History Wired and The History Channel

I would like to focus my attention on two very interesting historical websites – History Wired: A few of our favorite things and The History Channel.

I am really impressed by History Wired. It is an experimental site, held by the Smithsonian Institution, which gives the opportunity to all visitors to see some of the three million objects, available in the National Museum of American History. At the moment more than 450 objects are displayed on the site (quite small amount yet), but the project is still a work in progress. The items were chosen by curators, but their choice doesn’t mean to be representative for the whole collection of the museum. The site tries to be a sort of a “real tour” around the museum. Every reader can select the object which he likes and then he gets an explanation of its significance. The virtual tour is very interactive, because the visitor can share his opinion, can like or dislike or, can give suggestions or to point out the weak points.

The interface of the website is very interesting and impressive. It’s based on the map-like sites. The “Map” includes: a timeline, keywords, pointer lines, thumbnails and search. What can you do? You choose a “square” – this is the object – on the map, you click on it and what happens? Interactive arrows demonstrate with which fields your object is connected. Let’s click on one. Diana Ross’s dress from 1960s. Now we are able to see the photo and the information about it, as well as to give it a mark, by answering the question – “Would you like to see more objects like that?” Visitors can look for their “item” by choosing – the time, the keywords or the field.

The History Channel or History.com tends to be a very useful resource for both professionals and grass-root historians. But my opinion is that it is made mainly for popular historians and enthusiasts.

Its content is divided into several topics, focused mainly on the American history, such as – Science and technology, Native American history, Wars, Presidents, Places, Black history, Women’s history, People, Ancient, Events, etc. Another important achievement of the site is the presence of TV Shows and Videos, available online. The website is the official site of the popular History Channel and for that reason it has in archive many of the videos and shows, broadcasted on the television. When you choose a topic a great variety of resources appears – video clips, articles, photos, pictures, recommended articles, related people, topics and themes, events, etc.

I wouldn’t like to underestimate the importance of History.com (first of all, because I am a great fan), but I still think that this site is not sufficient for a major and deeper historical analyze, because it only gives some information (in many of the cases just overviewed one), without referring to any primary sources. And this can be a problem! Accept that, it is still an entertaining and educative source.