In the learning world before the Internet:

• Only scholars had access to primary material
• Even they had difficulty finding source documents
• Learning was based mostly on words not graphics
• Museums helped people connect with their past

People who aren't scholars and don't live near museums:

• Had limited access to fascinating historical items

• Had to depend on someone else's interpretations of key events

• Missed out seeing some of the world's best:
  • Artifacts
  • Illustrations
  • Paintings
  • Historical maps
  • Photographs
  • Manuscripts
  • Original documents

Popular culture books are mostly words with few illustrations.

• If the book is fact-based, do readers have a quick way to:
  • Examine the author's source materials?
  • See illustrative pictures, drawings and graphics?
  • See photographs of people and places in the story?

Popular culture's best movies are often historically based.

• If the movie is fact-based, do moviegoers have a way to:

  • Separate the drama from reality?
  • Learn what's true and what's fiction?

School textbooks are mostly words with few graphics and illustrations.

• Students learn about the Battle of Bunker Hill, but do they:
  • See where it was fought?
  • Observe the kinds of weapons used?
  • Examine illustrations of the people and places?
  • Understand the STORY behind the HISTORY?

• Students study great works of art, but do they:
  • Know why painters, composers and writers created?
  • Grasp the times in which they lived and worked?
  • Examine illustrations of the relevant people and places?
  • Understand the STORY behind THE ARTS?

All people learn best by seeing. Before the World Wide Web, people were limited in what they could see. Their access to the greatest primary materials in the world was severely limited. The Internet has changed all that.

Today museums, libraries, universities, governmental agencies, national archives, non-profit organizations and dedicated individuals who possess specialized knowledge about particular subjects are scanning key material and placing it freely on-line. The primary source material (manuscripts, paintings, historical maps, illustrations, data, graphics) is available, BUT it is usually:

• Not organized
• Not in one place
• Located in hard-to-search sites

Some of the most relevant and interesting material can be found at foreign-language web sites. How much of that information will actually be used by people of other countries?

This Internet site is a new interactive, electronic learning tool. We produce stories behind some of the world's most interesting people, places and events. Asking the questions we think our visitors might ask, we find the answers. But we do much more.

Cutting through the maze of irrelevant and inappropriate web sites, we bring speed and convenience to the learning process. By assembling URLs to some of the most important, relevant, on-line material in one place, and organizing those links around an interesting story, we uncover for everyone what was once available only for scholars.

By linking to national archives, libraries, museums and other institutional sites, we deliver the source material at the precise moment it's needed. We also help the learner to get involved with the story.

Let's take an example:

• Where in the North Atlantic did it strike the iceberg?
• Speaking of icebergs, what did THAT iceberg look like?
• What about Titanic's passengers, like John Jacob Astor?
  
  
  • What did he really look like?
  • He was the richest man on board; how did he die?
  • Was his body found? Where?


• What about the ship?
  • Who built it? Owned it? Traveled on it?
  • How much was passage? Have any tickets survived?


• Why did she sink?
• People blamed a huge starboard gash; is that true?
• Dr. Ballard discovered the truth; do you know it?


• About those lifeboats:
  
  
  • What did they look like?
  • Did they comply with regulations?
  • Why were there so few on board?


• Did rescuers have to travel through ice?
  
  
  • If so, why didn't they strike icebergs?
  • Where did the ice come from?
  • What did the rescue ships look like?

At AwesomeStories.com, people interactively learn by "traveling" to source sites at the precise moment they need the information. Because they "see" the "real thing" (people, places and events), learners experience history, art and science in a way not possible before the Internet. They also have fun while they're at it.

Because we "connect" the main story with other events, other people, life at the time, and tidbits of fascinating history, our productions are a composite of different story lines combined in one understandable, thematically relevant, cohesive story.

Why us? Why did we create this site?

• We're scholars, lawyers and business people
• Who saw a new universe of fantastic information
• That is completely unconnected and disorganized
• Begging to be pulled together into an interesting format.

We realized huge work was needed to actualize our vision, but:

• We saw a need
• No one was filling that need
• We created an initial site without advertising
• People everywhere found us and asked for more

We learned:

• People initially go to the site when they need specific answers
• They stay because they are interactively involved, exploring many subjects they always wanted to learn more about.

We hope:

• You enjoy your visit
• You will let us know what you think
• You will suggest more interesting subjects that we will turn into fascinating productions.