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New Media's Prospect: A Review of Web Resources in Early American Studies

Were I seeking partners to invest in an internet plantation, Imight adopt in this review essay the exultant tone of a seventeenth-century trading company advertisement, declaring the natural and unnatural wonders of the digital continent, the vigor and variety of its produce, its easy navigation, and its mild climate. Had I squandered my resources in aimless web-wanderings, I might spin a mystical apology for my captivity and redemption. But when it comes to new media, I am neither a John Smith, nor a Cabeza deVaca. Like most readers of Early American Literature, I am neither especially inclined nor averse to new technologies. I recognize that the internet is reshaping every facet of our professional lives, from the conception and distribution of our research to the texture of our relationships with our students, colleagues, and universities. I am optimistic about new virtual communities and new opportunities, but wary of new pressures to produce web content, new demands on our time, and new kinds of uncompensated labor. In this review essay, I survey web resources in early American studies and raises questions about how we can best implement these materials in our scholarship and teaching. Writing this review of web resources has necessarily entailed many decisions about what sites from the expanse of cyberspace to include and exclude. My review focuses on seven categories of materials relating to the literatures and cultures of the early Americas: text archives, image archives, link archives, teaching guides, scholarly hub-sites, on-line journals, and collaborative student web projects. Two other important classes of scholarly resource—web-based research engines such as theMLA Bibliography or JSTOR, and on-line catalogs for major libraries, archives, museums, and other research facilities—are not discussed here. I have also excluded privately run sites featuring commercial advertising. Some do