Blogs are useful tools that can connect people to news and information about historic sites. Blogs, or weblogs, are similar to newspaper articles, except more informal, and can be written by individuals or groups that cater to specific topics. Often blogs can be associated with specific websites or, more often, individuals in blogging communities.
The current state of blogs related to historical sites in general, and National Trust Historic Sites in particular, is rather minimal. A majority of historic sites do not have blogs associated with them, though there are often significant blog postings about such sites on unrelated blogs and in blogging communities.
However, there are several exceptions. Montpelier has an excellent blog dedicated to the restoration projects currently underway there. The blog includes pictures and videos of the restoration and is frequently updated. The moderators of the blog also do an outstanding job of responding to questions and comments posted by readers.
President Lincoln’s Cottage also has an excellent blog that provides both information about events and tour schedules at the Cottage, and interesting information about other things to do nearby. The blog does a superb job of connecting the Cottage to the Soldiers’ Home and also the surrounding area, of particular interest are the posts on places to eat nearby and a self guided bike trip that follows Lincoln’s commute from the Cottage to the White House.
In both cases the blogs are run by staff members at the sites, and setting up a blog can be relatively easy. Both the Montpelier and Lincoln’s Cottage blogs are hosted by the site WordPress.com and can be found through links on the sites’ home pages. Maintaining a blog requires continuous activity, many blogs eventually fail when the owner stops posting frequently, most often due to time constraints or lack of personnel. The blog associated with the Glass House was frequently updated during the summer of 2007 by an intern, but stopped updating at the end of the summer, presumably no one took over the blog from the intern. The blog associated with the Montpelier archeological program is also only updated sporadically, with long periods of time between updates.
The nature of blogs is such that frequent activity is needed to ensure the success of the blog, however that is the only real cost in maintaining a blog. There are several sites, including Google’s Blogspot and WordPress , which offer free blog hosting. One way to keep an historical site blog active is to post news items as blog posts. Many websites associated with historical sites have newsletters that can be made more accessible through a blog. Blogs are great tools for communicating with the public and provide an accessible and interesting way to provide information about historical sites.
To find out more about blogs and blogging, visit Blog Basics or Common Craft , which have helpful information about blogging. Also visit the Lincoln’s Cottage and Montpelier blogs.
| Lincoln’s Cottage | Montpelier Restoration | Glass House | Latest Dirt | |
| First Post | July 23, 2007 | December 21, 2005 | July 9, 2007 | October 2, 2007 |
| Most Recent Post | April 11, 2008 | April 16, 2008 | August 27, 2007 | March 27, 2008 |
| Number of Posts | 67 | 123 | 18 | 10 |
