1/24/2024 – Reviewing Four DH Projects

Rosenzweig Prize 2014: Civil War in Kansas

What I enjoyed:

• Themed colors with the time: blue, gray, brown like the pictures, red of blood?
• Featured documents and essays help allure viewers to view more
• I like how the sections bar is repeated in the sidebar as well
• The pages aren’t too big and don’t require a marathon of scrolling to see
• Images are easy to see!
• The timeline is a great choice with fine scrolling through to see every event or scrolling through by year

What could be changed IMHO:

• The animation for the topic A-Z list is an unnecessary flair
• Needs organization by topic for proper searching

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database

What I enjoyed:

• There is an incredible amount of sheer data with many, many fields
  • 5 total databases!
• The 3d models are a nice touch!
• I like using the timeline as a graph plotting # of captives by year
• There is a lot of easily exportable data
• The lesson plans page is in a different, poppier format

What could be changed IMHO:

• This site is made for researchers, not as much normal people
  • This results in a trade off in aesthetics
    • But really I am just nitpicking. This is a fantastic site

Valley of the Shadow:

• I like the intro page with the two options: Explore the valley or about
• The goal is to make the site appealing and accessible, and it delivers on that goal
• There are three major sections separated by time (Eve of the War, War Years, and Aftermath) with subsections for each type of source used
• There are a section type of sections at the bottom (timelines, the two counties, sources, about and site map)
  • The site map was very helpful in understanding the site’s layout BUT didn’t show these sections in it.
• Animations are brief and not flashy at all, very welcome
• Great formatting and aesthetics overall. Very readable and understanding of which county by the colors red or blue.

What could be changed IMHO:

• It was tough to find those secondary sections as they weren’t listed in the site map or at the top of the page

Burning Down the House: Slavery and Arson in America

For this entry, I will be talking more about the methodology used

• They examined historical arson and the blank history before the fire that it leaves behind using
  • Environmental analysis
    • Wooded environments covered up arson from accidental fires
    • Allowed fires to spread easily and cause lots of destruction, not limited to small bounds
  • Textual/Historical Analysis
    • Looking at arson and slave revolts and adding that into context
    • Uses of “fiery” language and fear
  • In short, how arson was used as a tool for fear that erased history