Author: Madelyn Knight

https://americanindian.si.edu/why-we-serve/

Why We Serve presented by the National Museum of the American Indian.

I found out I am not only fighting for the little bitty piece of land I talk about, [or] my immediate family.

I found out I was fighting for all the Indian people, all the people of the United States.

Samuel Tso (Navajo), United States Marine Corps

Honoring all of the men and women who served in the United States Military isn’t just strictly reserved for United States citizens; members of Native tribes from across the country have given their lives to help defend our nation. Why We Serve seeks to honor the generations of Native Americans who have served in the armed forces since the American Revolution.

Anyone seeking to learn more about the heroes who served in our nation’s armed forces while also belonging to native tribes and nations. The site, and the book for which the exhibit is named for, are all to commemorate the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The information found throughout the site is not overly complex, using simple terms and easy to follow narratives. The main focus is to showcase the pride that indigenous people have for their generations of service to the military and the country, albeit at times being ironic.

For most Americans, we have the vague idea that Indigenous people certainly served in armed conflict and in service to the United States, but what most don’t realize is that they have also fought in all combat situations, from the very start of the Revolutionary War up to the conflicts in the Middle East. Native American’s are certainly a group of people who do not get the recognition they deserve from anywhere other than their own community. This exhibit strives to showcase the deserving generations of proud Indigenous veterans.

For many of Americans, patriotic pride comes from not only love of ones nation, but of the honor and glory of past generations service to the military and defending the home front. This is also true to Native Americans. Many of Native Americans today serve in our nations armed forces, and in the past generations, played a crucial role in victory in wars such as the Navajo Code Talkers. This virtual exhibit shows the gallery of portraits and biographies of native veterans along with educating about the history of Native American military service. Its strengths show in the great amount of first and second hand accounts of service along with artwork and photographs.

Methodology

The viewer navigates the site through scrolling down pages along with clicking on links to move further onto another topic, either by continuation of time line or by topic selection. The main menu gives a nice overview of the topic layout along with links to explore more topics or to the view the gallery, or watch the video.

The level of ease to find your way around the site is pretty high, the layout being pretty standard, and if you do get lost, there is a handy menu bar on the right side of the screen that pulls out a site map.

The topic information pages are formatted in a linear fashion due to their subject information, but that does not mean that the viewer has to strictly stick to going to the next page to find out what happens next. I found very little areas that would need improvement, given the fact that it does come from a museum belonging to the Smithsonian Institutes, the site seems to be pretty well formatted and ease of access is exemplary.

Design and Accessibility

The whole site throughout, is filled with photographs and images of paintings and drawings, almost all done solely by Native Americans or depicting them. The main home page has a patriotic background of blue with white text and red accents around the borders of pictures or alternating blocks of red and blue. The various topic pages have other colored backgrounds of greens, reds, blues, browns and beiges.

The exhibit, like mentioned previously, has images of photographs, prints, drawings and paintings primarily done by Native Americans and belonging to the collections at the NMAI or other Smithsonian Institutes.

Each of the images used throughout the site are captioned with not only the subject matter, but if there is a person in the picture, it gives what tribe/nation they belong to along with what collection it comes from. Usually following the caption of the image, a short biography is listed on the page in correlation to the time period of the topic page.

Conclusion

The exhibit demonstrated the beautiful honor and importance of Indigenous veterans and the courage that they had to serve for our nation. The site is laid out for easy access with a continuous color scheme and style formatting. Along with the links available for the topic pages, it also gives links to a gallery of images, to the video mentioned above, the book that the exhibit takes its name from and other resources that are very informative.

One thing that really stood out to me that I had not known previous to reading all of this, was the fact that there was no memorial to any of the Native American veterans of any of the foreign or domestic wars. Fortunately, Congress did task the NMAI with creating a memorial, which now stands out front of the museum, giving all Americans the opportunity “to learn of the proud and courageous tradition of service of Native Americans.”

Dressed to the Nines: A History of the Baseball Uniform
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/index.htm

When thinking about one of America’s favorite pastimes, and when attending a game in the stadium or watching it at home, many fans of baseball wear their teams jersey to show pride and support .

The main idea of this online virtual exhibit is to educate along with entertain the public who enjoys baseball or wants to know more about America’s favorite pastime and the uniforms that the players wore and how they changed over the years. Many of those who visit this virtual exhibit would be anyone interested in the sport, especially those who visit either in person or online, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which is the host of this exhibit.

With this exhibit, viewers are able to learn more about the history of the different parts of a baseball players uniform and the background on how they were shaped and manufactured. While many a fan can tell you the main parts of the uniform, with this exhibit, we are shown the history of certain aspects. For example, when learning about the patches and armbands, we are provided a partial list for all memorial markings donned by major league clubs along with a list of commemorative patches worn by major league clubs from 1907 through the 1970s.

While viewing the exhibit, the viewer is able to learn the history of the multiple parts of the baseball uniform, from the numbers to the shoes and stockings, a timeline of baseball uniform history and a database of all uniforms worn by American, National and Federal League franchise teams.

As an integral part of baseball history and fandom, baseball uniforms have changed throughout the years, with input from both the public and inside sources. The changing of uniforms, in some instances, shows the changing of a franchises history.

The main portion of the site is divided up into three main subjects, Parts of the Uniform, Timeline and Uniform Database. In the portion of the online exhibit dedicated to the parts of the uniform, the viewer is shown a diagram of a baseball uniform which each part labelled. Through clicking on the links associated with each part, you are able to learn more about the history of the uniform parts through scrolling through pages. The timeline portion of the site is a linear format through scrolling up and down, while it is also broken down into twenty year chunks. And the final portion, the Uniform Database, is formatted like any other database. By entering the league, city, and range of years, you are able to view a list of results linked to the different uniform variations from throughout the franchise history.

The site is very easy to navigate, with a header and footer that shows the main sections of the site navigation. It is a very basic site map, that even those with minimum skills should be able to navigate around.

There are a few minor improvements that could be made to the functionality of the site itself. For example, when finishing one of the sections, a next button might work or have larger icons for the section tabs for ease of navigation.

The site itself is full of photographs, along with a diagram of the parts of a baseball uniform, newspaper clippings and advertisements, and a linear timeline that has photos attached to it. In the uniform database, certain franchises might just display the diagram of the uniform for a certain year, where as in some instances, you are also given a photographic example from the time period of a player wearing the uniform.

Many of the artifacts that are featured on the virtual exhibit are photographic images or graphic images of baseball players and uniforms. According to the credits page on the site, the uncredited images are from the collection of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the additional, as credited in site, are courtesy of the New York Times, Philadelphia Phillies, Library of Congress, Chicago Historical Society, and Topps Company, Inc. Most of the information and the graphics used for the uniform database are courtesy of Marc Okkonen, the author of Baseball Uniforms of the 20^th Century.

Almost every single image in the virtual exhibit is captioned with a small descriptor of who and sometimes what is shown in the image, giving a name and year. Depending on what page you are looking at, the ratio of text to images is relatively heavy on the text with the images being supplemental to the information. Throughout the whole site, the background is a dark blue background with white Times New Roman font with bold headings on certain pages.