History 4394
Digital History
Fall 2002

Steven Mintz
John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History
Office: 548 Agnes Arnold Hall

Voice: 713-743-3109
E-Mail: smintz@uh.edu

In this experimental seminar, you will not only learn history—you will do history. You will use a wide array of historical sources to create classroom presentations and even a course website.

Through the use of new electronic technologies, we have access to kinds of resources that only professional researchers could use in the past. Each week, we will work with a novel kind of source material: music, maps, historical newspapers, census records, voting returns, speeches, and video footage of historical events.

In the past decade CD-ROMs, the World Wide Web, and other new technologies have challenged historians to rethink the ways that we research, write, present, and teach about the past. In this class, you will test the value of new historical databases, simulations, and research tools, and reflect critically on the promises and pitfalls of new technologies in historical research and teaching. Among other things, you will learn how to:

1. Conduct online research, and evaluate the quality of online information.

2. Make effective technology-enhanced presentations and understand the difference between effective and ineffective uses of technology.

3. Use census records, maps, newspapers, film clips, and other historical sources that are available in electronic format.

4. Use and evaluate a series of pioneering multimedia historical projects.

5. Develop a high-quality, well-researched class website that will include archival sources, images, and other resources.

Assessment and Evaluation

In this class, you are expected to be an active creator of knowledge, not a passive recipient of information. Discussion, group work, and active participation are expected.

This class has no tests. Students will be evaluated throughout the semester based on:

• Participation in classroom discussions and activities;
• Attendance;
• Classroom presentations; and
• Weekly outside-of-class assignments

Calendar

PART I. NEW DIRECTIONS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Week 1: Tuesday, August 27
Research Skills

• Introduction to the Course: What is digital history?
• Locating and evaluating online sources
• UH Library online resources

Assignment for Week 2: Evaluate a Historical Website
Choose from among the following:

1. 1896
http://iberia.vassar.edu/1896/1896home.html

2. Famous American Trials (Evaluate two modules)
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm

3. Women and Social Movements in the United States (Evaluate two modules)
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/datelist.htm

 

Week 2: Tuesday, September 3
Visual Literacy, I

• Photography as history
• Locating and interpreting visual evidence
• Fashion, hairstyle, footware, film, posters, and video as historical sources

Fashion http://www.costumes.org/pages/timelinepages/timeline.htm

http://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/categories/fashion/

http://www.furman.edu/~kgossman/history/directory.htm

http://www.nhmccd.edu/contracts/lrc/kc/decade20.html

http://www.fashion-era.com/

Hairstyles http://www.erasofelegance.com/hairstyles.html

http://www.costumegallery.com/hairstyles.htm

Footware http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blshoe.htm

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/podiatry/historyfootwear.html

http://www.fenice.com/footwear_history.html

Movie Trailers

http://www.gliah.uh.edu/historical_movies/movies1.cfm?dtype=all

Propaganda Posters

http://wopr.stanford.edu/propaganda/

http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/amposter.htm

http://gulib.lausun.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/britpost/britpost.htm

http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/collections/exhibits/posters/mainmenu.html

http://www.state.nh.us/ww2/ http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion_home.html

Video Encyclopedia of the 20th Century
http://www.connectcast.com/VE/

User ID: cougars
PW: cougars

Assignment for Week 3: Interpreting Visual Images

Thorough analyze and interpret five advertisements located from the site:

Ad*Access
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/

 

Week 3: Tuesday, September 10

Visual Literacy, II

Assignment for Week 4: A Film Analysis

Create a historical analysis of a particular film including:

A synopsis; A discussion of the historical context in which it was released and the historical themes it addresses; A trailer and a discussion of the trailer

 

Week 4: Tuesday, September 17
Maps and Historical Geography

• The influence of geography upon history
• The history and interpretation of maps
• Land use

Assignment for Week 5:

Evaluate one of the following two sites on World Trading Centers:

• Mackinac, 1670-1900
http://www.uwec.edu/History/APUSH/Projects/Trade/Mackinac/mackinac.htm

• Gold Coast, 1450-1880
http://www.uwec.edu/History/APUSH/Projects/Trade/Goldcoast/coast.htm

 

Week 5: Tuesday, September 24
Music

• The Blues: From the Delta to the South Side of Chicago
• Texas Musics

Resources:

• African-American Music, Southern U.S. ~ Recordings ~ 1938-1943
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ftvhtml/ftvhome.htm

• Folk Music, Dust Bowl ~ Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin ~ Multiformat ~ 1940-1941
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html

• Folk Music, Southern U.S. ~ John Lomax and Ruby Lomax ~ Multiformat ~ 1939
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html

• Hispanic Music, Rio Grande ~ Juan Bautista Rael ~ Multiformat ~ 1940s
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rghtml/rghome.html

Assignment for Week 6:

Create a presentation that analyzes a historically significant song. Your presentation should include:
The lyrics; the performer or performers; a discussion of the historical context in which the song appeared, an assessment of its popularity, and its historical significance.

