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Vietnam Memorial goes Digital

March 26, 2008 As the death toll for US service members in Iraq tops 4,000, it is very sobering to have an opportunity to look back on the tragic consequences of another war that wasn't a war. Footnote.com - a site that aims to collect, organize, and index primary source documents submitted by users and interweave them with important historical sources from around the world - has digitized and hyperlinked the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC.

The Wall, as it is more commonly known, provides a physical record memorializing the 58,256 service members killed in that conflict. This interactive version provides a searchable interface that lets users query the metadata in any combination of 54 fields. When viewing the memorial using the Flash interface, users can zoom in to the incredibly high quality photographs to find each engraved name linked to that service members records.

For students researching this period in history, or for others who cannot travel to see this incredibly moving monument, Footnote's Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial provides a powerful resource.

Posted by Chris Harris on March 26, 2008 | Comments (0)