Meet the Presidents & the Oval Office Online Exhibit

        

Throughout the course of the semester; we have gone over and analyzed what Public History is, as well as the methods that many public historians use, especially taking advantage of the evolution of technology to do things such as, collect records, getting and recording personal accounts of certain events, and plenty of other amazing methods, combined with the use of technology, to spread to larger audience, for that audience reading or watching the interviews that are conducted, to get a much better understanding of not only these historical events themselves, but get an even deeper and better understanding of the people there, and how these historical events affected them, in a way bringing a greater amount of authenticity into these events. In this paper, we will be discussing a perfect example of what public historians can achieve, especially with today’s technology, and rapid growth of the internet. We will be analyzing and discussing an online exhibit, and that online exhibit is the “Meet the Presidents” exhibit on the website nyhistory.org. 

    Nyhistory.org’s exhibit titled “Meet the Presidents”, is an interactive exhibit, with many different sections to choose from. The exhibit covers the overall history of all the presidents of the United States, such as how the position was established, and how the 1st President George Washington handled his position and how he established his cabinet as well. Every section in this exhibit has one correlating theme, and that theme is that it revolves around not only the history of the position itself, but it also focuses on how historically these presidents have acted on their duties to serve the country. The purpose of the exhibit is merely that, to give those reading and exploring the site a better understanding on the duties of the president, and how they acted on their roles historically, and how different presidents throughout history did things differently than others who held that same position. 

Public history is a big part of this exhibit, as all sections use evidence such as pictures of documents, and furniture at the time such as chairs, or bibles, are used and they credit the museums that currently hold these documents as well. The usage of these documents is essential to the exhibit, because as previously mentioned before, it gives out a feeling of authenticity, for those who are reading to see, that these are real documents, written by these former presidents, or these books kept by the museums, were actual books, that were once being read by these former presidents. The exhibit also does a good job with organization, as the history that it is discussing is written and displayed within the exhibit, is done and discussed in a chronological fashion, helping the readers and those engaged with the exhibit, to basically follow the story in order. The section is best displayed under the “Presidents Timeline” section in the exhibit, as there it not only lists the presidents, their portraits, and years served all in chronological order, but it alongside these presidents, this section of the exhibit, also lists important and crucial events within U.S. history, such as events like the Civil War, both World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, 9/11, etc. Doing this helps the reader better understand the state of the country as well as the state of the world during these different time periods. 

The “Meet the Presidents” exhibit, is a very interesting exhibit, and gives a very eye opening display of history, and gives all those interacting, not only an educational and informative presentation, but the exhibit is very much, a fun one to use as well, as near the end of the exhibit, it gives those interacting with the exhibit, an opportunity to play a game called “Playing the President”, which is a fun and interactive simulation, of a president’s first 100 days in office, and the game is played through the point of view of the president, with that president specifically being Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The game’s objectives are for the player to choose what kind of legislation to pass, with one of the choices being what FDR actually passed, as well as an alternate form of legislation being the other choice. Adding an interactive game to the exhibit, is not only fun and entertaining, but like we covered before and like we’ll reiterate now, blending fun and informative, makes those interacting with the exhibit, to enjoy it more, as not only will they be having fun playing the game, imagining their own presidency through the simulation, but they will learn more about the position of the presidency.

In conclusion, nyhistory.org’s “Meet the President” exhibit is not only a very organized, interesting, and informative exhibit, but an incredibly fun one at that. The use of public history methods, such as usage of real life documents and photos, the chronological style in which the history is discussed, as well as fun aspects, such as the interactive game included in thai exhibit, really make it worth visiting and interacting with. The chronological list of presidents with important and crucial historical events in not only America, but the world as well, is also a great addition to this exhibit, as it gives the user a better understanding of the situations during that time period, and it really gives an authentic feel and experience. Certainly an exhibit worth checking out, and certainly one I will be showing to others.