Assembling History

Catching Up On The Latest News

2012-03-09T21:54:00.006-05:00

I'll admit my attention has been focused on a certain offline project in recent months . . .

But you can still find my musings on digital history on the blog for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities at Rutgers-Camden. Over the last few months, I've written about audience, social media, Wikipedia, online giving, the lifespan of digital projects, and more.

I'm also still writing about my work at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as we develop a new digital history site focused on the Great Depression. You can read about our progress on Fondly, Pennsylvania, HSP's archives and conservation blog.

Finally, you can now find me on Twitter @danadorman.

A Posting Recap

2011-07-04T20:14:00.005-04:00

It's been quiet here on Assembling History in recent months, but I've been hard at work elsewhere on the web.

I am now blogging about digital public history for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities, based at Rutgers-Camden:

* Getting help from a few thousand friends

* Online storytelling

* Making digital public history useful

And over at Fondly, Pennsylvania, the archives and conservation blog of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, I continue to write about my work on a new digital project there:

* Getting from paper pages to digital texts

* Sharing ideas

* Untangling text encoding

* An unexpected connection to Dr. King

A New Memorial For City Hall

2011-03-15T19:28:00.004-04:00

As a fitting companion to this year's 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the City of Philadelphia has pledged $500,000 over the next two years for a monument to under-appreciated African American activist Octavius V. Catto (1839-1871).

Catto was murdered for his political activism during the election of 1871, just one year after Pennsylvania ratified the 15th Amendment guaranteeing black men the right to vote. You can read more about Catto's life and legacy here and here.

The new monument is planned for the southwest corner of City Hall's Dilworth Plaza, which is currently getting a facelift.

The O. V. Catto Memorial Fund still needs to raise additional funds before the monument can become a reality, but in the meantime, you can learn more about the city's gift here and here.

Is Web 2.0 Gender Biased?

2011-01-31T21:33:00.004-05:00

According to a study published last year (and written about in The New York Times today), only 13 percent of Wikipedia contributors are women.

I can't help wondering as I continue planning a new digital history project: what role is gender playing in web 2.0 more broadly defined? Does interactive mean mostly male?

The New York Times reporter argues that the Wikipedia contributor bias is reinforced by "the traditions of the computer world and an obsessive fact-loving realm that is dominated by men and, some say, uncomfortable for women."

But, in 2008, the same newspaper published a story that argued a very different point: "among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content . . . are digitally effusive teenage girls."

Now, I realize that "web content" does not mean Wikipedia entries, but why doesn't one type of content breed another?

Meanwhile, journalist Kara Swisher wrote just last month about the absence of female board members among the biggest web 2.0 companies (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), pointing out that each of those companies have a huge female audience. Yup, in case you missed the good news in amongst the bad: these sites have a huge female audience.

So is there a digital gender divide or not?

For those of us interested in creating and playing with digital history, this topic is well worth considering. How do we encourage participation by many different types of people, and how do we know if we're succeeding?

Philly Past and Present

2011-01-26T19:46:00.001-05:00

A Temple University journalism class has launched a new photoblog, Documenting Philadelphia, to share their documentary photography work this semester.

For one of their first assignments, the students have dug up historic photos of assorted streetscapes and taken modern photos of the same locations. Fascinating stuff.

Civil War and Bank Failure

2010-12-20T18:01:00.000-05:00

I've written two recent blog posts on Fondly, Pennsylvania, the archives and conservation blog of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, about collapses that happen to have anniversaries this week.

As you may know, today is the 150th anniversary of South Carolina's secession from the United States. You can read about this and other events leading up to the Civil War in my post about the papers of President James Buchanan.

This week is also the 80th anniversary of the failure of Bankers Trust Company, which on December 22, 1930 became the first large Philadelphia bank to fail during the Great Depression. I am researching the Bankers Trust story as part of my work with the Greenfield digital history project.

The Staying Power of Signs

2010-12-01T18:10:00.000-05:00

Now that the exhibit has opened, I have a bit more time to think about other topics. Lucky you!

A couple weeks ago, I noticed an article in the Metro newspaper about the city's renaming of a block of Broad Street as "Gamble and Huff Walk." One observer said, "I’m sure 50 years from now . . . people will say 'Why is that name there?' And what will happen is people will go and read about the music of [sic] and the legacy."

