Dr. Michael Wm. Doyle
Ball State University
Department of History
Burkhardt Bldg. [BB] 213
Muncie, IN 47306-0480
Office: 765-285-8732; Fax: 765-285-5612
E-mail: mwdoyle@.bsu.edu
Course Webpage: < http://mwdoyle.iweb.bsu.edu/hist_240/ >
Office Hours: Thurs., 2:00-4:00 P.M. and by appt.
[HST240SQ.W11.Rev]
HISTORY 240 / Sec. 001: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HISTORY
Spring Semester 2012
Week 11 Reading Assignment Study Questions
Public Historians, Documentary Filmmaking, and Digital History
James B. Gardner and Peter S. LaPaglia, eds., Public History: An Introduction (2nd ed.; Malabar, Fla.: Krieger,
2004), Nina Gilden Seavey, “Film and Media Producers: Taking History off the Page and Putting It on the
Screen,” 117-128; James T. Sparrow, “On the Web: The September 11 Digital Archive,” 397-415.
Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History; and Other Essays on American Memory (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1996), “The Virtual Past: Media and History Museums,” 101-114.
Mary Fortunak, “Limberlost Paradise Documentary: Professor Profiles Writer Featuring Stories of Indiana
legend,” Ball State Daily News (16 October, 1996), 6.
Nancy Carlson, “Public History Video” and “Steps to Follow for Video Packages” guest presentation outlines.
BSU Libraries handout: “Resources in Telecommunications”
BSU Telecommunications Department handout: “Get Involved!”
John B. Straw, “News from the Digital Media Repository: Statistics Show Increasing Use of New Civil War
Digital Resources by Students, Faculty, and Researchers,” The Library Insider [Publication of Ball State
University Archives] Vol. 4 Issue 7 (July 2006).
“Manzanar: Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire,” News Center [Ball State University] (6 February, 2007)
Ronald Blumer, “So You Want to Make a Documentary History?” History News Network (4 November, 2002).
Kathleen McDonogh, “Constructing a Historical Documentary: A Director’s Take” Perspectives [American
Historical Association newsletter] 41:9 (December 2003), 29-32, 65.
Brian McNeill, “Show Seeks Drama, Fun in History,” Charlottesville Daily Progress (15 March, 2008).
Meg Bernhardt, “Battlefield Tours Go High-Tech,” York Daily Record (12 March, 2007).
Randy Kennedy, “At Museums: Invasion of the Podcasts,” New York Times (19 May, 2006).
Michael Cieply and Ben Sisario, “Film on Abu Gharaib Puts Focus on Paid Interviews,” New York Times (26
April, 2008).
Stephen Mihm, “Everyone’s a Historian Now: How the Internet – and you – will make history deeper, richer,
and more accurate,” Boston Globe (25 May, 2008).
“Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web,” Center for History
and New Media (George Mason University).
“Walk Like An Egyptian – Or A Roman: Experience What The Past Really Looked Like,” ScienceDaily.com
(15 May 2007)
Michael Ventre, “Movies no place to learn real history,” MSNBC.com (2 December, 2008).
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Gardner: Nina Gilden Seavey, “Film and Media Producers: Taking History off the Page and
Putting It on the Screen,” 117-128:
1. Documentary films are increasingly becoming the most popular method of
presenting history to a mass audience. For a majority of Americans, historical
documentaries may be their only exposure to history. Historians have been slow to
embrace this relatively new medium of historical interpretation. Characterize the
current relationship between historians and documentary filmmakers according to
Seavey. What role have historians typically played in the process of historical
multimedia production?
2. Identify one important result of this schism between documentary filmmakers
and historians.
3. Where no visual evidence exists, what techniques are used by filmmakers to
represent events which occurred in the past?
4. What effect do these techniques tend to have on the documentary producer’s use
of historical evidence? What is their intended effect on the viewer?
5. Describe the techniques that ideally should be considered when drafting scripts
for historical documentaries.
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6. What conclusions does Seavey draw concerning historians and the use of visual
media in the production of history documentaries?
Gardner: James T. Sparrow, “On the Web: The September 11 Digital Archive,” 397-415:
1. According to Sparrow, what three cautions does historian Mike Wallace have
concerning web-based history?
2. How has the rise of the World Wide Web affected the practice of history,
particularly public history, according to Sparrow?
3. Describe how in what specific ways the Web has, in Sparrow’s words, “unleashed
an enthusiasm and participatory ethos in the public experience of history”?
4. What are Web sites which are devoted to interpreting “real-world” communities
such as those in Brainerd, Kansas and Rowville-Lysterfield in Australia are
attempting to accomplish, according to Sparrow?
5. What special dilemmas did curators at museums such as the National Museum of
American History, the Museum of the city of New York, and those employed by the
Exploring and Collecting History Online (ECHO) project face when dealing with the
events of September 11?
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6. How did the ECHO project’s methods in gathering and cataloguing the public’s
response to September 11 differ from those employed after Pearl Harbor? What were
the benefits of the ECHO project’s approach?
7. What initial organizational challenges were the ECHO team and its partners forced
to confront in their establishment of the September 11 Digital Archive?
8. What were the basic features of the September 11 Digital Archive’s media plan, and
how were they developed?
9. As Web-history sites search for credibility, what opportunity does Sparrow see for
museums and public history institutions? What advice does Sparrow offer for how
this opportunity should be used?
Wallace: “The Virtual Past: Media and History Museums,” pp. 101-114:
1. Describe the audience’s participatory role at the showing of an “Interfilm.”
2. According to Wallace, how is technology used in the preservation and
interpretation of history at the Ellis Island museum?
