The Future of History: It’s all about the Web

Abstract

This thesis explores the rhetoric of online history exhibits and the methods historians employ to translate the physical into the virtual. I begin by explaining the evolving relationship between history and digital technologies, more specifically the relationship between history and the web. The data for my study come from six interviews with historians who work and conduct research in both physical and virtual museum exhibits in institutions in the greater Washington, D.C. area: Timothy Grove from the National Air and Space Museum; Sharon Leon from the Center for History and New Media (CHNM); Nicole Osier from the Civil War Preservation Trust; and Laura O’Hara, Kathleen Johnson, and Matthew Wasniewski from the Clerk’s Office of History and Preservation. The latter half of my study investigates the pedagogical extension of these online historical museum exhibits and the ways in which historians see their digital work aligning with teacher’s curricula.