The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, the World Wide Web, and the Public Humanities

The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
(Lincoln Project) at Northern Illinois University presents
primary source materials shedding light upon Abraham
Lincoln's life and context in antebellum Illinois (1831-1861)
on its Lincoln/Net World Wide Web site ( <http://linco
ln.lib.niu.edu> ). Begun in 1998 as a model digital
library project, it has gathered texts and images (over
twenty-five million words of text, and over 2500 images) from
significant historical collections in the state of Illinois in a single
set of searchable databases, and thus dramatically expanded
the ability of students, teachers, scholars, and the public to use
them.
But the Lincoln Project has grown to become more than a large
digital library. It also features original interpretive materials,
written by leading scholars, which help the site's users to think
about the historical context in which Lincoln lived, and in which
he and his contemporaries produced the historical materials on
display. In recent years the project has also produced a
documentary film examining Lincoln's role in the Black Hawk
War of 1832 and a nationwide reading program for public
libraries (in collaboration with the American Library
Association). These projects have added new resources to the
web site, including over one hundred streaming video clips
featuring segments of the project film and leading scholars
discussing major themes in this period's history.
While scholarly researchers make wide use of the Lincoln/Net
site, the Lincoln Project also represents an attempt to use the
opportunities presented by digital technology and the World
Wide Web to expand the scope and effectiveness of the public
humanities.
These opportunities have emerged at several levels. First, a
web site like Lincoln/Net provides its users with an opportunity
to explore primary source materials within an integrated
learning environment including interpretive materials. Many
digital library users who are not professional scholars often
wonder "What should I search for?" These secondary resources
help site users to learn about the fundamental questions that
scholars ask about this period in American history. They also
help site users to begin to fashion research questions with which
they may explore the databases. This ability to pursue original
explorations in primary source materials can contribute in new,
rare ways to the public's appreciation for historical contingency
and change.
The World Wide Web and digital technology also provide a
new opportunity to support and enrich more traditional
humanities programming. Traditional public programs in the
humanities provide isolated opportunites to attend lectures,
films, symposia, or other events. But often attendees are left
with nothing more than the few notes they may have scribbled
during the event. The World Wide Web provides an opportunity
to furnish program attendees with an opportunity to follow up
their lecture experience with further explorations in pertinent
primary source materials and additional scholars' interpretations
of them. A web site also provides more prosaic services: the
opportunity to read the text of the original lecture at one's
leisure, or the ability to view a film again via streaming digital
video.
While many members of the ACH and ALLC have devoted their
efforts to devising new scholarly applications for digital
technology and the World Wide Web, I would like to argue
that they represent an unprecedented opportunity for scholars
to open a new dialogue with members of the public who may
harbor an interest in humanities subjects, but find little
opportunity to nourish it. I have built the Abraham Lincoln
Historical Digitization Project on the hypothesis that a
significant segment of the public harbors an interest not only
in exploring primary source materials, but also in imbibing and
considering scholars' research questions and conclusions. The
Lincoln/NetWorld Wide Web site thus presents an opportunity
for these scholars to reach out to a new audience, not by
persuading the public to read their monographs or textbooks,
but by boiling their research conclusions down into readily
accessible interpretations of the primary source materials that
are, thanks to new technology, readily at hand.
This public discourse can serve the humanities well. It can
return them to the civic role that they often enjoyed before the
era of ever-narrower scholarly specialization. Increased
appreciation for, and comprehension of, scholarly work by even
a limited segment of the public can also prove valuable in a
political climate that has often witnessed taxpayer assaults upon
university and college budgets.
I hope that this poster presentation and/or paper will lead
conference attendees to consider using new technology to do
more than refine research techniques, and reach out to a public
audience.