The History Harvest. University of Nebraska-Lincoln (review)

The coming of the so-called Information Age has provided scholars in the humanities and social sciences with a variety of significant challenges and opportunities. Indeed, while some have loudly condemned computer-assisted technologies for their destructive impacts upon 'traditional' modes of academic research and instruction, many others have embraced their potential for democratizing scholarly institutions, practices, and knowledge. ¹Among academic historians, nobody has had a greater influence over the shaping of this polemic than the late Roy Rosenzweig who in 1994 founded the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) at George Mason University. Utilizing "digital media and computer technology to democratize history," the RRCHNM supports the development of digital software and platforms which aim to "incorporate multiple voices, reach diverse audiences," and, perhaps most significantly for technology-oriented public historians, "encourage popular participation in presenting and preserving the past." ²While RRCHNM has sponsored the development of a variety of useful open source technologies, the organization is perhaps most well-known for Zotero, a reference management software, and Omeka, a "web publishing platform for digital collections." ³Although many Omeka-supported open access digital archives, exhibits, and collections are well worth exploring, one of the most noteworthy examples of the conjoining of technology with historical preservation and public engagement is the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's (UN-L) public history and "digital learning initiative," The History Harvest. ⁴

Co-directed by Willian G. Thomas and Patrick D. Jones of the UN-L's Department of History, and co-managed by a team of "[a]dvanced undergraduates," The History Harvest, in the words of its developers, is a "collaborative, team-oriented, student-centered and community-based project" which "seeks to create a popular movement to democratize and open American history by utilizing digital technologies to share the experiences and artifacts of everyday people and local historical institutions." ⁵In keeping with the RRCHNM's scholarly mission, the digital history project is designed to establish working partnerships between professional historians and members of the general public in the identification, digitization, and open access presentation of everyday historical materials. "We believe that our collective history . . . is not found in [brick-and-mortar] archives, historical societies, museums or libraries," The History Harvest's curators boldly contend, "but rather in the stories that ordinary people have to tell from their own experience and in the things—the objects and artifacts—that people keep and collect to tell the story of their lives." ⁶Ranging from diaries, letters, and photographs to pins, medals, and ticket stubs from local sporting events, the project's varied collections open a fascinating window onto a myriad of local and personal histories, which heretofore have largely been silenced by traditional, or analog, historical archives.

In "harvesting" these materials from local communities, the digital repository's coordinators continually organize collection expositions, to which members of the general public are encouraged to "bring and share their letters, photographs, objects and stories," as well as "participate in a conversation about the significance and meaning of their materials." ⁷Once an object, or a collection of materials, has been identified, thoroughly discussed, and photographed at one of these history-themed community gatherings, it is published on The History Harvest's website, along with a brief description, including the materials' significance, attribution of authorship or source, and the approximate date(s) of provenance, among other specifics.

Users can navigate The History Harvest's collections in a number of different ways. The website's front page offers a variety of intriguing portals into the digital archive's materials, such as the randomly generated "Featured Item" and "Featured Collection" options, and the main menu provides three primary methods for exploring the project's resources. For those interested in plunging headlong into The History Harvest's nearly one hundred fifty collections, for instance, the "Browse Collections" option will display materials in reverse chronological order (according to the year in which...