Experiences of a History Detective

I’ve recently had the delightful opportunity to play history detective. One of my projects this summer at the Oil Museum of Canada involved investigating the identity of the man who struck Canada’s first oil gusher on January 16th, 1862. Secondary sources over the last sixty years have generally cited Hugh Nixon Shaw; however, recent scholarship has suggested that it was a man named John Shaw. I had the chance to investigate a question that will be extremely relevant in two years, when the Oil Museum of Canada celebrates the 150th anniversary of Canada’s first oil gushers, accompanied by special events and an interpretive focus on the oil men who brought in over thirty gushers in 1862.

Sometimes, the research is extremely satisfying, and you stumble across a tidbit you couldn’t have imagined existed; other times, a source that you’re positive will reveal something imperative is a near bust. Here are two examples from my work that demonstrate these principles of historic investigations.

I’ve been working with a lot of 1860s newspapers that were reporting on the oil region. While scanning through microfilmed pages of the Sarnia Observer of 1866, I happened to pause on May 11th’s issue, and the name “John Shaw” jumped out at me. As I proceeded to read the article, it was a piece reporting that “Mr. John Shaw, who suddenly found himself famous one day early in 1862, is about to give the old spot another good ‘try’ over again.” Pure dumb luck, and I’d found a gem; an article I hadn’t seen referenced in any secondary material that strongly suggested John Shaw had brought in the gusher (especially when one takes into consideration the fact that Hugh Nixon Shaw died of noxious fumes in an oil well in 1863).

Now, the flip side of pure dumb luck is the source you’re expecting will be your Holy Grail, and turns out to be disappointing. I’d found some vague references to the fact that Hugh Nixon Shaw kept a journal between 1861 and 1863, but no historians discussed the journal’s contents in detail. Upon discovering the Archives of Ontario had a copy, I arranged a bus trip to Toronto, and spent hours on various incarnations of public transit to get to York University. When I got to archives and settled down with the microfilm, I was disappointed to discover that the handwriting was nearly illegible, the machine’s light/focus knobs could offer little assistance, and the journal was incomplete (entire months missing). I’d imagined that the journal would prove my case one way or another: either he brags about the gusher, so he brought it in; or there is no mention of the gusher whatsoever in his January 1862 entries, meaning that he most likely didn’t bring it in (the increase in oil production should show up in his business tallies.) Unfortunately, there were no January 1862 entries, or entries for several months before or after January. While the source was interesting, it was inconclusive for my research.

With historic investigations, prepare to be happily surprised and crushingly disappointed, but always eager to keep looking for the next source that will help make your case!

Oil Field Tour With Charlie Fairbank, Fourth-Generation Oil Producer in Oil Springs

Tuesday, July 6th, I had the pleasure of accompanying Charlie Fairbank and his eighteen-year-old son, Charles, for a private tour of his oil land. Charlie Fairbank’s oil fields in Oil Springs are an amazing experience, because the Fairbanks have been producing oil in Oil Springs for almost 150 years (they are celebrating their 150th anniversary in 2011). His great-great-grandfather, J.H. Fairbank, came to Oil Springs during its 1860s boom, and introduced the jerker-line technology that facilitated oil production and would be widely emulated by his peers. Each succeeding generation of Fairbank men has continued to produce oil around Oil Springs, gradually accumulating additional land.

What makes Charlie’s field so amazing is that he continues to produce oil using nineteenth-century technologies. The jerker-lines creak and groan, and the smell of oil permeates the field. A lot of the old wooden structures remain standing, and Charlie acknowledges them with casual, familiar stories. I was surprised to see that portions of Charlie’s land which are not currently useful for producing oil have been converted to crop land, growing beans and alfalfa.

One aspect of the tour I found personally delightful was the herds of sheep that roam the fields. The sheep help to take care of the grass and the weeds in the area. There are llamas that accompany the herds of sheep! Apparently the llamas offer natural production against coyotes. I had the pleasure of spotting three llamas, Ron, Sam and George.

Another aspect of Charlie’s tour that surprised me was his interest in the natural plant life. Not only could he describe the technological aspects of oil production, but he also had a genuine concern and interest in the native plant life, and certain species that were becoming threatened.

A tour high-light was when we trotted past the east gum beds, where the 1860s oil boom really got going when J.M. Williams opened surface wells. This portion of Charlie’s land is situated a fair distance from the Oil Museum of Canada, but Charlie is currently brainstorming ideas about how to attract visitors to the east gum beds, and enhance their interpretive potential. They have played a significant part in the history of oil production in the area, and Charlie would like to see museum visitors have a chance to experience and learn more about them.

It was an excellent opportunity to get an inside perspective not only on the oil industry, but also about the man whose family has been so vital to the history of oil heritage in Lambton County.