 

Week 6: Tuesday, October 1
Historical Newspapers and Political Cartoons

Resources:

• African American Newspapers
• HarpWeek
• The New York Times
• Political Cartoons and Cartoonists
http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/political_cartoons.html
• Political Cartoons of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/uscartoons/GAPECartoons.htm

Assignment for Week 7:

Select an important event between 1851 and 1960 and discuss how it was treated in The New York Times.

 

Week 7: Tuesday, October 8
Roots: Immigration, Family History, and Genealogy

• The history of immigration to the United States
• The vocabulary of immigration history
• The history of the family

Resources:

1860 Manuscript Census for Adams County, Mississippi

1880 Manuscript Census

Freedom’s Bank Records

HeritageQuest

Assignment for Week 8:

Conduct and write up an oral history interview on one of the following subjects:

1. Migration to Houston
2. The Desegregation of Houston
3. The Vietnam War

 

Week 8: Tuesday, October 15
Oral History

Resource:

Life Histories, Federal Writers' Project ~ Manuscripts ~ 1936-1940
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

Assignment for Week 9:

Conduct and write up a second oral history interview on one of the following subjects:

1. Migration to Houston
2. The Desegregation of Houston
3. The Vietnam War

 

Week 9: Tuesday, October 22
Graphing and Mapping Social and Political Phenomenon

Resources:

• The Statistical History of the United States
• The Great American History Machine

Assignment for Week 10:

Write an evaluation of the resources that can be found at:

Current Value of Old Money
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/current/howmuch.html
and explain how they can be useful in a history class.

 

PART II. EVALUATING AND USING MODEL HISTORICAL WEBSITES

Week 10: Tuesday, October 29
Virtual Jamestown
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/

Group projects:

Leadership in Jamestown

You will identify historical ideas about the New World and colonization and formulate ideas about leadership. You will also evaluate candidates for the leadership of Jamestown, debate their merits, and write persuasive arguments.

Jobs in Jamestown:

You will use census data to research occupations of colonial settlers and create graphs to answer questions about labor and economy in Jamestown.

Jamestown's Economy:

You will use photographs of material artifacts to study the economic relationships between Native Americans and colonists.

Jamestown Fort:

You will identify the location of the original Jamestown Fort and identify artifacts from archaeological explorations.

Planning an Escape:

You will study runaway slave advertisements in order to determine the range of factors a slave had to consider before escaping.

Runaway Indentured Servants:

You will use runaway slave advertisements to compare masters' attitudes toward slaves and indentured servants.

Language and Runaway Slave Ads:

You will examine and compare the language masters used to describe runaway slaves and runaway indentures.

State of Affairs Between the Native Americans and the European Settles

You will use online primary resources to examine relations between the Native Americans and the European settlers during the Age of Discovery.

Assignment for Week 10:

Use the materials on the Virginia Runaways portion of this site to write about the following topic:

• Who Got Away? Eighteenth-Century Runaway Slaves:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/runaways/

Select 10 advertisements for runaways and write a report on the information you were able to learn about the fugitives.

 

Week 11: Tuesday, November 5
Slavery

Resources:

• Images of the Slave Trade and Slavery
• The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database
• Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy
• Remembering Slavery
• Film and Slavery

Assignment for Week 12:

The Visual History of Slavery
Analyze five images from The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas
http://gropius.lib.virginia.edu/Slavery/

 

Week 12: Tuesday, November 12
The e-Civil War: Valley of the Shadow

Group projects:

Death and Dying in Two Mid-Nineteenth Century American Communities:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/deathwksht.html

Use the Valley of the Shadow newspaper abstract search page to explore causes of death in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

White Southerners' Defense of Slavery:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/proslaveinst.html

Read transcriptions of articles from two Augusta County, Virginia, newspapers to see how white southerners defended the institution of slavery.

