits…transcend the barriers of time (most exhibits are temporary installations), distance (museum visitors must be area residents or tourists), and space (gallery space is a scarce resource) that have often frustrated museum curators” (Digital History). The National Museum of American History site has become of particular importance as of late due to the massive museum renovation currently underway. While many exhibits have been temporarily housed at the National Air and Space Museum, this museum now lives on the web until summer 2008 (when the physical museum reopens). To keep visitors returning to the site, it offers a listing of museum news and events, however its detailed online exhibits and collections pages are most likely the main destination of browsers.

The History Channel website takes a strikingly different approach to history in comparison with the previously noted websites. This history site works in conjunction with The History Channel, and means to complement the network. The History Channel is one such site that could easily become a part of a person’s day to day web-browsing. It is continually updated with new information, especially the daily television schedule and upcoming specials or documentaries. Unlike any of the other sites, The History Channel offers video for viewers. The site provides a daily poll, popular forums for people to discuss topics, newsletters, and entertaining ever-changing pieces of history like “What Happened on Your Birthday” and “This Day in History.” It probably attracts an audience of amateur historians and general history buffs. One of the most unique aspects of the site is the elaborate History Channel shop—television viewers can quickly hop on the internet and purchase their favorite show. The History Channel’s approach gives history a continually “new” feel. With the site so frequently updated and the vast online community that follows the page, it lacks the consistent, perhaps dry feeling that unfortunately plagues archival websites.

All of the four websites take vastly different approaches to history on the internet. Valley of the Shadow is one of many archival history websites, offering the public access to an assortment of primary sources. Do History is an excellent resource for teachers, and one that encourages its viewers to tackle history for themselves, teaching them how to use sites like Valley of the Shadow. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History takes yet another approach, by providing a number of online exhibits and access to collections. While the actual physical museum undergoes renovation, this site has to function in lieu of the museum. A site unlike the rest, The History Channel gives history on the web a new and ever-changing feel, setting it apart from the other sites examined in this entry. These are just a few sites that exemplify the various approaches to history found on the internet.

Blog Review: Rantings of a Civil War Historian

http://civilwarcavalry.com/

Eric Wittenberg’s blog, Rantings of a Civil War Historian: The Worldview of a Civil War Historian, Publisher, and Practicing Lawyer, provides an educational, insightful, and frequently humorous look at the vibrant world of Civil War history. Thousands of books have been written about the American Civil War, and for many in this country, the war never actually ended.

The writer of the blog, Eric Wittenberg, is a practicing lawyer in Ohio who has devoted much of his free time to studying the Civil War. To date, he has written fourteen books on the subject, particularly focusing on the cavalry. While the cavalry appeared to be his reason for starting the blog back in September of 2005, it has grown to encompass a wide variety of subjects. He occasionally writes posts of forgotten and intriguing cavalrymen, such as the January 16, 2008 post concerning the eccentric Colonel Sir Percy Wyndham. Some of his most hilarious posts come in response to “neo-Confederate” postings on other blogs (“neo-Confederates” being modern-day supporters of the Confederate cause, often adhering to the “Lost Cause” mythology, who fail to recognize that the Civil War ended more than a few years ago). Wittenberg’s posts vary day by day, however, and include a vast assortment of topics from the historical world. His January 10, 2008 post involved a plea to the governor of Ohio (his home state) to emulate Michigan in their acknowledgement of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, explaining to Governor Ted Strickland that “given the fact that Ohio’s contributions to the Civil War dwarf those of Michigan…isn’t it time for Ohio to do something to honor this state’s contributions to the war?”

Wittenberg updates this blog almost daily, and his humorous yet extremely knowledgeable perspective on the subject matter make it an entertaining read. He clearly is quite the blog-reader himself, and links over twenty other blogs from his own site. The blog also includes a list of other sites of interest, ranging from the expected sites on the Civil War, to those on the American Revolution, and even a site to IPod accessories and Wittenberg’s own law firm.
The blog is very clear and easy to follow, and offers a wealth of Civil War history. The author posts pictures when appropriate, and frequently links to postings on other blogs if he sees fit. Rantings of a Civil War Historian seems to have quite the readership, as Wittenberg posted on December 31, 2007, “we had 265 posts and 1,737 comments this year, meaning that 2007 was a productive year ‘round these parts. Thanks to all who make this site part of your daily ritual.” The blog appears to target well-informed Civil War buffs, as many post insightful comments and can go head-to-head with Wittenberg in a debate.

This is a well-written, informative, and entertaining blog to follow. Wittenberg provides a vast assortment of post topics, and updates at least on a weekly basis (but often more frequently). The site is thorough and well-organized, and definitely worth perusing for anyone interested in Civil War scholarship.