A Review of the Virtual Exhibit Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic| By Brandon Lee

 

The virtual exhibit Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic, located on the website colonistscitizensconstitutions.org, is a fully interactive digital exhibit that allows users to observe various significant documents in American history. Said virtual exhibit consists of forty items that all reflect notions of self-governance pertaining to American history from British inscribed Charters to State Constitutions. Moreover, the exhibit, within the interactive space, declared that the purpose of the exhibit is to "highlight documents that tell the story of American constitutionalism from the founding era through the turn of the twentieth century." [1] Further, the curators of the virtual exhibit explained, within, the exhibit's introduction, that they want the exhibit's users to have easy access to texts and documents that allow said users to comprehend the significance of self-governance. [2] Therefore, the above-noted exhibit's documents includes the 1732 Georgia Charter established by King George II; Stamp Act of 1765; Massachusetts Government Act of 1774; Charles Thomas Description of the Great Seal of the United States, 1782; Virginia Declaration of Rights 1776; New York Constitution of 1777; Resolve of the Massachusetts General Court of May 5, 1777,; Massachusetts Constitution of 1780; Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, 1777; Constitution of the United States 1787; An Antifederalist Critique of the Constitution: Pennsylvania, 1787; A Federalist Defense of the Constitution: Massachusetts, 1788; Bill of Rights as proposed by the House of Representatives (17 Amendments), 1789; Bill of Rights as Approved by Congress (12 Amendments), 1789; Certified Manuscript Copy of the Twelfth Amendment as Approved by Congress, 1803; Ohio Constitution of 1802; Illinois Constitution of 1818; Mississippi Constitution of 1832; Choctaw Nation Constitution of 1838; Rhode Island Constitution of 1842; Debates of the Louisiana Constitutional Convention of 1845; Wisconsin Constitution of 1846; Debates of the California Convention of 1849; Descret Constitution of 1872; Constitution of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, 1787; Missouri Constitution of 1820; List of Delegates to the Maine State Constitutional Convention of 1819; Constitution of the Republic of Texas, 1836; Opinion of Chief Justice Roger Taney in the Case of Dred Scott, 1857; Kansas Constitution of 1859; Alabama Ordinance of Secession of 1861; Constitution of the Confederate States of America, 1861; Louisiana Constitution of 1868; Florida Constitution of 1885; Washington Constitution of 1889; Kansas State Prohibition Amendment of 1880; Wyoming Constitution of 1889; Arizona Constitution of 1910; and the Bilingual New Mexico Constitution of 1910. [3] With all of the above noted, the following will examine the virtual history exhibit, Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic, for the sake of comprehending its significance and benefit to the field of public history regarding public engagement.

To begin, the user of the aforementioned virtual exhibit is welcome to a room that is more significant in length than width, painted in a fashion that represents the flag of the United States with the left and right walls depicting the red and white stripes of the flag while the back wall is painted blue and depicts the white stars of the flag [4]. Moreover, each document of the exhibit is protected in glass observation boxes that either sit atop white podiums or tabletops [5]. Further, documents are laid out in a manner that allows visitors to observe an entire document or the title page of a document. With that, if the exhibit were to be visited physically, visitors could read plaques that provide information pertaining to the document. Yet, being that the above exhibit exists in the digital realm, virtual users rely on different means to acquire information pertaining to the above-noted documents, which includes the user clicking directly on a yellow icon that then opens a screen that details information regarding a specified document. Therefore, once the user clicks on the above-noted yellow icon, the user is greeted by a black screen that contains white text, an audio recording recorded by the exhibit's curator, and an enlarged image of one of the aforementioned documents [6]. It is significant

to state that each of the above-noted forty documents follows the same format once its yellow icon is clicked upon. Therefore, the following documentation of the exhibit will be generalized for the sake of avoiding redundancies and unnecessary repetitions. With regard to the aforementioned black screen, the black screen contains the title of a specified document in white text, a playable audio file recorded by, as noted above, the exhibit's curator which details preliminary information and the significance of the document, and, beneath the audio file, other significant information pertaining to a document is detailed in white text [7]. For instance, when the first document of the exhibit is once clicked upon, the virtual exhibit's user can learn that the Georgia Charter of 1732 was put forth by King George II that granted certain "political authority" to specified "English subjects." [8] With that, the user of the virtual exhibit has the opportunity to interact with an enlarged image of a specified document. However, the virtual exhibit does not allow the user to view an entire document, if of course, said document is bound to a book [9]. Therefore, there are some limitations to what the virtual exhibit allows its user to do. To say the least, the virtual exhibit Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic is an easy-to-use virtual museum exhibit that allows any individual to experience and observe significant documents to American history.

To explain the significance of the virtual exhibit Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic, one should examine the significance of digitizing history as documented in the Jennifer Koslow book Public History: An Introduction From Theory to Application. Within said book, Koslow demonstrated the significance of digitizing history in chapter seven of her book titled "Digitizing History", for which it was implied that digital history has great significance in the field of public history. With regard to the notions Koslow explored, a great majority apply to the aforementioned virtual exhibit such as the notion that digitizing history allows the public to interact with historical works in a manner that they would not have been able to do prior to a document's digitization [10]. Such interaction, simply, included the ability to manipulate objects through the use of zoom features [11]. Likewise, Koslow explored the fact that many people are beginning to listen to audio files on a regular basis through the use of podcasts [12]. Therefore, being that the above-noted virtual exhibit has audio files, it can be presumed that the virtual exhibit will have great success when engaging the public in consuming historical content. With that, Koslow also reflected on the fact that many historically significant documents are sensitive and cannot be photographed [13]. Therefore, digitizing history allows the public at large to obtain access to historical documents without worrying that the documents are going to be destroyed by the use of photography. To keep it brief, Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic, is a practical example of a history project that assures public engagement when it comes to obtaining historically significant material and information in a digital space.

To conclude, Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic is a great example of a digitized historical exhibit that attempts to engage the public at large to learn about the past. Above all, the aforementioned exhibit may not be an extensive resource when it comes to the information for which it presents, but the exhibit is useful for teaching the public who may not be aware of the topic at hand. As it was reflected above, the exhibit accomplishes public engagement through the use of interactive digital objects. The above instance, then, generates a well-constructed supplement to the necessity of going to an actual museum exhibit in order to obtain worthwhile information regarding American constitutions. With everything stated above, Colonists Citizens Constitutions: Creating the American Republic is a useful tool for engaging the public at large with obtaining significant information pertaining to American history.

End Notes

[1] : Colonists Citizens Constitutions. Accessed December 15, 2022. https://colonistscitizensconstitutions.org/., 1.

[2] Ibid,. 1

[3] Ibid,. 1

[4] Ibid,. 1

[5] Ibid,. 1

[6] Ibid,. 1

[7] Ibid,. 1

[8 ]Ibid,. 1

[9] Ibid,. 1

[10] Koslow, Jennifer Lisa. Public History: An Introduction from Theory to Application. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2021., 177. 

[11] Ibid,. 177.

[12] Ibid,. 176.

[13] Ibid,. 175.