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3. How is history presented in a more “personalized” fashion at the following three
sites: the South Australian Maritime Museum, the National Museum of American
History, and the Holocaust Museum?
4. What is the plan for the JASON Project at the National Museum and Galleries in
Merseyside/Liverpool to make it World Wide Web accessible to visitors?
5. Wallace writes of several museums which have plans for or already have virtual
museum sites on the World Wide Web. Two of them, the Virtual Birkenau
[http://www.remember.org/auschwitz] and Castle Tollet in Austria
[fgidec1.tuwien.ac.at] are up and running. Go to either of these sites and explain
how they are being used to represent the museum of the future as Wallace envisions
it.
6. What “democratic possibilities” does Wallace see in direct access to museums via
CD-ROM or the Internet?
7. Wallace identifies two possible problems in the coming “virtualization” of
museums. Identify them.
8. What do some museologists fear may happen if they don’t successfully resist the
further introduction of new interpretive technology in museum settings?
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9. What is Wallace’s main worry in the virtual recreation of historic sites and
museums?
10. What two suggestions does Wallace present for museums who wish to begin
“interpreting the world of media”?
11. What is the purpose of the “Reel Jungle” video that accompanies the
Smithsonian’s rainforest exhibit?
12. How does the National Maritime Museum in London compare the popular
myths surrounding high seas piracy with its more sordid historical reality?
13. What three routes does Wallace recommend for museums to explore when they
create community history videos?
Mary Fortunak, “Limberlost Paradise Documentary: Professor Profiles Writer Featuring Stories
of Indiana legend,” Ball State Daily News (16 October, 1996), 6:
1. What images did Nancy Carlson use in her documentary?
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2. In what ways was the Limberlost documentary a piece of advocacy?
Nancy Carlson, “Public History Video” and “Steps to Follow for Video Packages”
guest presentation outlines:
1. According to this handout, what four steps are involved in the production of a
documentary?
2. According to this handout, what six steps are available in the post-production of a
documentary?
BSU Libraries handout: “Resources in Telecommunications”:
1. What is included in this handout?
BSU Telecommunications Department handout: “Get Involved!”:
1. What is WBST-FM, and what opportunities does it offer for students?
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2. What is the Media Lab, and what does it offer for students?
John B. Straw, “News from the Digital Media Repository: Statistics Show Increasing Use of New
Civil War Digital Resources by Students, Faculty, and Researchers,” The Library Insider
[Publication of Ball State University Archives] Vol. 4 Issue 7 (July 2006):
1. What is the primary goal of Ball State University’s Digital Media Repository?
2. What data does Straw use to support the importance of the Digital Media
Repository?
“Manzanar: Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire,” News Center [Ball State University]
(6 February, 2007):
1. What is the “Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire” program?
2. Identify the three partners involved in the “Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire”
program.
Ronald Blumer, “So You Want to Make a Documentary History?” History News Network
(4 November, 2002):
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1. What tips does this article give for making documentaries of historical periods
before the invention of photography?
2. What are the four elements of historical film making?
Kathleen McDonogh, “Constructing a Historical Documentary: A Director’s Take” Perspectives
[American Historical Association newsletter] 41:9 (December 2003), 29-32, 65:
1. In her A World Inscribed, the author says she strove to strike a balance between
what two things?
2. What images were used in the making of A World Inscribed?
3. According to this article, how was sound and music used to add meaning to A World
Inscribed?
Brian McNeill, “Show Seeks Drama, Fun in History,” Charlottesville Daily Progress
(15 March, 2008):
1. Describe the new radio show, “Backstory…With the American History Guys.”
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2. How is the producer making sure that the new radio show does not go over the
heads of its listeners?
Meg Bernhardt, “Battlefield Tours Go High-Tech,” York Daily Record (12 March, 2007):
1. According to this article, why did Gettysburg Battlefield create a free downloadable
podcast walking tour?
Randy Kennedy, “At Museums: Invasion of the Podcasts,” New York Times (19 May, 2006):
1. According to this article, what various groups make museum podcasts?
2. According to this article, what issues did Peter Samis of the San Francisco Museum
of Modern Art have to deal with in the perfecting of the museum’s podcasts?
Michael Cieply and Ben Sisario, “Film on Abu Gharaib Puts Focus on Paid Interviews,”
New York Times (26 April, 2008):
1. According to this article, is it considered acceptable to pay interviewees for their
interviews? Why or why not?
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2. According to this article, why do some professionals feel that it should be acceptable
to pay interviewees for their interviews?
Stephen Mihm, “Everyone’s a Historian Now: How the Internet – and you – will make history
deeper, richer, and more accurate,” Boston Globe (25 May, 2008):
1. What comparison does the author make in his first two paragraphs?
2. According to this article, what is “crowdsourcing”?
3. In an era of “crowdsourcing,” what does this article have to say about the role of the
modern historian?
“Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web,” Center
for History and New Media (George Mason University).
1. What is the purpose of this guide?
“Walk Like An Egyptian – Or A Roman: Experience What the Past Really Looked Like,”
ScienceDaily.com (15 May 2007):
1. What are researchers from the Warwick Manufacturing Group seeking to do?
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2. How has new technology contributed to the work done by the Warwick
Manufacturing Group?
Michael Ventre, “Movies no place to learn real history,” MSNBC.com (2 December, 2008):
1. Explain the “current of discontent” that the author says is often stirred by the
release of a new movie based on history.
2. Why does Allan Lichtman say that even speculative and problematic history movies
sometimes have a beneficial impact? Does Rick Jewell agree or disagree with
Lichtman and why?
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