ACO's 37th Annual Geranium Heritage House Tour

Earlier this June, I had the privilege of volunteering with the ACO's 37th Annual Geranium Heritage House Tour. The tour focuses on one of London's most beautiful neighbourhoods, and explores historic houses on Ridout, Talbot, John, Albert and Kent. I had the opportunity to assist with a portion of the guided tour at 601 Talbot Street, a lovely Ontario Cottage-style home that was built in 1875 and has a variety of attractive Gothic Revival features.

I was curious to see what age groups and genders would choose to take part in the tour. For the most part, I would put visitors over the age of 45, and generally female. Many chose to take the tour in groups of three or four, although there were also solo visitors. I would estimate that over 100 individuals visited 601 Talbot Street between three and five o'clock that afternoon, and only two small groups were young people (approximately 20-30 years old).

I wonder why more teens or young adults are not interested in participating in this type of event. I told a variety of my friends that I would be volunteering for the tour and they should check it out; a pair of them even live in a condo at 500 Talbot Street, so they wouldn't have had to go very far! Unfortunately, the interest wasn't there. I believe the admission fee was a deterent for many; the tour cost $20.00, which may seem steep to some, for a tour of older homes. I still found it surprising that young people aren't interested in learning more about one of London's nicest neighbourhoods. The Geranium Heritage House Tour has been active for thirty-seven years, and I noticed advertisements in local papers leading up to the event, so I don't believe that it's an issue of "nobody heard about it."

Hopefully, great events such as the Geranium Heritage House Tour can find a way to attract a new, younger, and more diverse audience. Especially for individuals who have grown up in London, they could only benefit from learning the history of some of London's most beautiful houses.

Fun With Google SketchUp!

Playing around with Google SketchUp is much easier than I'd thought it would be! Looking at the program is pretty intimidating, especially for those of us with limited experience. However, with a bit of tinkering and the patience to follow some tutorials, it's pretty great to see how much you can get done. Google's Video Tutorials are a great place to start, and they are arranged by expertise (so beginners can stick to the easy stuff, and advance through more difficult tutorials as they improve). Part 4 of these tutorials leads you through the steps to create a simple chair:

I was surprised at how a bit of patience with the tutorials allowed me to fairly easily come up with this chair.

I decided to try something a bit tricker, and ran into some problems:

It's a bit hard to see from this screen shot, but as I tried to wrap my name around that cylinder, I had problems effectively grouping the letters into components. I effectively dragged each letter onto the cylinder individually, and as is evident by the picture, they are not evenly spaced out, properly aligned, or protruding from the cynlinder at the right depths. It was still a learning experience to go through the effort though!

Wanting to incorporate a 3D image into the posters I am creating to accompany my LilyPad Arduino Interactive Exhibit project, I opted to try the 3D letters again. This time I decided to put them onto a rectangle instead of a cylinder to facilitate the process. Since my project is military themed, I went with "WWII" as my letters, and was pleased at the results:

Google SketchUp is less frustrating and a lot more fun than I would have guessed! As mentioned above, the tutorials are an excellent source. There are tutorials not only on the official Google site, but also littered throughout the Internet.

Vector Representations and Coffee Mugs: The Value of Perseverance

Eureka !

During Wednesday's Interactive Exhibit Design (February 24th, 2010) class, Bill asked us to work through one of 10 of the Best Inkscape Tutorials. We are learning about Vector Representations, which are a really fabulous way to create images: instead of using pixels, vector representation identifies specific points and parameters to make much sharper images. I'd worked through the tutorials before class and felt fairly confident as I began Peter Anglea's "Creating a Coffe Cup with Inkscape" (an ode to my favourite beverage).

I was absolutely stumped by the Bezier curve. I'd played around with Bezier curves with Mark Hoefer's demo, but didn't really understand the concept. I got frustrated and couldn't figure out how to make the curves and points settle in the spots I needed them to. I finished Wednesday's class with an image that was about half-way through the tutorial, and the Bezier curves forming my coffee mug were unfortunately shaped. Instead of using the Bezier tool to form the entire shape, I was creating small curves and then copying and rotating them to form the mug. When I tried to fill in the mug with color, the fill looked terrible because instead of creating my mug as a single shape, it was a mongrel of various curves.

Lesson learned: what looks like a shortcut only caused me grief! Instead of persevering with the Bezier tool, I got fed up and decided to try things "my way." Well, even if I thought my shortcut was brilliant, the computer disagreed. Moral of the story: don't try to use shortcuts, since the computer can tell you're not doing it right.

I decided to revisit the tutorial this afternoon, and spent some quality time playing with the Bezier curve. Low and behold, after practicing with it enough and getting a feel for it, I could create my coffee mug! After getting the hang of the Bezier tool, I could effectively work my way through the rest of the tutorial.

Now, not only do I have a lovely coffee mug, but I've also learned a valuable lesson about shortcuts and the value of perseverance when working with computers.

The Olympic Opening Ceremonies: History, Heritage, and Patriotism

I’m not ashamed to admit that I sometimes feel that swell of pride for my country. I attended an Oilers vs Canucks game last season, and sang the national anthem for the first time in over a year. It had been too long since I’d heard it, and I almost welled up with tears (although it might have just been the pre-game beers playing tricks with my emotions).

