This paper reflects on a digital public history project conducted by the authors in Madison, Wisconsin. It uses these reflections to show how digital methods can create new possibilities in the field of historic preservation, and to emphasise that new technology alone does not cut through old challenges relating to public engagement. The bias towards newness and fluidity in digital methods offers an instructive contrast to the bias towards permanence and continuity in historic preservation. Bringing these two worlds into dialogue offers the possibility of strengthening each.