What is Video History Today?

What is Video History Today?

At the time of writing, (May 2007), Video History Today is the only web site of its type. 

Video History Today is a web-based video and photograph library which presents its users with an ever expanding library of short video clips which can be cut, pasted and  talked-over in any fashion to meet the needs of the end user.

Video History Today provides the raw video clips from places of historical interest that can be utilized for any subject: 

• Maybe a History Project designed to make children pull in resources from several mediums and produce a team News Report ('Over to Sarah on the D_Day beaches at Normandy').  Add in footage taken from an interview the children have had with their great grandfather who was there on the day.

• Politics: discuss the issues of the day using video footage from the area to visualise the subject.  Talk about demacracy using modern footage from the British Houses of Parliament and the White House.
• Social Studies:  What can England learn from the Netherlands about green issues?
• It might be just an IT lesson in using computers and video editing software. 
• For fun: play News Reporter (check out the BBC's School Report)

In other words, the possibilities are only limited by the imagination of the end user.

In summary

Video History Today cannot replace the experience of actually going to a location and seeing it with your own eyes.  But what Video History Today does is give subscibers the opportunity to really see a location as it is today, hear the sounds and get a feel for a place. 

Hopefully the end users of our video clips (Video History Today is specifically aimed at young people) will enjoy the opportunity to be creative, make proper use of modern computer equipment and hopefully encourage them to learn about an historical event or location in an interesting way.

New footage is added to the library every day from battlefields in the American Civil War to the Normandy landings in June 1944, from the Cold War sites of the Stasi police to the horrors of the Holocaust in Poland.

Each downloadable file includes video, photographs and useful information from the location.  Google Earth links to many locations is being added in Q2 2008 (you must have Google Earth installed for this link to work).

       Want to have a go?

Have a look at the What is a video essay? section for a few demonstration downloads or in the FREE stuff area for raw video to play with. 

Or take a look at the Video History Today YouTube Channel which shows lots of clips from the Video History Today archive.