Many current students do not recall a time of physical location limitations to information access. Digital tools and the internet have allowed students to learn about primary documents, images, maps, and digitized cataloging that helps students and audiences of museums engage with the history that is being presented. Covid pandemic has illustrated how digital tools have made it possible to be educated online. Museums have expanded their exhibits to digital spaces to allow people to study and evaluate material culture and art. Google translate has imperfectly allowed other countries’ work to be accessible to anyone. Audiences can see an exhibit in almost any museum in the world. This expansion of access will enable students to be more global and think beyond their country’s borders. As climate change and global warming accelerate, digital tools allow global connections to address the past and the present. These same digital tools have made it so much easier than we forget that less than 40 years ago, access to documents was physical location only and travel to that archive, library, or museum. Teaching about the past is no longer limited to your local library holdings or archive.
Students looking for primary sources on the internet is a significantly easier endeavor than ever before. Even with paywall limitations by specific repositories, access allows historical study. The rules of under-represented archival access of Native American history or systemic erasure of historical documents about black communities must be recognized. This was there before the internet and has continued. The key to primary sources from under-represented people in the past has improved with digital tools. Still, it must continue to improve to learn about a history not dominated by white male history, “great man,” as typical in early American history.
