Time again for our Website of the Week, when we showcase interesting and innovative online destinations.
This week, it's a place where you can see original historical documents from official archives and share your discoveries from your own family archives of photos, letters and documents.
"Footnote.com is a website where people connect with history and with each other," says Justin Schroepfer, marketing director at Footnote.com, which includes millions of images of documents from American history.
"We actually get the microfilm reels from the National Archive, and we will basically digitize the microfilm," he explained. "We can do that on a very quick basis. So we work together with them to find out what is being most requested, what it is it that needs to be preserved. We have been putting up millions of images every month by digitizing that microfilm."
Some of these collections are free; others require a paid subscription. They've just launched a huge collection of World War II documents, which they'll start charging to look at in January, but this month it's all free for the browsing.
I randomly chose the declassified log of an American submarine, the U.S.S. Icefish, and followed it as it traveled through Asian waters in 1945, getting a captain's-eye view of daily routine, military action and human drama.
Footnote.com is a great asset for students and teachers, and history buffs, as well as serious researchers.
What's different and especially nice about Footnote.com is that users can share their comments on the documents, and you're encouraged to scan and upload your own historical documents, such as photos and letters.
"So if I had uploaded a photo of my great-grandfather in World War I, and somebody else had found that photo, they'd know that it came from me, and so those people can get in touch with me, saying, 'Hey, that's my great-grandfather, too,'" said Schroepfer. "So it does allow a more collaborative environment, and when you can pull multiple minds together and resources, that's when real discoveries can happen."
Share the history at Footnote.com, or get the link to this and more than 200 other Websites of the Week, from our site, voanews.com.
News
