The field of public history has expanded and been revolutionized by the introduction of new and innovative technologies and methods. What used to be provided in a physical exhibit can now be created as a virtual presence that reaches far more of the population. These new technologies and methods significantly contribute to various digital public history projects created today.

The digital exhibit’s prevalence and use are among the most popular and explicit representations of the technology and method that have recently influenced public history work.  Using Omeka Classic or Omeka S, many physical sites and universities have utilized the Omeka platform to create a digital collection of their holdings. This allows physical sites to provide resources to a larger audience, and even digitizing items that may not necessarily be in Omeka allows many to utilize them in their work. The digitization of artifacts, papers, and other sources not only shares the importance of the items to the broader world but also allows others to create their own projects. That makes sites like Omeka and WordPress crucial because of their relatively easy format and usability, allowing historians and those interested in history to share their work with everyone. Omeka emphasizes and reinforces the importance of metadata, which includes various essential details about the artifacts. This metadata provides the user with origin information, the original creator or contributor, and the year the item was created. This is extremely important in maintaining the integrity of the research and allowing the user to explore the items further. WordPress acts as a form of self-expression for historian to speak about their work and engage with others. Similarly, public history projects can utilize mapping software such as Kepler.gl or data visualization software such as Voyant to share their research, but present it in a way that allows the user a far better understanding than just reading the information. It creates broader connections that further highlight the importance of the material.

Another key method that has influenced the work of public history recently is the use of crowdsourcing and the greater emphasis on collaboration.  Many of the world’s largest museums, particularly in the United States, such as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, utilize crowdfunding projects to allow the general public to interact with their work directly. Still, it also solves some of the burden experienced by these institutions. Beyond crowdsourcing, the connected nature of the internet and most modern social media platforms allows for even more connection than ever before. You can contact someone on LinkedIn, X, or Facebook to share common interests and collaborate on a new and essential project.

Finally, one of the most popular and influential methods of public history is podcasts. Popular shows such as BackStory, Throughline, and Ben Franklin’s World have revolutionized how many engage with history. They can learn about historical people, events, and places while doing everyday tasks. This is key to engaging with the broader audience and allows anyone to see historical scholarship’s importance through a favored medium. I listen to many podcasts while commuting to work and find it a very influential way to share information.

The changes in methodologies and technology throughout recent years have dramatically changed the face of public history. But it has done so in a way that has expanded and transformed how people engage in history and public history. The future is bright for digital public history as technology continues to advance to the fields advantage.

So far, everything I have done for my final project has gone relatively smoothly. I first began by trying to identify and locate suitable sites for primary source materials that were not only easily accessible but also did not require a subscription that I did not have or that the school did not have.  This has been an ongoing project as the materials I need to find vary significantly regarding media and locations. I have had the most luck using the Victoria and Albert Museum located in London, as they have many digitized artifacts and photographs. In terms of the newspaper and other media, the British Newspaper Archive has been a valuable resource.

Last week, I took the time to create the exhibit for the last module and the whole website infrastructure. I even discovered how to integrate the mapping and timeline aspects into the exhibits I created. One of the challenges I am still facing is the ability to place easily accessible buttons for the user to go directly to the project pages without using the menu button on the side. But I will figure this out at some point. This process has been challenging but really fun as well.

As for what I need to continue working on, this is a rather extensive to-do list. The first thing I need to complete is to finish collecting all of my primary source materials from each site I mentioned above and locate others online. Once I have all of my sources, it is merely integrating them into the created exhibits and tabs by putting the items in a collection and entering there metadata. Once I complete the exhibits, I must make the datapoints and integrate them into Kepler.gl. This hopefully will not be too cumbersome. Finally, I need to evaluate the textual resources to develop the data I will integrate into Voyant to create the various data visualizations. It seems like quite a bit is left, but I am just trying to take it one aspect at a time.

Paws and Petticoats: A Digital Exploration of Victorian Pet Ownership in Britain

For this project, I propose to examine the evolving culture of pet ownership in Victorian-era Britain (1837-1901). Much like today, pets in the Victorian era became constant companions and societal markers of significance. For the first time, animals were seen as part of the family, not just animals on the periphery. Whether a small lapdog or an exotic canary, the Victorian era saw the rise of a “pet future” that reflected contemporary attitudes toward class, gender, domesticity, and the human-animal bond. By investigating various forms of media such as paintings, photographs, newspapers, and advertisements, this project seeks to answer several key questions. The first question is: How did social classes view pet ownership? Did the type of pet or variety of pets differ between social classes? What constituted an aristocratic pet as compared to a middle or lower-class pet? How were these pets portrayed in media? These essential questions will be the foundation for the following examples and examination.

This project will utilize several varying technologies. The first aspect of the project will be an Omeka exhibit highlighting various representations of pets between classes and times. These photographs and artworks will also give the viewer a deeper connection to the history of pet ownership and the continued trend today. Each of these items will be sorted into easily accessible collections that will include the categories of artwork, photographs, and mass media. This allows the user to see a variety of popular culture representations of pet ownership between the classes. Moreover, having a variety of sources throughout the Victorian era will highlight how the culture shifted throughout time. This will also be aided by a historical timeline of the images mapped out. The timeline will highlight the trends that persisted and the changes that occurred. This will also allow the viewer to better understand the time frame of the Victorian era with significant events throughout to reinforce the age’s significance further.

Beyond the exhibit created in Omeka and the timeline, Kepler.gl will be used to map the various places each media originated and show the distribution of the images and artwork. This also shows how culturally diverse and the distance that pets were represented. Add some form of data visualization, whether a graph or word cloud, to highlight keywords throughout the text-based artifacts, such as newspaper articles and magazines. Advertisements will also be used for coverage and a better understanding of the societal implications pets had during the period in question.

The intended audience of this project is multifaceted and complex. The first group this project seeks to appeal to is pet owners interested in learning more about the history of pets. Particularly those who have a persistent curiosity about things new. This will usually be in the early twenties to late sixties. Pets are the project’s central theme; thus, pet owners are a targeted audience. Another intended audience is those who enjoy museums and are just general British history enthusiasts or citizens. Naturally, if they have a remote interest in British history or have travelled to Britain, this project would connect with them on some level. Pets are still a vibrant part of British culture, so some may be curious to learn more about their history. Finally, historians of modern British history would be interested in researching the connectivity and potential connection to their projects.

Through these various platforms and tools, this project seeks to bring the unique and remarkable history of pet ownership in Great Britain to life by exemplifying the cultural and social currents of the Victorian Era and those that persist to this day.