Katie Douthitt

The initial start of my research began with the search engine JSTOR, accessed through the George Mason University online library. I used the keywords “History of the District Columbia 1989-2013” as my starting point to find different articles about Washington D.C. starting from 1989. A variety of journals, each displaying different topics, were available starting with dates as early as 1900. I pulled three journals from this specific search. The next step of the assignment was to search the key phrase “Records of the Columbia Historical Society” looking for articles dating before 1989.

The first article was published by the Journal of Negro Education during the summer of 1999. The journal, Recruiting, Supporting, and Retaining New Teachers: A Retrospective Look at Programs in the District of Columbia Public Schools, is about looking back at a wide range of programs starting in the 1960s to help teachers in the D.C. area make education more engaging for students. The funding came from federal money. However, the programs eventually faded away as did the programs.

The program was originally called the Cardozo Project but renamed to Urban Teacher Corps (UTC). It was based on an internship platform of taking people who did not have a background in education (or very little) and grouping them with five other interns, all receiving a small stipend, who would work with a senior teacher. They would teach two classes in the morning then take seminars in the afternoon about education.

The difference with this article compared to the more recent articles was the layout style and content. Two out of the three other articles which are from 2004 and 2010 both used a significant amount of statistics, graphs, and comparisons. This article did have statistics and facts that could have been formatted into graphs but instead was displayed through sentences. It was more like reading a story instead of reading facts and information set up in a more visual way.

Citation: Judy U. Aaronson The Journal of Negro Education , Vol. 68, No. 3, Recruiting, Preparing, and Retaining Qualified Teachers to Educate All of America’s Children in the 21st Century (Summer, 1999) , pp. 335-342

The second article was published by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention on March 19, 2004. The name of the article is Tuberculosis Outbreak in a Community Hospital-District of Columbia, 2002. In this article, the names of the hospital are disclosed and the writer uses “Hospital A” and “Hospital B” instead. Another difference in the writing style is the article is broken up into sections instead of being clumped together like the article from 1999. Each section is about 5-6 sentences long, some with charts and graphs about statistics on patients who had Tuberculosis. The references was also set up differently, this article uses footnotes while the previous article used MLA formatting.

Citation: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , Vol. 53, No. 10 (March 19, 2004) , pp. 214-216

The third article was also published by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention on June 25th 2010. The article called, Expanded HIV Testing and Trends in Diagnoses of HIV Infection-District of Columbia, 2004-2008, was to raise awareness to D.C. residents. This article like the other CDC article had statistics and numbers from different HIV tests done on numerous people across the United States. However, the difference is that it is more focused on raising awareness on how fast the disease is spreading throughout America. There is an added sub article about National HIV Testing Day-June 27th to allow the readers to know how serious the disease is and to get tested. Compared to the first article, this article is focused on facts and not story telling.

Citation: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report , Vol. 59, No. 24 (June 25, 2010) , pp. 737-741

The final article was searched by using the key phrase “Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington D.C. before 1989.” The article was published by Penn State University Press in January 1973. This article like the first one is more opinionated and focused on telling a story rather then giving facts. It is not chopped up into different sections but put together like pages out of a book.

In my opinion it makes reading articles like this and the one on education from 1999 more difficult and less interesting to read simply due to the format and styling of the article. There are no key words or statistics making it more of a process or to retain information.

Citation: Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D. C., 1969-1970 by Francis C. Rosenberger Review by: Melville J. Boyer Pennsylvania History , Vol. 40, No. 1 (JANUARY, 1973) , pp. 112-113

The District of Columbia is filled with history of numerous events that took place within the past couple centuries. I began my primary research on the website for National Archives and Records Administration. The section I went to was the Digital Copies Records Search that has different forms of multimedia such as images of historic events.

I looked at images from the Watergate after it was broken into by five burglars.

The sources came from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the National Archives Rotunda under exhibit history: “American Originals” and the National Archives at College Park, MD.

The image was taken in North West Washington D.C of the Watergate building. The photograph was used in the trial of Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy to provide an image to the court. It is clear that this is the Watergate building for two reasons, one it is clearly documented under the National Archives and the building is still intact today making it clear that it is the same structure.

The Digital Copies Records gives a basic summary of what the images were used for and their significance. Each archive is broken down into 5 sections. Consisting of Details, Scope and Content, Archived Copies, Digital Copies, and Hierarchy.

The types of archival materials used were photographs and other graphic materials. Other information given is the contacts, information on restriction levels, record types, variant control numbers, and index terms to locate the image.

The Archived Copies gives information on were to find the actual printed image(s) and what type of media it was, for example the image is printed on paper.

For this primary source I went through each section an analyzed what information was given and how it was helpful to the primary image. The National Archive website is useful for multimedia and it was easy to navigate. The images itself didn’t give off that much information about the Watergate break in but was acknowledged as important photographs because of its usage in trial.

