Abstract:
This thesis explores the rhetoric of online history exhibits and the methods historians
employ to translate the physical into the virtual. I begin by explaining the evolving
relationship between history and digital technologies, more specifically the relationship
between history and the web. The data for my study come from six interviews with
historians who work and conduct research in both physical and virtual museum exhibits
in institutions in the greater Washington, D.C. area: Timothy Grove from the National
Air and Space Museum; Sharon Leon from the Center for History and New Media
(CHNM); Nicole Osier from the Civil War Preservation Trust; and Laura O’Hara,
Kathleen Johnson, and Matthew Wasniewski from the Clerk’s Office of History and
Preservation. The latter half of my study investigates the pedagogical extension of these
online historical museum exhibits and the ways in which historians see their digital work
aligning with teacher’s curricula.
