This mobile-first website was created by Megan R. Brett as a final project for a course of digital public history and a proof-of-concept of a mobile tour of Washington DC in August 1814.
The content of this site can stand alone, but ideally it would work in concert with traditional interpretive real-world historical markers interpreting the history of the capture and destruction of Washington.
The concept for this site was to provide users with minimal interpretation, instead exposing them to the sometimes contradictory primary sources historians have used to create a narrative of this 48 hour period. In order to facilitate critical reading of the sources, each primary source description has some background information on the author or publication. The hope is that users would begin to read the sources critically, possibly follow the links to read full texts, and experience, implicitly if not explicitly, the practice of historical thinking.