What better celebration of patriotism than the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Given the topics I’ve been considering in my coursework this last year, I couldn’t help but watch the opening ceremonies with a mix of my old patriotism kept in check by a critical eye considering the implications of history, heritage and patriotism.

Benedict Anderson argues in the introduction to his book, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism that the nation is a construct, a powerful imagined political community. These imagined political communities are intimately linked to and shaped by heritage.

It seemed like the opening ceremony committee armed themselves with a checklist of Canadian heritage points and made sure each was addressed. We saw Mounties carry and raise the Canadian flag; tap dancing and fiddling from Eastern Canada; First Nations groups welcoming the world to Canada; flashbacks to immigrants being received at our shores; a heavy emphasis on Canada’s natural beauty, with displays showcasing the forests, prairies, mountains and animals; and the necessary Canadian celebrities (Sarah McLachlan, Nelly Furtado, and my personal favourite, Bryan Adams). Slam poet Shane Koyczan’s “We are More” inventively summed up many of those themes.

The opening ceremonies lead to questions about the relationship between patriotism and heritage. Is Canadian patriotism dependent on a misguided sense of heritage? In the case of the opening ceremonies, patriotism was grounded in the story of Canada’s landscape and people. Disputed aspects of Canada’s history were glazed over to weave a multi-cultural quilt. I was intrigued by the fact that the ceremonies moved seamlessly from an introduction of various First Nations groups to a celebration of the settlement and exploration of Europeans without mention of the disconnect between those events. This patriotism is dangerous: it selects sections of Canadian history and highlights them out of context to tell a disjointed and manipulated story.

The Olympic version of Canada’s history is really patriotism mixed with a dash of heritage. There must be a way to make “Canada’s history” fair to the chequered events that blot the past while retaining an enthusiasm for what it means to be Canadian. Perhaps the Olympics are not the best platform for discussing those matters, for fear of making bold statements in front of an international audience. Still, there must be a better way to tell our story: a way that pays tribute to the good and the bad; a balanced perspective that celebrates Canada’s history while acknowledging past mistakes; a new portrait of “Canada’s history” that would continue to inspire Canadians and remain fair to the past.

Grad School Mental Checklist

One of the most challenging experiences as a graduate student is justifying your studies to friends and family. I’m generally met with two reactions when I talk about my M.A. in Public History: disbelief and scepticism (the primary response); and excitement and enthusiasm. Any students entering a Public History program should arm themselves with a solid set of answers to both reactions. Since Public History is intimately connected to the general public, we need to be ready to get people excited about what we learn.

While you’re thinking about applying to a Public History program, or completing your M.A. upon acceptance, be prepared with a mental checklist of the best aspects of a graduate experience. Here are suggestions of the most significant aspects of a Public History education that you should be ready to discuss with anyone who inquires about your studies:

• Have a firm grasp of what Public History means. Public History is not a generally used term, and much of the scepticism that arises from people outside the field is because they have never encountered the phrase before. Make sure you have a solid definition of Public History to jumpstart your discussion. Not only will this help with friends and family, it will also be important when you are interviewing for jobs after you finish your M.A.
• Emphasize the guest speakers you meet. I have heard from an array of individuals who currently work in the Public History sector, and anyone asking about your program wants to hear about where you can work after you graduate.
• Don’t be afraid to discuss your projects. The hands on aspect of Public History has been one of the best experiences of my academic career. You will work on these projects in conjunction with organizations outside the University, and there are amazing opportunities to work in the community. Make sure you emphasize the great, practical projects you will be completing.
• Talk about Digital History. After completing the course, I realized that even if I didn’t completely understand all the material, I am now ahead of many people in terms of digital interactions. Talk about the website you will be creating, the blog you will be writing, as well as the potential of the Internet as an exciting medium for historical interpretation and interaction.
• Mention your peers and their experiences. As one of only ten Public History majors at Western, I have had the privilege of being part of a close-knit group. My peers come from a variety of different backgrounds and all have different goals, but each one has a unique story to tell.

If you assemble a mental checklist of the most exciting aspects of your Public History education, you will always be ready to discuss (and defend!) your graduate experience with friends and family. Best of all, you will be an effective ambassador for an important and growing field.

Shedding Some Light on the Darker Side of Historic Interpretation

Human begins retain a fascination with the most gristly aspects of the past. Battlefields, cemeteries, and murder sites become a beacon for interpretation and tourist activity. J. John Lennon and Malcolm Foley’s Dark Tourism defines the phenomenon as, “... the commodification of anxiety and doubt [about modernity and its consequences] within interpretations offered and the design of the sites as both products and experiences (including merchandising and revenue generation) that introduces 'dark tourism.'"

‘Dark tourism’ has thrived because visitors possess an interest and fascination with unsavoury aspects of the human experience. While visiting Edinburgh last March, I took a "Ghost Tour" which led us through some of the city’s most ghastly areas, including murder sites and the tombs of famous Scots (picture on the right from a cemetery on Calton Hill, the resting place of David Hume's tomb). Visitors arrive at ‘dark tourism’ sites prepared to be shocked and appalled.

