Blog Post 1

During the past week, I had learned that technology is constantly evolving; nothing is considered as a new idea in today’s society because it has all already been done in earlier years in a different form such as how a radiophone dance from the roaring 20s has been modernized into what we now know as a silent disco. Technology has become such an integral part of history due to the New Deal under FDR as it paved the way for new ideas and gave birth to a new era of technological advances. I have also learned that because of this connection history and technology have a mutual connection since certain parts in history can be traced to some advancement in history. Throughout the semester, I hope to lean about how technology impacted the humanities throughout the 30s and hopefully through part of the 40s; more specifically, how technology helped progress projects covered under the new deal and how it helps us better understand the 1930s in today’s time. I’m also looking forward to learning more about these programs that the New Deal created such as the Federal Art Project and the Federal Music Project and how technology played a role in allowing these programs to thrive in the time period they were created in.

The project I was assigned to review is called “By the People”. The digital exhibit showcases different campaigns ranging from the civil war to women’s suffrage that allows you to explore the supporting documents that go with that campaign. At first, I couldn’t comprehend what I was looking at, but with further investigation I was able to better grasp the concept of the website. The layout of the website allows you to explore different subjects written by the people and for the people; once you dive further into a campaign you can see the multitude of documents that go with that specific campaign. The website itself was easy to navigate and can be accessed by anyone that would want to read about the campaigns and understand what occurred during that time period. I found it to be very insightful not only for the sheer amount of documents that the campaign includes but also because of the experiences that they went through then that we can read about now to better understand the movements that made society what it is now.

Sources:

(n.d.). By The People beta. Retrieved from https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns-topics/

Miriam. (2014, February 1). How did they make that? Retrieved from http://miriamposner.com/blog/how-did-they-make-that/