What Happened to Slaves when their Owners Died?
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/slavewillsinst.html

Read slaveowners' wills to see what the death of slaveowners meant to their human property.

Attitudes about Slavery in a Northern Community:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/Northernatt.html

Read transcriptions of articles from two Franklin County, Pennsylvania, newspapers in order to compare the county's Republican and Democratic Parties' positions on slavery.

Occupations in the 1860s:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/jobsinst.html

Examine a list of occupations from 1860 census manuscripts, look up unfamiliar terms in a dictionary, and explore reasons why some occupations are less common today than yesterday.

Unionism versus Secessionism in Augusta County, Virginia:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/jobsinst.html

Analyze newspaper opinion articles from Augusta County, Virginia, during the debate over whether Virginia should secede from the Union.

The Impact of Railroads on Franklin and Augusta Counties:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/rrinstr.html

Read newspaper articles about trains and railroads to examine the effect that this new mode of transportation had on life in two late antebellum counties.

German and Irish immigration in Augusta and Franklin Counties:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/immigrationinstr.html

Examine nineteenth-century newspapers, census manuscripts, and a last will and testament to explore aspects of the Irish and German immigrant communities in the 1850s and 1860s.

The Commemoration of the Gettysburg Battlefield: The Gettysburg Address:
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/~clm3x/gettysburg.html

Analyze multiple primary sources that provide historical context to the Gettysburg Address in order to understand the significance of Lincoln's famous speech.

Assignment for Week 13:

Evaluate the site “Crisis at Fort Sumter”
http://www.tulane.edu/latner/

 

Part III. CREATING A CLASS WEBSITE

Week 13: Tuesday, November 19

Week 14: Tuesday, November 26

THANKSGIVING

Week 15: Tuesday, December 3

 

Model Historical Websites

1896
http://iberia.vassar.edu/1896/1896home.html

Ad*Access
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/

Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy
http://www.ibiblio.org/laslave/

American Life Histories
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

AskArt
http://askart.com/

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas
http://gropius.lib.virginia.edu/Slavery/

American Civil War Letters and Diaries
UH Library resource

Authentic History Center
http://www.authentichistory.com/

Awesome Stories
http://www.awesomestories.com/index2.htm

Bayou Bend
http://www.bayoubend.uh.edu

The Campaign to End Child Labor
http://www.boondocksnet.com/labor/index.html

Colonial Currency and Colonial Coins
http://www.coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/

Crisis at Fort Sumter
http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/

Conner Prairie
http://www.connerprairie.org/historyonline/index.html

Famous American Trials
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ftrials.htm

Flint Sit-Down Strike
http://www.historicalvoices.org/flint/index.php

Folksongs, Hymns and Spirituals of America
http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/usa.html

Franz Mayer
http://www.fm.coe.uh.edu/

Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
http://www.gliah.uh.edu/

Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-born Population of the United States: 1850-1990
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/twps0029.html

Historical Voices
http://www.historicalvoices.org/

History Matters
http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/

A House Divided
http://www.gliah.uh.edu/ahd

Making of America
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/

http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/

Mudcat Café
http://www.mudcat.org/

Peopling North America
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/migrations/Fhome.html

Political Cartoons and Cartoonists
http://www.boondocksnet.com/gallery/political_cartoons.html

Political Cartoons of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
http://www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/uscartoons/GAPECartoons.htm

Popular Songs in American History
http://www.contemplator.com/america/index.html

Salem Witch Trials
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/salem/test/

Songs of World War II
http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/mshws.htm

Studs Turkel
http://www.studsterkel.org/

Suffragists Oral History Project
http://library.berkeley.edu/BANC/ROHO/ohonline/suffragists.html

U.S. History Census Data Browser
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/

Untold Stories
http://www.coe.uh.edu/untold_stories/

Valley of the Shadow Projects
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/teaching/vclassroom/vclasscontents.html

Virginia Runaways
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/subjects/runaways/

Virtual Jamestown in the Classroom
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/vcdh/jamestown/tscreators.html

Women and Social Movements in the United States
http://womhist.binghamton.edu/datelist.htm

World Trading Centers
Mackinac, 1670-1900
http://www.uwec.edu/History/APUSH/Projects/Trade/Mackinac/mackinac.htm

Gold Coast, 1450-1880
http://www.uwec.edu/History/APUSH/Projects/Trade/Goldcoast/coast.htm

World War II Timeline
http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html

 Steven Mintz     Copyright 2004