I would like to address the question of how historic sites with varied histories can interpret both the negative and positive aspects of the past. For certain historic sites, the darker sections of their history have been ignored in order to celebrate the more positive (and public relations friendly) aspects of heritage. Pier 21, toted as “Canada’s Immigration Museum,” has been accused of representing Canada as a multicultural beacon when in fact our immigration laws were not all-inclusive. The official website asserts, “We aim to be a national centre for celebrating Canada’s rich culture and diversity.” Tamara Vukov’s “Performing the Immigrant Nation at Pier 21: Politics and Counterpolitics in the Memorialization of Canadian Immigration” argues that the museum has systematically “forgotten” the ethnic and racial exclusion that formed a substantial portion of Canada’s immigration policy.

Acknowledging our country’s refusal to allow certain nationalities into Canada is not an aspect of Canadian history that fills visitors with pride. The question becomes how to communicate the darker aspects of Canada’s past to a public that wants Pier 21 to reaffirm their stereotypes about living in a flawless country. A visitor takes the Edinburgh Ghost Tour ready to confront the nastiest side of human nature; at Pier 21, the visitor wants to ignore the darker stories that lurk beneath the celebratory facade.

Visitors expect to be confronted with dark stories at a certain kind of historic site. It is imperative that sites with mixed histories address the darker aspects of the past. The public deserve a fair interpretation of the history. It has been demonstrated by the public’s voracity for ‘dark tourism’ that they are comfortable confronting the worst that humanity has to offer.

Visitors should leave Pier 21 understanding the complexity of immigration in Canada, retaining their patriotic fervour while acknowledging the mistakes that have been made in the past. Heritage site planners who ignore those aspects of the past are being unfair not only to the individuals who have suffered throughout history but also to their target audience, which is misled by the interpretation. These sites need to strive to present a balanced view of the past, and they need to realize that the public is sophisticated and ready to hear the bad along with the good.

Interactive Exhibit and Website Updates

I have created a website to chart the progress on my interactive exhibit project: Interactive Exhibit: History and e-textiles. For my exhibit, I have decided to work with the LilyPad Arduino to create an e-textile that integrates historic content with an exciting new technology. It's fun to dream big!

I also made some revisions on my main website. I've uploaded the major projects we've been working on so far, as well as providing descriptions of the work. If you've got it, flaunt it, right?

Thoughts on Public History Readings from January 14th

The Internet has sometimes been perceived as a dirty and scary place for academics. After all, the walls of the ivory tower are torn down, and anyone with the slightest inspiration can quickly and easily design their own website to glorify any topic they please. Peer reviewing and proper references seem to be flung out the window in this new and uncertain world.

However, there are historians currently working with this new medium to produce exciting and extremely interesting work. The article “Towards a Theory of Good History Through Gaming” suggests that the Internet offers amazing opportunities for historical education in immersive environments. Said piece describes how history-centered games can be incredibly advantageous, since “multimedia fosters engagement and facilitates critical thinking.” Additionally, historic sites have incredible new opportunities, such as the Tower of London’s program which allows visitors to use their cell phones and learn about the history of the famous site while helping virtual prisoners escape from their cells.

John Bonnett’s “Following in Rabelais’ Footsteps: Immersive History and the 3D Virtual Buildings Project” lauds the potential of new technologies to enable individuals to reconstruct their own three-dimensional historic buildings using sophisticated computer software. Students engaged in such an activity become acutely aware of not only the typical difficulties historians face during their research (for example, inadequate primary sources) but also the problems that accompany historical representation. History becomes an active and engaging pursuit, and students emerge with real critical thinking skills as opposed to the headache and frustration they might feel after spewing names and dates onto a final exam.

When I began reading the first article, “History on the Internet: The ‘Atlantic Canada Portal,’” I found it ironic that a piece praising the presence of exciting history online was only available in print; however, towards the end of the article, Corey Slumkoski, Margaret Conrad and Lisa Charlong admitted that the periodical Acadiensis is “unhappily” not yet available on the Internet. This article detailed numerous endeavours that are currently bringing history alive online. One of the points I found most interesting was the assertion that online syllabi are not only convenient, but also far more engaging than their paper counterparts because of the potential to provide hyperlinks to readings, pages of interest, and pictures.

Slumkoski, Conrad and Charlong sum up these innovations nicely: “When used critically and judiciously – in other words, when we apply the same standards to the Internet that we do to any other source – the Web can be a great boon to the scholarly community.”

Reflections on Digital History and Where It Will Take Me

Ironically, as I began jotting down ideas for a reflective blog about my Digital History course, I regressed to pen and paper. I was on the bus, heading back to London from an afternoon of Christmas baking with my extended family in Toronto. Never having owned a vehicle, I’ve spent hours on the Greyhound throughout my academic career, and always found it valuable time to catch on assignments (aside from the bumpy roads that wreak havoc on my handwriting.) However, for this class (and indeed, my entire MA), my laptop has evolved from a convenience for writing papers to an indispensible tool that moulds the nature of my work. I can no longer stew over my own thoughts in isolation; I need the gateway, the interaction, the cacophony of the Internet.

