Historical Context
Retrowaste is a website that is broken down into eight different decades, starting from the 1920s to the 1990s. As you put your cursor over every decade, a dropdown menu appears of the types of topics that the decade covers. The homepage of the website takes you through an overview of what the decade consisted of. It tells the reader who the Presidents were, what Prohibition was, and some facts throughout the decade. On the Retrowaste website, in the 1920s tab, the website will show you that it has topics such as cars, fashion, music, and sports. The website specializes in 1920s America within these topics that I had listed prior. I believe that this website is from a vintage perspective, not history-based at all. As you click on one of the tabs for the decade, such as cars, you can instantly notice that the pictures are from time. The information on the website is not cited and seems not to be flowing correctly, though. It appears to be blurbs of that topic in the 1920s instead of having a consistent rundown on the decade itself. The website has tons of pictures from the time, which could help someone who needed an image from the time itself. I would use this website more on the images included on its website, not the factual information
Author of Website
The author of the website is a man named Paul Phipps. His biography states loves history, read the entire 1987 World Book Encyclopedia when he was 23, and that he specializes in vintage items. After searching his name on google, I couldn’t find anything else about him. It would make the website more credible to see his credentials other than his hobbies.
Location, Location, Location!
How easy is it to navigate the website? I found it very easy to navigate, especially trying to look it into the eyes of someone who doesn’t know the technology that well. When creating a website, that is important because you can create a website. Everyone despite their technology level may see your website. Some things I noticed were the following. If someone didn’t know how to navigate drop-down menus, they could easily click on the 1920s and start reading about the 1920s. It would be more beneficial for the “profiles” of these decades to be at the top of every decade’s homepage just in case someone didn’t know how to scroll down on the website.
When was it last updated?
From what appears on the website, the website is still under construction for the 2000s portion of the website. It doesn’t appear that they are still working on the 1920s part of the website. The author acknowledged that there is more work to put into it and that it has been an evolving project since 2005, meaning that some aspects of the website could not have been published or touched since 2005. It would be beneficial if the page’s date was on the top of the topic so the reader could see when the author last edited.
Do I trust the website?
In some aspects, yes. In others, no. The photographs seem to be from a primary source based on how the picture looks, but there is no citation on where the website’s author got his photos and information , which could not be beneficial for research.The author of the website specializes in vintage items. Therefore, he focuses on the aspect of the items’ design and preciousness other than its history. If someone could use the pictures to display them or use them somehow in another fashion, it would be more beneficial. I would like to know where the author got all of the information from.
Biblography
The 1920s: The Roaring Twenties. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://www.retrowaste.com/1920s/
I am a Ramapo senior who is majoring in Elementary Education. I am taking this course because I want to be certified in Social Studies at the middle school level. I graduated from Bergen Community College in the Spring of ’19 with an associate’s in Early Childhood Education. Currently, I am working at Starbucks as a Shift Supervisor until I obtain my degree from Ramapo.
