My Digital Public History project is a podcast that discusses the lives of the children and young adults who lived within the White House. I came up with the idea for this project when I realized that as a society, we have constructed expectations for how the president and first lady should act, however, we have never created these expectations for their children. The first set of the podcast will be an investigation into the lives of Alice Roosevelt and Amy Carter. I choose these two girls to begin with because I believe we can learn from their experiences. Alice was the eldest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and Amy was the daughter of Jimmy Carter. These two daughters led incredibly unique and different lives. This project will examine how they were able to create their identities. To gain a full perspective on their lives, I will be asking a series of history-related questions; How did they adjust to life in the White House? , How did external/ societal pressures affect their behavior? How did they engage with White House staff?, and Were there new responsibilities or duties given to them once arriving at the White House?. I believe these questions will allow me to analyze the period in which they lived.
The digital technologies that will be used in this digital project will include podcast software such as audacity. I will be utilizing various audio and visual clips on YouTube that have been provided by certain archival groups. An example of one of these videos is First Lady Rosalynn Carter escorting her daughter Amy to her first day at her new school. I will admit that it has been difficult to find primary sources from Alice Roosevelt, as the National Archives keeps many of these documents and audio recordings under “request only”. However, I have found many digital images of the two, which has helped me learn how to characterize their potential moods, thoughts, and feelings. I believe that these digital images, videos, and recordings will help us uncover the reasons as to what caused their behavior.
My target audiences for this project include two groups, young adults and adults. I am hoping to target those who live in urban cities or suburban neighborhoods. To get more demographically specific, the primary age ranges of these groups are 16-24 and 30-45, have completed high school or some form of higher education, and belong to the middle class. However, I am hoping to still attract those who may not belong to any of these groups. I encourage those who have the following interests to listen to this podcast; U.S. history, those who enjoy breaking the rules every once in a while, life in the White House, and the lives and families of the presidents.
The reason I chose these specific questions, topics, and audiences were to learn what makes these children/ young adults different from the rest of the public when they were that age. I believe that many children and young adults contract mental health issues due to the societal pressures and expectations that are established. I wanted to explore this connection between historical figures and the rest of the public. As many of us idolize certain historic figures, it is important to remember that they are just regular people. During childhood and young adulthood is when we begin our journeys of self-discovery. I imagine that it must have been quite difficult for the children of the presidents to fully engage with life. Therefore, this project will serve as a testament to those who grew up under the watchful eye of the public and the Secret Service.
