National Council on Public History Conference- Part 5

Today is the final installment of the NCPH Conference Digital Projects Showcase.

The eighth project was on the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania battlefields and creating an interactive history about them. The interactivity comes in with the creation of a digital map giving people a choice on how to tour the sites from a remote location (who will hopefully want to visit the sites in person) or from the physical sites themselves. Still in an unfinished state (with some improperly coded links) the maps were created using Google and provide information about hotspots including pictures. What I see is encouraging so far and when the project is complete it will include 3D models, flyovers and panoramic photos in a multi-layered map meant to interpret and provoke these sites. In mapping these elements digitally, it preserves the integrity and history of the physical site and provides users with an active role in their interaction with the maps. The link to the homepage for these sites can be found here (http://www.nps.gov/frsp/) off of the National Park Service website. Just click on Virtual Tours under Quicklinks when you get there to see what has been completed thus far. The links to the google maps themselves do not work (possibly due to the maps being unfinished) but the one for Fredericksburg can be found here.*

The next project was called Mapping the American Civil War: Cultural Heritage on the Web and when completed will consist of all sites related to a Civil War event. Okay, so not all, there are some criteria for inclusion. First, it must fit the general theme and time period. Second, the site must be extant and interpreted. It also must be publicly accessible and the owners of these sites must agree to have their property included in the listing. The GIS coordinates also need to be verified. The presentation discussed the numerous hurdles faced during this project the biggest I feel is the scope of the project. Every site involved in the Civil War spanning multiple states. Clearly this is a project that could only be done online because of this scope...so much data! In addition to Civil War sites, the project will also list sites pertaining to the Civil War's legacy, Civil Rights. Another issue the project team talked about running into was that of outdated websites listing information on these sites. Related to that is the accuracy of these sites and multiple sites copying off of one another. Another website issue is trying to rid descriptions of sites from bias when the information garnered about these sites is clearly biased. Biases can come simply from owners wanting to "pump up" their properties to draw more visitors. The goals of the project (in addition to the overall mapping) are to reduce the overwhelming amount of data, provide interested parties with places to go when travelling and to put these interested parties in touch with locals who know more about the sites than what is provided on the central mapping site. Currently the website is not live, the expected launch date is January 2010 and will not be a static site as the creators expect to keep it constantly updated. I wish them the best of luck, it will be an amazing website I'm sure.

The final project also involved mapping, this time of Fox Point a now bisected (due to the highway) neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island. One of the things I liked about this project is that it was created by graduate students from Brown, I would have liked to seen more projects from students, but perhaps in a different session. I found the concept interesting and it tied in nicely to my thesis in terms of project output. The problem addressed here was that of what to do with oral histories to make them more accessible for the public. The solution? Memory mapping. Using Google Maps the Brown students transcribed oral histories and then linked them online. When the histories mentioned locations a virtual pin is placed on the map and the part of the oral history that mentions it is posted along with it. In an effort to include photos, a flickr site was created which allows people to comment on photos, add memories (and their own photos) and reconnect with other residents. Scribd is another site used for the project which allows site visitors to scroll through the oral history transcripts. Sadly this website seems like it was a just a semester project, and indeed it was called a prototype that won't be developed further (but will it be added to using the same format for the rest of the oral histories?) I wish it would be developed more as I did enjoy it and the local connection that it had.

I truly have enjoyed writing about them and giving my opinion on them. It was so worth the price of the conference and many of the projects have given me ideas of things I can do now or in the future with my own projects. Out of all of the projects presented, the Fox Point project was the first one that I explored online and I have since employed some of the methods used there in my thesis related website. I have begun mapping John Ronayne's life via Google Maps, more on that sometime later, maybe.

Sadly I was not able to attend the follow up on Saturday morning because RIPTA buses don't run the necessary route that early. Did anyone reading this get to go? It was Session 28 at 8:00am.

* Due to the possibility that the broken link is intentional due to the unfinished nature of the project, feel free to ask me to remove the link if you are associated with the project. Likewise, feel free to contact me if the broken link is not intentional and you would like to know how to make it work so that others may view the maps.

National Council on Public History Conference- Part 1

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended the National Council on Public History Conference at the Biltmore in Providence, RI. For me it was great because I live only 1/2 hour away and could take the bus, which was doubly great because I get the bus for free because I am a student who goes to a school that worked a deal out with RIPTA for free statewide bus rides. So on Thursday I took the bus to Kennedy Plaza, which is literally across the street from the Biltmore. Unfortunately I missed the bus back home that I wanted to take and had to wait an hour for the next one in the drizzle, but it all worked out. I think beyond that stressful experience, the only lowlight of the conference was the weather. It rained, a lot. During one of the conference sessions, I could hear thunder and watch lightning. When it wasn't raining, it was drizzly and very foggy. I felt bad for those who went on tours and for those who wanted to explore the city.

