DoHistory's Discovery Diary

DoHistory (created in 2000) is more than an archive; it is a place to discover and to embrace the tools needed to do history. The site centers itself around the diary of an American midwife Martha Ballard, an ordinary woman of the mid-eighteenth century. The website’s mission is to inspire people to do original research on ordinary people by highlighting a single case study. The diary along with other related materials (published works of the time, other diaries, letters, court documents, maps, secondary sources) are available to read online. The website, through the documents and the lessons on the basic skills for researching, provides the fundamental knowledge of how to perform history. The inspiration for the site was the research by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich for her book (and the subsequent movie by the same title), A Midwife’s Tale, which is based on Martha’s own writings.

The design, structure, and flow of the website are incredibly user friendly as it is designed for the general public. Although scholars can certainly use the primary source material available, the lessons for learning basic skills (reading the handwriting, looking at context it was written in, the style and the structure of the writing, as well as how to do original research) and the flow of the site is aimed at engaging a less educated public. That is not to say it is dumb down for general users, but the layout and the word choices are relaxed compared to scholarly sites.

The overall content is split between Martha’s diary, the archives related to her life, and information for doing historical research. Within each overall grouping, it is organized thematically by content or resource type. The thematic organization allows a casual user to go from page to page in an orderly manner. While it also allows users to go directly to pages at ease, the format suggests the user should follow the theme. Each page of Martha’s diary is accessible along with a typed transcription of the page. For one page of the diary, however, there is more interaction for the user, whom can either transcribe the page him/herself or he/she can use the magnify lens which when scrolled across the handwritten words creates a bubble with what is written in typed font.

DoHistory presents the primary source material in an unbiased, objective manner. However, where there are external links for more information they emphasize women’s history much more than general history. This creates a hindsight doubt of objectivity over what primary sources are presented. The external links seems to suggest that users should look at the sources from a woman’s perception rather than a more neutral one.

In addition, while the site does provide some discussion of life in general at the time, most of what is reference relates back to Martha’s life. There is a timeline predating and postdating her life that mentions events that either affected her life directly (colonial events, the Revolutionary War) or indirectly (published debates over proper birthing attendants). However, it would be more useful if there were more information about colonial America and other related topics in order to understand and appreciate the context in which Martha writes. Overall, the website is a gem: it is engaging, interactive, fun, and informative.