Looking for Laura Secord on the Web: Using a Famous Figure from the War of 1812 as a Model for Evaluating Historical Web Sites

Abstract

LAURA INGERSOLL SECORD was, admittedly, a well-known historical figure--at least in Canada over a century before the development of the World Wide Web. In 1860, she first achieved widespread notoriety in her adopted homeland of Canada (she was born in Massachusetts) when a deed she performed for the British army during the War of 1812 was publicly recognized by the Prince of Wales. The deed for which Laura received fame, albeit relatively little fortune (100 pounds sterling from the Prince), was walking approximately 20 miles through inhospitable terrain to alert British Lieutenant John Fitzgibbons that American troops were preparing to launch an attack on the British garrison at Beaver Dams, Upper Canada in late June 1813. However, as the diverse accounts of Laura Secord's journey detailed in a later section of this essay will demonstrate, this seemingly straightforward chronology of events has undergone a vast number of iterations over the years. Indeed, it would even eventually secure Laura Secord a hallowed place within the Pantheon of Canadian heroes and heroines.