Digitized Heritage?

Every morning, when I wake up, I grab my coffee and cheerios and head to my computer to read the daily news. My home page has always been the Globe and Mail because no matter how busy I am, I can always keep myself informed. One thing that caught my eye is a documentary piece they’re doing on World War II correspondence, called Dear Sweetheart. This correspondence is focused on love letters between a Canadian soldier, David K. Hazzard, and his wife, Audrey. At first glance I was quite interested and impressed by what this documentary had to offer. It also made me reflect on the interaction between history, heritage and the digital world.

This documentary has put a spotlight on WWII in a way that is very attractive to mainstream Canadians. It is romanticising the war to the umpteenth degree, which, some may argue, generates a lot of interest in history. Readers can, as the Globe site puts it, “follow the epic love story through the Second World War correspondence of a Canadian soldier to his wife”. This sounded a bit cheesy to me initially but when reading a few of the comments posted I realized that people ate this story up. In addition, the site has a link that allows others to share their WWII stories or letters online. This gives Canadians the chance to feel a connection with each other that may not have been possible through other historical venues. The Globe was essentially able to create a sense of connection and even a feeling of heritage between Canadians through this digital documentary. It was almost impressive.

The letters are really quite touching and help the reader to get a sense of what the couples’ lives were like during the war. However, while reflecting on the weaknesses of Canadian heritage, I couldn’t help but think about the many cases of venereal disease that riddled the continent of Europe at this time. I know it’s bad and that comment probably ruined your heart-warming feelings from this love story but it was a reality then! It happened, whether you like it or not. It’s the interesting part of history that we rarely get to discuss. (maybe that’s why some people think history is boring; they never get to hear the crazy stuff!) To the shock of many today and back then, many soldiers during the war were diagnosed with VD. I’m not accusing Mr. Hazzard of anything. I’m only saying that it made me think!
It’s topics like this that always seem to be forgotten. Canadian Heritage (or any country for that matter) always seems to leave certain aspects of history out for the sake of nostalgia. (I’m saying this in general.) Isn’t that the dilemma between history and heritage?

Anyways, this documentary made me wonder about heritage and the digital age. I wonder if this online documentary (and the many other online documentaries out there) is the heritage of the future. We have heritage locations around the country but what about these history websites. Are they our heritage created into a digital format? With the creation of documentaries and online exhibits, supplemented by thousands of digitized primary documents, I think we’ve in a sense created digital heritage for Canadians. Canadians can visit these websites, from the comfort of their home, and get the understanding and (possibly) the nostalgic feeling much like what they feel from visiting actual heritage locations. Maybe that seems a bit out there for some...but is this where the digital age is taking us next?

*I also wanted to mention that the Globe has the actual letters digitized in their Pictures section. However, they don’t have a zoom feature so you can take a better look. So basically you can look at them but you have to go to the documentary site to read the copied words. I wish that the Globe would have made the zooming feature available so that readers could take a closer look and examine these documents themselves. However, I do commend the newspaper for at least providing a digitized copy.

**Photo courtesy of the Globe and Mail Dear Sweetheart documentary site.