In this final edition of Gift Basket, I recommend that we reflect. But in addition to looking back on this class and the wonderful websites we made, the exciting lessons we learned, and the fun memories we shared (yay for internet field trip!), I also want to look back on a particular moment in gifting history that illuminates the power that our gifts can have.

As a history geek and francophile with a particular love for Versailles, I am always thrilled by the story of how the Palace’s Petit Trianon came to be. If you have ever visited France, you may know what I’m talking about, but if not, the Petit Trianon is an estate situated in the massive jardins of the Palace of Versailles just outside of Paris. It looks something like this:

Source: Château de Versailles

As you can see, “petit” is hardly the word to describe the mansion and its surrounding gardens. The estate was built to be a gift from King Louis XVI to his wife, Marie Antoinette. To the king, it was the perfect getaway for his queen to escape the demands of court life—and compared to the couple’s main palace, it truly was a small, secluded oasis that allowed her to live a smaller and quieter life.

Back in Paris, the people saw this gift very differently. It wasn’t some small, cute gesture from a loving husband, but rather an opulent display of royal extravagance at a time when no one in France had two loaves of bread to rub together. And playing it off as a petit gift was the icing on Marie Antoinette’s cake—this sprawling, fully-staffed mansion was anything but little.

What happens next? Just a few years later the Parisians will march on Versailles, remove Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from their lives of palaces and trianons, and ignite the French Revolution with the royal couple’s heads in a basket at the hands of a guillotine. And it will all be in part because of seemingly insignificant gifts being, in fact, grand and out-of-touch ones with the potential to inflame a revolution.

So, as we look back on what we’ve learned about gifting, let us remember the weight that our gifts can carry—especially in a medium as public and powerful as with the web. Our gifts have the potential to be wide-reaching, technically-impressive, and thoughtful displays of affection. But with this visibility also comes the risk of causing major offense. At this moment in history—just as in 1700s France—it’s important to be mindful not only of the gifts we give, but of the world in which we give them.

Enjoy this crossword recapping our semester together!

It is only fitting to end our last Gift Basket Newsletter with a reflection on our VIS208 course as a whole and all that we’ve learned this semester. From Google Calendar gift ideas, to engaging guest lectures, to custom memory sites, we’ve truly covered so much in just the span of a few months.

As a graduating senior, I’m feeling especially nostalgic about all the amazing classes I’ve taken at Princeton over the course of the past four years, including this one. It got me thinking about how learning and knowledge shared is a gift in and of itself. While sharing information or an idea with someone may not start as a tangible thing that the recipient can possess in their hands, it very well could be that what they create out of that knowledge is. Take, for example, all that Laurel has taught us this semester about HTML/CSS/JS and more. As an Anthropology major, this was all brand new knowledge to me that I had very little experience with prior. But now, coming out of the class, I’m able to turn that knowledge into something palpable—be it a personalized energy sphere for a loved one or a recipe website for a peer (shoutout Tiffany: I hope you like my final personalized cooking website for you from our gift exchange! 🤗).

Not only that, but perhaps the best part about a gift of learning or knowledge is that it can be continuously passed on for generations to come. Indeed, I’ve gained so much knowledge from my courses, professors, friends, classmates, and really everyone that I’ve encountered here at Princeton, and now I get to embark into the real world and hopefully do great things with all that I’ve learned, sharing that knowledge with others along the way!