Presbyterians and the Civil War:
Witness to a Great Moral Earthquake (produced by The Presbyterian Historical
Society: The National Archives of the PC (USA)) http://www.history.pcusa.org/resources/exhibits/civil_war/,
Created and Maintained by the Presbyterian Historical society, Reviewed March
27 to March 29, 2013
During the last few
decades, outreach has become one of the archivist’s most vital functions. As
Laura A. Millar explains, archival outreach, including digitization, not only
entails making archival holdings available, but also explaining the
institution’s ‘…value and purpose.’[1]
The Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) has cemented their online presence by
making selected materials from the Presbyterian Church’s national archives
available through virtual exhibits such as Presbyterians
and the Civil War: Witness to a Great Moral Earthquake. Although PHS
explores the conflicts Presbyterians experienced during the Civil War through
primary sources, they have focused on availability at the expense of educating
the public on the value and purpose of their holdings.
PHS uses several thematic concepts to convey
their message: the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America;
the Presbyterian Church’s efforts to care for soldiers and freedman; the
theological debates between Presbyterians over slavery and secession; and the
individual stories of famous Presbyterians. Despite PHS’s efforts, the digital
exhibit only superficially examines these themes. For example, PHS’s exhibit on
Abraham Lincoln notes that, while Lincoln did not belong to a specific
religious denomination, he spent the majority of his life attending Presbyterian
services. While this may be an intriguing factoid, it does nothing to
illuminate Lincoln’s place in history, or the Church’s effect on the Civil War.
Did the Presbyterian Church’s doctrine somehow affect Lincoln’s policies during
his presidency or his overall philosophy? This deficiency partially stems from
PHS neglecting to define its audience. Is the exhibit supposed to be for school
children and non-Presbyterians who know little about the church, or
Presbyterians?
Further problems
arise due to PHS’s ineffective use of digital technology. Throughout the
exhibit, PHS provides visitors with digitized images of documents pertaining to
the Civil War. Unfortunately, visitors are not able to access more than one
page of a digitized letter or sermon, nor does it not allow patrons to use
magnification features to study the documents, or access transcriptions of the
documents themselves. This severely limits the usefulness of the digitized
items, relegating them to glorified set pieces for the text. This also prevents
PHS from creating lesson plans for K-12 students; teachers will be able to do
little with an 870 by 1086 image.
Although PHS has
created a user-friendly website, it will need several revisions before it will
become a quality exhibit. PHS will need to research what their materials say
about American society during the Civil War; it will serve no one to state
simply that Abraham Lincoln was a Presbyterian. The creators of Presbyterians and the Civil War will
also need to define their core audience. Once they have answered these
questions, they will need to reformat their digitized collections, allowing
visitors to magnify documents and view more than one page of a document.
Although implanting these changes will be a challenge, the society’s donation
program could provide a possible solution, allowing PHS could maximize its
resources and improve Presbyterians and
the Civil War, thereby generating more visitors and future donors.
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