For Humanities Web, I had a vision of a new site - a humanities site that would show the interconnections, the web, the links between history and art and culture - and how each plays off and influences the others.
What started as a personal website (Heart's Ease) with a few dozen pages about Pre-Raphaelite art and a favourite poet and composer or two, has become a 25,000 page humanities site that is accessed by nearly a million visitors a month. How it happened, I can barely tell you - readers would write in and request information about artists, poets, composers, and I would oblige with more pages (and more pages, and more pages...). Then the linking began - art to literature, music to art, poems to songs and paintings to poems; the site blossomed and grew, and more readers came with more questions and suggestions.
Is this still a personal website? You bet it is! This site is very personal to me, and it should be to you as well - after all, your suggestions are what has kept it growing, and your contributions will enable it to continue to evolve.
This endeavour is not without its cost. While I have always been determined that the site would offer free information, and that it would be banner-free; the cost of hosting it, the hundreds of hours each month in upkeep and updating, and the inability of most free software programs to index and keep track of information here do require a financial commitment. I have a wonderful friend who has donated a lot of time databasing the site, and he continues to work on it with me, saving me many thousands of dollars in programming fees, but for the rest, they are out-of-pocket expenses.
I need your help now. In my ideal world, this site would be supported by a grant from an educational or personal foundation, but I honestly don't have the time or knowledge to seek out such manna. Which leaves just you and me. I believe what we have here is important. The question is, do you? Your support tells me that you find this site a valuable resource now, and a worthy investment. If you think the time and effort spent in providing free information on the internet is a worthy cause, I ask you to make a donation toward its continued existence. You can do this by:
Use PayPal's easy and free service to make a donation to this site. Clicking the donation button at right will take you to PayPal's secure site, where you can easily make a donation. Your support helps to keep this site banner-free, and tells me that what you find here is worth something to you.
Last Word: I want to thank you for taking the time to read this far, and for considering a contribution. While its true that making a contribution probably won't allow you to divide by zero, see God, or make you irresistible to the opposite sex - it really will enable the work here to continue and encourage me personally - I'll know that what I am attempting here is worthwhile.
