Portfolio Activity 3: Website Review

This is a website review on Revisiting Rebellion: Nat Turner in the American Imagination (American Antiquarian Society) (https://americanantiquarian.org/NatTurner/). This website is all about the man Nat Turner, a enslaved man who led a rebellion that attacked multiple plantations in August of 1831. Specifically, this website is about exhibiting the many portrayals of Nat Turner in various media from the 1800’s and 1900’s. Revisiting Rebellion collects these portrayals and gives context and explanation for each. The scholarship within the exhibits is sound and current. The front page of the website clearly defines it’s purpose and lays out it’s structure. On the side of the front page you can easily find links to the various portrayals and reports on Nat Turner. All the exhibits function properly and are effective in transmitting information. Something worthy of note is that the website is powered by Omeka. This website is a great example for how to format a website on Omeka for students in this course. The items have complete metadata, quality images, and tags. However, since the website has an Omeka layout it isn’t necessarily original, but it makes good use of the digital format. There were no problems with connectivity and the website was accessible and still easy to navigate on a phone. The website has a focus primarily for scholars or those who have a deep interest in Nat Turner. The website delivers on the needs of the audience. I can envision everything on the website fitting well into a print medium, so I don’t think it does anything that a book couldn’t do, but the ease of access of the website is noteworthy. The exhibits featured in the website were all provided by the American Antiquarian Society and The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and there were multiple curators. There is a works cited and consulted page that can be easily accessed from the front page.