Well, I’ve spent quite a few hours researching at my college archives and at the local library going cross-eyed over micro-fiche. There are so many things I want to show and share on my website, but I need to decide what is most important to share, and what I should leave for future historians. So much of my local history is digitized, but getting permission to use actual things, instead of just linking to them as an archive, has been a challenge. I’m not sure how much money I should use on buying rights to use digitized historical works, either.
I’ve got about 10 pages of links now that I would like to use or look at for further thought. I know I will have lots of photos, lots of newspaper articles, some student yearbooks . . . And I would still like to figure out some more personal “human” stuff to share with website visitors than just the college and the war. I want to somehow create an atmosphere.
Maybe price lists, grocery information, the status of electricity, fashions – at least a little of this – to give a better picture of what was happening during this era. This will be a lot of work, but I think it would interest the public more. I may end up having many “Dig Deeper Here” links for people who want more than surface information on the topic they are studying. I’m considering a photo gallery, maybe a map incorporated into an old photo of Superior, a few documents and more. Lots to think about.
I think including price lists and other things to give the viewer an idea of what life was like in your college and city would be extremely helpful! I think that’s an excellent idea for painting a picture and crating a narrative of the era. As for using pictures and obtaining rights, I totally feel your pain – we’ve been encountering a lot of that as well, and it can be really frustrating. We asked Dr. McClurken to contact someone at our local archives, so I wonder if there is a professor at your school (or maybe Dr. Pearson or Dr. McClurken) who could do the same for you? If you have any other suggestions or things that work for you in obtaining the right to publish your digitized histories, I would love to hear them! Best of luck!