The Circus in America

http://www.circusinamerica.org/public/

1) Selection decisions

• Created by IATH (Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities), Project Director: Lavahn Hoh Lavahn Hoh.


• IATH's website says their central mission is to provide scholars in the humanities with the time, the tools, and the techniques to document and interpret the human record in electronic form.


• The Circus in America exhibition notes in its introduction that historians have spent time tracing the of the modern circus to late eighteenth century England, but the circus reached its height as a popular art form in nineteenth and twentieth century America. But to date there is no authoritative study, integrated with digital resources, that addresses this uniquely American cultural institution. Therefore this is the first digital collection that encompasses the 150 year period in America in which the circus was at its peak.


• Part of the reason for this it says, is because much of the circus artifacts available are scattered in various places, so this collection combines: archival, library, and museum resources, as well as essays, maps, timelines, images, and videos that help contextualize and interpret these materials.


• The site focuses on six major circuses, and breaks the timeline down into six periods.

2) Metadata

• Metadata on the photos and videos was suprisingly limited. Most of the images came from the Witte museum in San Antonio, and I couldn't quite figure out where the videos came from. Annoyingly, a lot of the pictures that could be enlarged for a better look had obnoxious red writing all over it about the copyright infringement, making it very hard to get a closer look. Couldn't they have put that off to the side?


• The textual information provided by the site is also made availabe as an electronic book/PDF pamphlet.


• The Bibliography is a bit hidden at the bottom of the website, it's labeled "resources."


• Some of the photos used to enchance the textual portion of the website weren't able to be enlarged, and didn't display any metadata as to where it came from.

3) Object Characteristics

• The site includes historical textual information on the circus, also available as a PDF.


• Sounds of the circus is a audio link, but only one of the tracks can actually be listened to, the others are on their way. The audio track that could be listened to--a clip of a sideshow speiler--was easily accessible.


• The videos needed quicktime to view, which stinks! So I haven't watched them yet, I'm still in search of a computer that already has that software downloaded so I don't have waste space on my computer with it.


• There were some modern maps included to give an idea of the routes taken and cities visited.


• Images were included, most of them from the Whitte Museum in San Antonio. A lot of what was added are sketches or paintings rather than actual photos.


• Essays and videos of presentations by specialists on the subject are available under special attractions--VERY COOL

4) Intended audience

• Scholars, researchers and historians trying to piece together American history


• Anyone with an interest in circuses, or American pastimes.