Public History on the Web

This week I asked you to explore several web installations that were designed purposefully for the general public and not fellow scholars. These sites all have their strengths and weaknesses, but each does fulfill a stated purpose and I would rank them as some of the best public history sites out there at the moment. My favorite (probably because my dad was an inventor) is the Getty site Devices of Wonder. What I particularly like about this site is the ability of the end user to virtually use each device that is on display. This is something that the web-based installation can do that the physical installation cannot (or at least not without allowing each visitor to handle the object on display, which is a rarity).

This site is an excellent candidate for the best use of multimedia in a display. Although it doesn’t tap into all of the various formats that comprise multimedia, the interactivity that this site has been able to create is among the best I have seen. Among the items on display, one of my favorite objects is the portable diorama – you can insert different slides and then activate the device to see how the scenery changes. I also enjoyed looking over the Grand Panorama of the 1851 Worlds’ Fair, although here I do wish that the resolution was much higher and since they were using Flash, it would be nice to be able to freely pan over the document. Finally, check out the Anamorphic Images (it opens up a separate window), but you can move the cone around and find the hidden picture within the puzzle! This must have been quite a programming feat to replicate the multiple reflections needed to generate the end picture!

As a runner up in the category of best use of multimedia, I would have to give this to the Julia Child website at the Smithsonian. As a “foodie” there is nothing more interesting than exploring the kitchen of a renowned chef like Julia Child. I have been to the “original,” which is housed at the American History Museum in Washington, DC, but the online version of the kitchen offers you something that you don’t get when you are physically at the museum – the view from within the kitchen! I also enjoyed zooming in on the images to learn more about how she laid out her kitchen. The downside to the site is not linking the object database with the flash tour. Since this is built in Flash, being able to open up cupboards and drawers should have been an easy task and then one could explore more about what was in the kitchen by linking the object database (which is a great mixture of Julia Child’s own history and the history of cooking).