One of my earliest blogs expressed a wariness and snobbish disregard for hyperlinks (Maybe Hyperlinks Aren’t So Bad). Change has definitely occurred since I began this course. As I was stranded on the bus without the hyperlinks and the bookmarks, I found myself floundering. I couldn’t hop over to articles I’ve read to refresh my memory, check out blogs or peek at Twitter to see what everyone’s buzzing about. My sense of community was gone, and it has become an integral part of my academic experience. My framework for thinking and writing has changed from being hunched over books in the corner of a library to active engagement with new and potentially radical ideas that are readily available at my fingertips.

For me, the most striking aspect of Web 2.0 and the digital revolution is two-fold: the extensive community and potential for fresh, innovative thinking as mentioned above; and the willingness and enthusiasm individuals are pouring into creating open source software. In August, I had no concept of open source software and its malleable, accessible nature. It was both inspiring and surprising for me to learn that individuals willingly work together and produce tools which are in turn used and improved by massive networks. GIMP serves all my photo editing needs, and all it cost me was the time it took to download. I’ve had the chance to glance at chapters on Google Books, experience posting information on wikis, and create my own webpage (both by struggling through HTML and feeling extremely proud and rewarded when it actually worked, and surprising myself with how easily I could make something that looks pretty nice with Google Sites.) Not only have I had the pleasure of following the blogs of my classmates and other interesting individuals, I have also had the opportunity to being this blog, which is an exciting chance to express my thoughts. The really great thing about Web 2.0 is that I can not only check out these new, exciting mediums, but I can also play a role in many of them. It’s empowering and exciting, two adjectives I would not previously have used to describe my academic career.

I have never been asked to formally reflect on coursework before, and this has turned into a valuable opportunity to being seriously considering my direction after I complete this MA (time is already running away with me.) As I begin to consider internships for the summer, and think about what I have enjoyed and where I have excelled in the courses I took this fall, I start to narrow down what kind of public historian I think I am, and how I would like to apply my skills after I finish this degree.

I love to research and I love to write; I envision myself producing work that breaks out of the traditional mouldy confines the public associates with historians. Interestingly enough, I wrote that previous sentence on my aforementioned bus ride last weekend, and in today's Introduction to Public History class we had a guest speaker named Sean Stoyles whose work embodies the ideas I'd been considering. He works for CDCI and has also begun his own company, Cobblestone Heritage Consultants. The work done by a firm like Canadian Development Consultants International really interests me, and the digital skills I have picked up in this class will be a great asset when I hit the job market. History consulting would be a great match to my skill set, and I could also see myself enjoying the work. It would be amazing to begin my own history consulting business one day, although I am somewhat discouraged in that regard after watching all the headaches my boyfriend went through when he started his own landscape construction company. That being said, it doesn't hurt to dream big!

To conclude, Digital History has perhaps been most influential in encouraging me to explore the Internet not only for superficial searches but also for the interesting and exciting opportunities that are arising out of the new age, Web 2.0.

Books in the Digital Realm: Blog Assignment

Our latest Digital History blog assignment involves searching the Eaton's Fall and Winter catalogue from 1913-1914, picking a selection of book titles, and searching the Internet for complete, digitized versions of these old books. Kinda fun! I definitely got a hoot out of some of these old titles, notably the Encyclopedia of Etiquette and What A Young Wife Ought To Know.

I had the most success tracking down complete digital copies of children or juvenile literature. For example, author Martha Finley wrote a series of books about the adventures of a character named Elsie, and they can be easily found (for example, Mildred and Elsie or Elsie`s Girlhood). A similar series of Henty Books by Henry Fitzroy is available, featuring titles like The Young Midshipman.

As far as adult literature is concerned, I was not able to find all of the titles under the heading High Class Recent Fiction, although I did find Sewell Ford`s Torchy. Setting out on this assignment, I expect to find fiction fairly easily, although it is still striking how many of these very old books are readily available online (whether in full version or with substantial previews).

Non-fiction works are harder to track down online. I found The White House Cook Book by F.L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann (to my horror, a quick glance at the book revealed a recipe for squirrel soup!) I also found Manners and Rules of Good Society, amusing attributed to "a Member of the Aristocracy." As far as the Eaton Catalogue`s large collections go (for example, the Collected Works of Dickens or Scott), those books can easily be found in full versions online, since they remain extremely popular and out of the copyright zone: Great Expectations is right at our fingertips.

There were a variety of titles that were not easy to track down, or only offered partial previews online as opposed to the entire text. The engineering books (for example, Locomotive Engineer`s Guide) are not available online. Books with such a scientific nature become out-dated so quickly that I assume individuals see little point in having them digitized, since anyone wanting to learn about how locomotives function would look for a recent book, not a work from the early twentieth-century. However, these books still have value for the historian who wants to learn about the history of manufacturing, and perhaps eventually they will be incorporated into the Internet library.