Found under Exhibit History:”American Originals,” December 1997-December 1998, National Archives Rotunda, Washington, DC, Exhibit No. 624.0220

The second primary source I researched was from the Map section of the Library of Congress. The map I chose was an image of Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, and Potomac waterfront. in 1883. It was published in Baltimore and gives a birds eye perspective of what these areas  looked like in the 19th century. There is still a lot of vegetation in the map, showing that at this time in history Georgetown and Foggy Bottom were still in the process of development.

The sources of this map comes from A. Sachse & Co (Baltimore, MD) and Library of Congress Geography and Map Division.

The contextualization of the map is not drawn to scale making the actual sizes of locations inaccurate. Certain details of these areas could have been left out since it was only a drawing and not a photograph.

The District of Columbia. Library of Congress Catalog Number: 75694904. Digital ID: g3851a pm001090. Call number: G3851.A3 1883. S3

The Library of Congress Maps section provides information about the image including the title, contributor names, where it was published and created, notes, the size, where it can be found in the Library of Congress, and the digital ID.

The maps are provided to the public as a tool for education and research purposes.

I found that working with Maps as a primary resource can be more challenging to work with because details could have been left out due to the fact that most maps in the 18-20th century were hand drawn. That makes the process of getting concrete information on a specific location difficult because it is not certain whether or not the map has all of the information provided.

The first website I began research on was Innercity.org. The website is an independent research project focused on education. The website depends entirely on donations by the viewers.

The section of the website that I chose to read about is focused on the history of a mansion called the Holt House. It is now used by the Smithsonian’s National Zoo but was originally used for medical research. This section of the website is devoted to the history of Slavery in America. The website displays a chronological order of Slavery through the years up until it ended in 1865.

The website was originally created by a member of the Columbia Heights community, Eddie Becker. Other people who are members of the community have contributed too.  Some are members of churches while others are run youth group programs. In one way or another the members who helped create the website www.innercity.org all impact the community in some way. Their passion for the community and raising awareness to the websites viewers in some ways is creditable, however their information is based solely on the research that these members have done themselves. It potentially could have mislead or misunderstood information in the contents of the website. The website is broken down into different categories, focusing on important contributions to Columbia Heights that make the community different from others.

Before starting this assignment I knew nothing of the website or what the Holt House was. The website is designed for people to learn more about the Columbia Heights area, or if they are new to the area to have a basic understanding of the history of the community. Since the website is dependent on donations, the quality is low and can be confusing to navigate. I found that the websites design made it difficult to take some of the information seriously and outdated. If I had to do research on the history of Slavery of America I would not use this website as a source.

An image of the Holt House being overgrown by vegetation

The second website I chose to review was A More Perfect Union. The producer of the website is the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The website is based on the Japanese American experience. The focus of the website is Japanese American women were placed in detention camps during World War II. The website is an online exhibition. Since the Smithsonian created this website, I would say it is creditable and the information is genuine. The Smithsonian has such a highly regarded reputation, that it can be assumed all of the information is true.

Image of Japanese Americans packing up their belongings

Before researching this website, I was aware that the Smithsonian Museums would make online exhibitions but I did not know about this one. I believe this website is designed for anyone who expresses interest in the history between Japan and America or anyone who is genuinely interested in history.

The exhibition has a summarized history of the Japanese involvement with America starting from the early stages of Japanese immigrating to America in the early 1900s to Pearl Harbor then to present time Japanese in the United States. Overall it is a time line of events.

The website/exhibition was simply done and easy to navigate. It was easy to recognize were information was located. Another nice aspect of the website was pictures and audio was included.

I am currently a senior and majoring in Foreign Languages with a focus in Chinese. My passion and interest revolves around the history, culture, and language of China. My interest in China came from a High School study abroad program I did to Beijing and Qingdao for a summer. China was a completely different world that I wanted to learn more about and currently still pursuing my interest in the country.

I also enjoy hiking and being outdoors in general. I live a life style based around being a vegetarian and being proactive towards the humane treatment towards animals.

In the past, I have taken a blogging class at the University of Mary Washington. This class taught me the wonders of Word Press and creating media on the internet such as making YouTube videos. I was also introduced to Creative Commons, a nonprofit group that allows work to be shared over the internet easily.

I have also worked with social media closely during two of my internships at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and Freer|Sackler Gallery. During these two internships, I worked in the Public Relations department, I would monitor the twitter, facebook, and Quora websites for each museum. I became especially fond of Quora by reaching out to scientist and researchers with questions that followers would ask the Natural History Museum. I also became familiar with Google and all that is offered on this search engine.

Currently, like any other college student I use social media websites including twitter, facebook, and instagram. I also am an avid texter on my Iphone.

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