Beyond that I think the conference was a resounding success, elsewhere* it has been reported that 603 people registered, the most so far for NCPH. It was great for me, a student, to mingle with others (including many other students, which speaks loudly for the future of public history). I also got to see the latest in public history related books and sit in on sessions showing the future of public history. There was so much offered that it made deciding on what to see difficult, but at I learned in an attempt to go to one session which was full, there was something else that I could go to without worrying if I would have an interest in it.

I had very much been looking forward to Session 8, called "Remembering Slavery," dealing with how different sites portray the history of slavery and how audience views of that history has changed over time. I took a class on the African American Diaspora my first semester at Salve Regina (technically my junior year after transferring) and found it fascinating. However, even with my arriving quite early for the session, which I figured would be crowded, there was no room and people were already sitting in the doorway. Disappointedly, I walked to Session 9, "Commemorating Times of Change: Innovative Approaches to Public History at the Presidential Libraries of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan".

I've never given Presidential Libraries much thought beyond knowing that they are libraries which happen to contain the particular President's writings, papers and correspondence, while they do contain these things, they also feature exhibits on the specific President or about the time in which they held office. I found myself to be quite interested in the topics presented, which involved how do you keep the public involved with the particular past (something that most historiy museums face, if not all). What makes this so vital to the Presidential libraries, however, is that as time goes by people become increasingly separated from the events and the President himself, for example when school children come to view exhibits.

The first presentation was about FDR, entitled: "Action and Action Now" FDR's First 100 Days. In addition to giving a brief history on the events surrounding his election, we were presented with information regarding the challenges that were faced in creating the exhibit and how these were ultimately dealt with. In a sentence, it was the challenge of presenting the scale and scope of the crisis that was not a recitation of a history made stale by the cliches of Alphabet soup (brought on by the different things he created during his administration: WPA, CCC etc). In order to do this, they thought it best to create a narrative into five chapters of his administration, ranging from a room meant to give the feel of his radio "fireside chats" to installing scaffolding to bring about the effect that FDR was responsible for many building projects (and was often shown as a construction worker in cartoons that contained scaffolding on buildings). They also acknowledged that this era is a period of contested history and rather than promote or ignore one side, the decision was made to frame the debate and provoke a dialogue among the audience, a move I think is vital to have in a museum atmosphere. Initial comments of the exhibit were along the lines of how people had it rough during the Great Depression, but as we have entered our own economic crisis, many comments are about how the times are similar to today. It is because of this crisis that those at the library decided to leave this temporary exhibit on display until the end of this year.

The second presentation was on the JFK library, which gets an amazing 6 million visitors a year, many of whom are school children or foreign. This exhibit was created to look at events through the JFK's eyes and follows a chronological path of his administration. The exhibit even contains a replica of the stage used during the first televised Presidential debate. The goal of the exhibit was to strike a balance for those who witnessed the history with those who know relatively little about what took place so that all who go to the library have an engaging experience with history that is still meaningful today. The presentation also mentioned how size constraints have limited the amount of things that can be shown in the exhibit, and because of this events like the Vietnam War are left out of the story. They also mentioned how temporary special exhibits are highly successful and allow them to portray other facets of JFK's Presidency, for example they once displayed Jackie Kennedy's dresses. Things like this bring a whole new audience to the library (always important). There is also an extensive website for the library that can be found here. Interestingly, I learned that this library is also Kennedy's memorial, which is why there is not on in D.C.

The third Presidential Library is Ronald Regan's whose educational mission is to "Engage, Excite, Educate" a very good mission if you ask me. It houses 55 million papers of his and the exhibit is currently in a redesign where context is being added along with thematic presentations involving things like the Cold War. One of the interesting ideas the presentation was the Great Communicator Files, which shows the process of creating a speech. Another was the opening of the Air Force One Discovery Center which is geared to audiences at a fifth grade level and was created to provide room for debate among exhibit goers.

What I originally was disappointed in going to, I came out an hour and forty five minutes later being quite satisfied by this new information. If I'm ever in the area of one, I will totally go to a Presidential Library.



Other semi-conference related, but not so specific things I learned are: everyone has presentation troubles in some way, like verbal crutches (umm, uh, and um uh... unnecessary words that fill up empty space), going over time limits when not reading a script, and not having tested powerpoint images and movies prior to presentation time (sometimes your pictures are way too small to properly see in the audience). As a student, I see this a lot, and am glad it happens in the professional world as well. While certainly not desired by any means, it makes me feel better that it pretty much happens to everyone, as I am guilty for doing these on occasion as well. I continue to maintain that it is important to work on these elements (especially making sure that everything is working on powerpoint as that happens to be a pet peeve of mine).

* elsewhere is the homepage of the NCPH which is located at http://www.ncph.org