Some of the books that were untrackable are fairly obvious, such as children`s painting books or old Presbyterian hymnals. The painting books would be scribbled and used, while the old hymnals are merely different representations of the same hymns (which I am certain are available online, even if a particular hymnal is not).

I suppose the aspect of this project that surprised me the most was the sheer volume of books that are becoming part of the vast Internet archive. Fiction was much easier to locate than non-fiction. Another surprising aspect of my search was the fact that many books not available in full still provide previews or snippets of the text, and links to where they can be purchased or found in libraries.

Follow Up Thoughts to Previous Blog on "Journey Isn't Half The Fun Anymore"

On October 21st, I posted a blog entitled, "Journey Isn't Half The Fun Anymore," bemoaning the increasingly accessibly and searchable Internet archive as a device that will change the way historians conduct research in a negative faction. I asked, "Does this Internet juggernaut pound researchers with so much narrowly defined information that the jewels hidden in unrelated documents fall by the wayside?"

Now, having spent the last month researching a variety of projects in the archives at Western, I have had two reactions to my assertions about the future of research.

My first reaction was: working in archives is not fun. The limited hours (10:00 to 4:30 Monday to Friday) are difficult to deal with, especially because many of my classes fall within that time frame. If everything I needed to examine was on the Internet, I would be able to access it at any time, without having to stay on campus and pack myself sandwiches for long research days. Additionally, I longed for the searchability that computers offer. Being able to make a computer find my key words would have greatly facilitated my work, instead of scanning through rolls of microfilm hoping that a certain last name jumps out at me. Essentially, I was convinced that my idealistic dribble about the journey being useful in archival research was completely ridiculous.

This week, I had two wonderful experiences that have caused me to retain my previous position. I am currently researching two separate projects that fall in generally the same time frame in London (a heritage house from the nineteenth century and farm manufacturing companies during the nineteenth century). While looking through assessment rolls for the name the occupant of my heritage house, I saw Elijah Leonard, living on Talbot Street. Elijah Leonard is the owner of a major farm implement manufacturing company I had been researching for my other project! I was not looking for Mr. Leonard at all, but low and behold, there he was. The next day, I was going through old city directories for advertisements about manufacturing companies, and there was David Bruce, owner of a manufacturing company. David Bruce happens to be the first owner of my heritage house!

So, researching two separate projects and stumbling across these relationships between the two (both of which proved useful) was pretty amazing. You get that excited feeling in your stomach! Perhaps I wouldn't have found those relationships if I had been using keyword searches in a computer.

Perhaps the journey isn't always fun, but when it is fun, the rewards are amazing.

The Humanities and Collective Intelligence: Why We Avoid It

The potential power of collective intelligence to solve problems in the humanities is at the forefront of many reflections these days, including Henry Jenkins in his thoughtful blog, Collective Intelligence vs The Wisdom of Crowds. Boiled down, the collective intelligence theory means that nobody knows everything, everyone knows something, and what any given member knows is accessible to any other member upon request. French media scholar Pierre Levy claims collective intelligence is the perfect context for individuals to come together and solve complex problems with their combined abilities.

The potential of collective intelligence has been demonstrated by the website I Love Bees. It was both an experiment and a massive promotional campaign for 2004’s Halo 2. Jane McGonigal’s “Why I Love Bees: A Case Study In Collective Intelligence Gaming” provides a great overview of the nature of the website and how participants worked together to solve problems that individuals couldn’t tackle on their own. I Love Bees captivated the attention of over 600,000 players.

Why were these individuals willing to work together to solve these puzzles? I have to look no further than my boyfriend and his friends to get an idea about the profile of some Halo players. The majority of them are Computer Programmer Analyst grads. They spend much of their free time playing computer games (as I write this blog on a Saturday afternoon, I have five guys with laptops playing DotA – Defence of the Ancients - in my living room).
Halo’s audience encompasses more than just players who fit the profile described above, but it has enough of these kinds of people to make an experiment like I Love Bees a runaway success. Gamers are already primed and connected to the online world. They are precisely the types of individuals who are willing to spend the time and go to the effort of solving the puzzles because they value their online community and feel connected.

Suggestions about using collective intelligence to solve problems in the humanities will not achieve a fraction of that success. Humanities courses at the university level are not concerned with the power of the group or technological innovation. When comparing computer programming (to teach you how to interact with machines) and humanities (to teach us about humans and human nature), computer programming does the best job of teaching you how to work with other people.

The use of collective intelligence to solve questions in the humanities has a long, hard road to plod before people will take it seriously and actively engage with the concept. Until the nature of how humanities are taught is re-examined, students will continue to cloister themselves in libraries and refuse to engage each other’s ideas.

