How does one take the tangled mess that is history – full of forgotten events and biased stories – and compile them into research that is relevant and interesting for today’s audience? This semester, I learned how hard that task can be for researchers, historians, and college students alike. One important lesson was the significance of storytelling when presenting research; it should always have a beginning, middle, and end, regardless of the content. Building research projects that resonate emotionally and intellectually with people is crucial to making history seem engaging. For example, working on my personal WordPress website that highlighted low-coverage events, such as the deployment of Agent Orange in Vietnam in the 1960s and its lasting effects, showed me the importance of shedding light on overlooked stories. Seeing other website ideas in class, such as those focused on population displacement or climate change, reminded me that public history is as much about rediscovery and representation as it is about education. It taught me that historical research isn’t just about facts – it’s about making those facts appeal to the public eye.
One of the most challenging aspects of this work was finding the balance between simplifying stories and keeping them nuanced. Historical events often involve many different causes, effects, and perspectives, and diluting this complexity into accessible content that’s digestible has proven to be a difficult and delicate process. When I started working on the Agent Orange website, I had to decide how to present statistical information about the chemical’s effects without overwhelming, confusing, or boring the audience. At the same time, I needed to make sure that the explanations of the effects on the survivors, which added emotional depth to the topic, were not overshadowed by the science and that readers could fully grasp the detrimental consequences of this historical event. This act required lots of editing and a mix of both emotionally evoking pages and logistical pages, making it one of the hardest parts of the project.
On the other hand, the technical aspects of this project were frustrating at times. Learning how to use software or troubleshoot glitches often felt like it distracted me from the main goal of telling a story. There were moments when I spent hours trying to resolve technical issues that seemed insignificant compared to the historical data I wanted to share. For example, trying to make a digital map display certain layers correctly or dealing with formatting problems like centering a graph on my website felt tedious and draining. However, these frustrations taught me how to be more patient, adaptable, and to seek help from peers or family members who have experience with technology. Overcoming these challenges made the final product more rewarding after knowing how much effort had gone into every detail.
Despite the challenges, I found the creative parts of this semester’s work to be extremely enjoyable. Designing interactive tools, such as maps and graphs, allowed me to add a personal touch to my shared information. I learned that data visualization tools are fundamental when publicizing historical research as they create patterns and connections between numbers that couldn’t be neatly visualized before. While listening to David McCandless’s TED Talk, I learned that such visualizations allow one to combine the language of the eye with the language of the mind. His talk exemplified this concept because the visualizations he used helped me connect what I was seeing with what I was comprehending in my mind. This process is quite gratifying because one can make sense of random data and numbers and help others do the same.
Displaying visualizations allows one to change how people think and spread knowledge that has never seemed fathomable before. For example, web pages like The Washington Post’s visualization of 75 years of major refugee crises make it easy to visualize 75 years of major refugee crises around the world at a glance. While many people are familiar with the displacement of millions of Europeans during World War II, not many people know about the displacement of one million Roman Catholics from North Vietnam to South Vietnam between 1954 and 1956. Graphs like these can help spread awareness about topics that don’t get much coverage in media or in history books, which is why I tried to incorporate such data into my own research.
Through these lessons and experiences, I learned that I enjoy researching niche historical topics and publicizing stories that haven’t gotten much light in the past. I did well at connecting seemingly unrelated pieces of data and piling them into visualizations that can resonate with others. I realized I could make history both understandable and emotionally engaging while highlighting the importance of spreading awareness on such issues. Ultimately, I came to realize that the past explains the present and helps humanity do better in the future, which is why history is so important. Spreading knowledge in accessible ways online allows people from different backgrounds to come together, engage with research, and learn about the world in new ways.
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