That got me thinking. Is that really what we can expect from honorary street names?

Do these signs ensure a long-lasting public history legacy?

Keep in mind, these streets are not officially renamed, at least according to the U.S. Post Office. The block now marked as Gamble and Huff Walk, for example, is still just Broad Street.

So I took a (very brief) walking tour of the city to see what we're commemorating.

Do neighbors of McCollough's Way know to whom that refers? I don't, and couldn't figure it out by Google-ing or doing a quick search of digitized Philadelphia Inquirer articles.

Stokowski Place is a bit easier to decode, for those who care to try. That block is named in honor of Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977), renowned conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra who had a studio there.

But who stops to notice the Broad Street block named in honor of Rev. Charles A. Tindley (1851-1933), a key figure in African American gospel music? (You can read more about him and his church, located on that block, here and here.)

Dozens of other signs throughout the city honor various other notable personalities. Maybe with all my new free-time (ha!) I'll start a new digital project to record where these markers exist.

Because that's one problem with honorary street signs: they don't help you find the actual street.

I originally planned to include a photo of Marian Anderson Way, but while walking through the neighborhood, I couldn't remember where it was. (It's the 700 block of S. Martin Street.) Thankfully, Anderson is commemorated on more than one block, thanks to the Marian Anderson Historical Society.

Another problem with considering honorary street names to be public history tools is that some tacked-on signs have more to do with marketing or neighborhood identity than with history. How are viewers to know which signs are historical?

The city renamed Broad Street just south of City Hall "The Road to Beijing(TM)" in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics. I keep forgetting to check, but I don't think the route to Beijing still heads south from City Hall.

In my opinion, if you're interested in a more lasting public history legacy, better to get a street officially renamed, like activists did for Cecil B. Moore Avenue (formerly Columbia Avenue) or Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive (formerly West River Drive).

At least then your legacy will show up in Google maps.

First Person Museum exhibit opens

2010-11-10T21:08:00.000-05:00

A few of the objects and stories on display at the First Person Museum exhibit

After many months of hard work by lots of talented people, the First Person Museum exhibit opened at the Painted Bride Art Center on Friday. Woo hoo!

You can watch a short video about the project here, thanks to The Temple News.

You can read my past posts about the project here and here.

The exhibit will be open until December 18. If you're in the area, I hope you'll join us at one of the free gallery talks we're holding over the next week. All of the talks will take place at the Painted Bride Art Center at 230 Vine Street in Philadelphia. And did I mention that they're free?

Here's the full schedule of talks:

Thursday, 11/11 - 7-7:30 pm
"Museum Voices: Who is an Expert?" -- Kathleen McLean, Principal, Independent Exhibitions

Friday, 11/12 - 7-7:30 pm
"Our Objects, Our History" -- Graduate Students in Temple University's Studies in American Material Culture class

Saturday, 11/13
11-11:30 am - "Looking at History Through Our Things" -- Graduate Students in Temple University's Studies in American Material Culture class

7-7:30 pm - "Americans and Their Stuff" -- Julia Foulkes, Associate Professor of History, The New School

Sunday, 11/14 - 2-2:30 pm
"What Makes a Museum?" -- Aaron Goldblatt, Partner, Museum Services, Metcalfe Architecture & Design

Major League Baseball Leading the Way in Metadata

2010-10-18T19:36:00.000-04:00

Starting a new job plus getting ready for an exhibit opening means I've been awfully quiet on the blog recently. If only I had time to keep you posted on all that I've been doing and learning in recent weeks!

For one thing, I've been thinking a lot about metadata. I'll write a longer post about it one of these days, but in the meantime, check out this jealousy-inducing story about Major League Baseball's digital archive.

A team of MLB "loggers" now add metadata to game footage in close to real time, choosing from a list of 500 possible tags like "ground out" and "announcers booth" that describe not only what happened in a play but also what's visible on the screen.

All that tagging means unprecedented access to the moving images -- access that for now is limited to in-house staff.

But oh the possibilities.

First Person Museum Web Site Launches

2010-09-28T19:01:00.000-04:00

Another of my professional projects is approaching its public debut: the First Person Museum.