It needs to be changed! Activities like writing papers are obviously a key component of a humanities education, but the degree should go beyond those basics. Massive potential for group projects that is largely untapped. If we changed the nature of a humanities education, then we could see the development of collective intelligence in our field. Until then, historians will continue to read books and generate ideas largely in isolation of each other, and Halo players will show us up with their willingness to collaborate and harness the power of collective intelligence.

New website!

I have launched my professional website, Dana Johnson's History Website (not exactly an original name but at least it's to the point...) I will be updating it as I am inspired or as we learn more in our Digital History class, so check back for updates!

Russia's Mad Monk: Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin

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Journey Isn't Half The Fun Anymore

Admittedly, the Internet is massive and wonderful, a constant stream of new information that provides an unforeseen opportunity to access and search through a mind-boggling assortment of documents. However, I wonder if the advent of key word searches and engines that bring exactly what the computer presumes we need to our fingertips is somehow an unfortunate development.

One of the most important skills in research is the ability to sift out important information from useless dribble. If everything we presume we need to know is sent directly to our computer screen, one of our major ability as researchers is no longer important.

More importantly, what is going to happen to the old adage that the journey is half the fun? I am fairly certain that everyone who has ever done major research of any kind can attest to the fact that they have stumbled across a wonderful nugget of information in a book or document they never would have expected to find useful. Does this Internet juggernaut pound researchers with so much narrowly defined information that the jewels hidden in unrelated documents fall by the wayside?

I think it would be interesting to compare two papers written on the same topic, one relying only on archives and the other only on documents accessed online. I wonder what the authors or those two documents would say about what they learned through their research project, and how the two pieces would differ.

I'm probably being too harsh, and need to acknowledge that research on the Internet teaches us an entirely new set of skills that are neither better nor worse than our old research skills.

Innovative Time Off

I was talking to a friend this weekend and he mentioned something cool I didn't know about Google. Apparently they have a program called Innovative Time Off or 20 Percent Time, which means that employees are encouraged to spent twenty percent of their work time (or one day a week) on projects that interest them personally. Apparently Gmail and Google News are both products Innovative Time Off. Seems to me like a great way to motivate creativity in your employees. If only I could have spent the equivalent of a course in my undergrad writing about whatever interested me!

I thought this fit in with our discussions about open sources, the new Internet community, and the need for changes at Universities. I believe that employers giving their employees an opportunity for independence, creativity and pride in their work leads to better productivity. So people are happier with their jobs and work harder. Everybody wins.

Landscape Definitions Making Me Uncomfortable!

The four articles we read for today's public history class definitely challenged my ideas about nature and landscape. Growing up in Alberta, I spent a lot of time camping in the mountains. In the last five years or so my mom and I have been doing at least one backcountry back-packing trip every year. We revel in getting out of the city and enjoying the pristine nature of national parks.

Only now I know that Banff's "pristine nature" isn't quite as pristine as I thought. Trying to reorient my thinking about national parks and landscapes has been rather disconcerting. I don't want to think about Banff as a constructed landscape; I want to think of it was wild and beautiful. In Rebecca Conrad's "Spading Common Ground," she argues, "Purging the landscape of the tangible evidence of human activity not only deprives us of important information as we seek to learn more; such destruction also hinders our abilities to communicate complex, ambiguous, important stories to wider audiences." On an intellectual level, I agree with her; but my heart is kicking and screaming at the idea!

I'm surprised that these four articles did not discuss the possibility of a general public's rejection of these new ideas about landscape. While the articles provided suggestions for how to incorporate these new ideas about landscapes into museum exhibits, they didn't stop to consider whether or not people want to think about landscapes in this way. Although I understand the arguments behind these ideas, it still makes me uncomfortable to have to think of my beloved national parks as made up nature. I wonder if museum exhibits incorporating these ideas encouter any opposition from individuals who share my preconceptions on this issue.

The Limits and Implications of Abundance: Blog Assignment

After seeing that Dr. Turkel had given the class a blog assignment this week, I found myself directly confronted by my own stereotypes about the nature of historical writing and how it should be conducted. The word "essay" immediately put me into my traditional university writing mode, terrified of contractions and disgusted by the thought of writing in first person. I began to panic about which online sources I could link: heaven forbid I use a website with any spelling mistakes or factual errors!

My break-through came when I stepped back from my fretting to consider why I was having that visceral reaction. Blogging has forced me to reconsider the strict format universities and professors have programmed me to follow. By expansion, not only blogging but the entire Internet and its abundance of sources has put me in a position where I have to challenge the confinements of my stereotypes about what a historian should be and how he/she should conduct historical research. With that in mind, I reread the questions Dr. Turkel suggested for our consideration and discovered that my mini-crisis dealt directly with many of them. This blog will investigate how the Internet is changing the nature of sources and the wider implications this phenomenon will have on historical research and writing.

The nature of primary sources is being drastically changed by the digitization of books and documents. Scarcity has taken on new meaning in the historical world. Previously, primary sources were scarce in the sense that there were few copies of them. I am conducting research for Fanshawe Pioneer Village this term, and my subject is eighteenth century farm tools and manufacturing in Middlesex County. Inevitably and in spite of the vast amount of information on the Internet, I will be heading to the library, looking through township books and sifting through microfilm, because said records are not readily available; the traditional definition of scarce resources.

