Review No 2:
First I have to admit
that I am not using the Clio site for the blogs
I’m reviewing.
I got to looking and,
well, you know how that is, so I hope that is ok.
I found this blog
during a perusal of
“100 Awesome Blogs for History Junkies” published by Best Colleges Online.
That said, this blog might not be construed as a history blog as it is a photo journaling of the unfolding fate of the legendary Hotel Chelsea, home to a dizzying parade of 19th and 20th century artists, musicians, poets, authors, …you name it.
I was ignorant of this monument to human angst and creativity until I was actually upon the building on my second visit ever to New York just a few years ago and its haunting story inevitably captured my heart and imagination.
What intrigues me about this rather amateurish blog is the
wonderful raw content of the photographs, which makes it a treasure trove of
that irresistible stuff, “primary evidence”.
In many ways the most enduring kind of history blog is one
which is unique, and a photo journaling of any event is going to be just
that. Not everyone has access to this
building and especially not at this particular time in its history, and to keep
a visual record of its renovation is to create a digital archive that really
might endure.
more to come.....
Unlike the first blog I reviewed, this blog is rather raw, but I like that style in this case. It is genuine, gusty and unpretentious. The author, Ed Hamilton, uses the blog as a "repository of history, lore, and memoir" NYT, Dec 19, 2006 . He began it in 2006 after a fire incident in the hotel corralled its inhabitants and created the scenario for shared stories. He keeps a running list of links to literary references, news reports, articles, and just about anything else that refers to the hotel. This runs down the left side of his blog
Unlike the first blog I reviewed, this blog is rather raw, but I like that style in this case. It is genuine, gusty and unpretentious. The author, Ed Hamilton, uses the blog as a "repository of history, lore, and memoir" NYT, Dec 19, 2006 . He began it in 2006 after a fire incident in the hotel corralled its inhabitants and created the scenario for shared stories. He keeps a running list of links to literary references, news reports, articles, and just about anything else that refers to the hotel. This runs down the left side of his blog
providing a rich archive of the hotel's illustrious past. earlier posts mix photographs with good explanatory texts and I for one would have liked to have seen this continue, though yet again I applaud the consistency of the photos which can capture so much more than words.
And.....now I know how to make a screen shot on my Mac that selects a particular area....thank you class!
This reminds me of the part in Digital History where they discuss the value of a site in spite of its design. KLC
ReplyDeleteI tend to like these kind of sites. Great class last night and such an interesting group of people.
Delete