If every bit of information written about farm tools in Middlesex County was digitized and put on the Internet, a few key word searches would provide me with a wealth of information at my mouse’s beck and call. If the digital world offers such potential for almost limitless access to primary sources, what could possibly be scarce about this future?

Roy Rosenzweig points to the frailty of online sources. Computers can breakdown and data can be lost. Not only that, but computer software changes radically and quickly. When my father threw out his floppy disks and I was distressed by the loss of games such as The Incredible Machine from 1992. I searched online to see if this game could be downloaded and could not find any original versions. Classic Gaming Presents did have a revised version for Windows XP and Vista which could be purchased for $4.99; however, the graphics have been completely redone and the game has been revised from its original conception. Playing this new version of The Incredible Machine would be like reading a farmer’s diary from 1820 that has been edited and changed; the very nature of the source is altered and it becomes much less useful, especially to historians whose research projects sometimes depend on nuances and turns of phrase specific to my 1820 farmer. If in one hundred years a historian wants to research the nature and significance of computer games in 1992, will they even be able to play the games anymore? Or will their only access be sanitized and revised shells of the 1992 originals? The pace of technological change and new software developments threatens the integrity of computer primary sources, many of which will become scarce in the future.

The computer revolution offers historians the chance to access more detailed records than could possibly have been imagined. The future historian may look back on Facebook pages if he/she is interested in studying trends in pre-teen behaviour in 2007. The sheer amount of information available on the Internet and the potential historic record that is being constructed is daunting. That being said, everything that passes through the Internet is not necessarily preserved in a manner that will be helpful for future historians. Emails are deleted every day. Facebook profiles are revised and edited depending on an individual’s mood. While movements such as the Internet Archive record much of what transpires, the online world will never be fully saved and documented to be totally accessible to scholars in the future. Even the Infinite Archive has limitations and the potential for gaps in the historic record.

What does this massive and yet oddly incomplete collection of documents mean for the future of historical research? There is already a crisis of authority that has shaken academia. The Internet is a massive forum where any inclined individual can not only make their own webpage about any given topic but also serve as contributors and editors on sites such as Wikipedia. Margaret Conrad, board member for the Canadian Historical Association, noted in her article, “Public History and its Discontents or History in the Age of Wikipedia” that Wikipedia is remarkable because of “the sheer volume of reasonably good material that is available in multiple languages.” Wikipedia gives any individual a chance to chronicle historical events, as opposed to traditional publishing processes.

The hyperlink phenomenon has created an extensive community whereby individuals can connect their work and refer endlessly to each other. This branching community is an exciting step forward for academia, which has traditionally seen individual scholars working on primary sources largely in isolation of each other instead of together as a team.

The Internet opens a floodgate of opportunity for publication and new ideas from anyone outside the university elite. Historians used to control the fabrication and interpretation of the past; now, the general public can also assert their ideas, and that work can be readily accessed. The role of the professionally trained historian is being challenged, and the profession needs to adopt new methodologies and goals to keep pace with these changes.

In order to be influential and have their work taken seriously in the digital world, I think that historians need to write in a way that is captivating and relevant to a wider audience. If historians turn their academic noses away from the Internet and refuse to engage with the digital community, the past recreated online will be devoid of their voices. However, if historians can fascinate the digital audience and transmit their ideas in an accessible manner, enthusiasts conducting Google searches for biographies of famous politicians will be rewarded with a much deeper and more significant account of the past than the fact-based Wikipedia offerings. The professional historian’s voice needs to echo not only through the library but also through the Internet, where his/her ideas have the potential to influence and enlighten a much larger audience. Good historical scholarship needs to be on the Internet, and it needs to tap into the growing public interest in history by writing in an accessible manner. Name dropping and jargon need to be replaced by human interest in order for the general public to get excited about the professional historian’s interpretations of the past.

In dealing with online sources, historians are faced with challenges in selecting theoretical frameworks to analyze the wealth of texts that are instantly available. Rosenzweig suggests “methodical sampling in the manner of, say, sociology.” Sociology employs the scientific method, often working with patterns, numbers and statistics to gain insight into societies. Historical researchers sifting through thousands of online primary sources may very well require sociological methodologies in order to make sense of the massive amount of data that is available. Diverse discplines can influence and assist each other in this new digital world by sharing research methods and communicating; the academic isolation that has traditionally pervaded universities needs to change.

A new sense of historical consciousness is arising, and it will continue to develop as more sources are digitized and more historians begin to realize the Internet’s potential for scholarship. Historians need to be able to present their work in an accessible manner, make that work visible and accessible on the Internet, and look to other disciplines for new methodologies and research tactics. There are limits to the Internet’s wealth of sources, but in spite of those limits and the scarcity that accompanies said abundance, historical research has changed and will continue to evolve.