As you may recall, I'm serving as the project coordinator for the museum, which is a new public engagement project by First Person Arts.

Envisioned as a "museum of the people," the First Person Museum is a collection of meaningful objects and the stories that go along with them. Our first exhibit opens on Nov. 5, 2010 at the Painted Bride Art Center.

In the meantime, the museum's web site is now live! You can share a story about a treasured object in your life, or browse the gallery of stories already contributed.

Back to the Future, Sort of

2010-09-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

I have about one more week of working elbow-deep in Civil War-era archival materials, and then I'll be turning my attention to a more modern era: the Great Depression.

I'll be starting on a new digital history project at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), where I've been working as a project archivist with the Digital Center for Americana. In my new role, I'll be helping to create online interpretive and educational resources about the early years of the Great Depression in Pennsylvania. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, you can read my recent blog post about women's views on the Civil War on Fondly, Pennsylvania, HSP's archives and conservation blog.

Digging for Civil War history

2010-08-19T20:06:00.001-04:00

I swear I'll write a longer post soon, but in the meantime, check out my recent blog post on Fondly, Pennsylvania, the archives and conservation blog of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

I write about HSP's collection of sketches of Confederate prisons, and how it relates to an archaeological excavation going on in Georgia.

One Collection, Many Dramas

2010-08-10T20:46:00.000-04:00

Check out my recent blog post on Fondly, Pennsylvania, the archives and conservation blog of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

I highlighted one of the many interesting stories I've discovered in the Wister and Butler families papers (HSP collection 1962): the three duels in which Pierce (Mease) Butler participated between 1844 and 1866.

You'll have to read my post to learn how he survived so many duels.

Ghost Dollars

2010-07-17T09:17:00.000-04:00

Is capturing the interest of paranormal investigators one key to paying the bills at historic sites?

According to this Inquirer article, paranormal groups "now account for most of the funding that keeps Fort Mifflin solvent."

Archives and Museum-making

2010-07-11T23:00:00.000-04:00

For the last few months, I've been working on two new(ish) public history projects.

For most of my professional hours, I work at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) as a project archivist for the Digital Center for Americana.

You can read more about my work over at Fondly, Pennsylvania, HSP's archives blog, and you can learn more about the Digital Center for Americana here. I'll do my best to cross-post here when I've written something new for Fondly, Pennsylvania.

I'm also coordinating a new project for First Person Arts called the First Person Museum. The museum is a collection of objects of personal importance to everyday people, along with the stories and histories that convey their significance.

You can read more about the project at First Person Arts' blog, and I'll keep you posted as we get closer to launching the museum online and opening our pilot exhibit in November 2010.

Independence From State Budget Woes

2010-07-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

Washington Crossing Historic Park reopened its visitor center on July 1, thanks to the nonprofit group Friends of Washington Crossing Park.

The friends group formed last winter after the Pennsylvania Legislature slashed the park's funding, threatening the annual Delaware River crossing recreation. The group worked in partnership with the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, which officially oversees the park, and now plans to open the park for tours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays starting on July 9.

But the debate over the state's poor stewardship of the park is far from over.

The park includes a large section of land administered as Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve. Back in May, the state House approved a bill to turn over the deed for those 130+ acres to the nonprofit Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve Association, which has been involved in managing the preserve since 1934.

The nonprofit association apparently sought the deed transfer five years ago, and believes the transfer will help its efforts to raise private donations. You can read executive director Miles Arnott's comments about the plan here. The Inquirer covered the debate over the deed transfer here.

Once again, the question arises: who are the better stewards of our historic sites, government agencies or independent nonprofits? Should we preserve our history primarily with taxpayer dollars or philanthropic dollars?

Of course, isn't this a moot point if the taxpayer dollars have disappeared? Thank goodness someone is trying to preserve these sites.

Free Speech, Protesters, and Historic Sites

2010-06-17T20:28:00.000-04:00

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a Lansdowne man had a First Amendment right to protest abortion near the entrance to the Liberty Bell building.

The decision overturned lower court rulings that sentenced him to a year of probation for a 2007 incident where he defied a National Park Service order to move to a designated area.

I'll be interested to see what impact this decision will have (if any) on the type and tone of demonstrations held at Independence National Historic Park. And will we see more public demonstrations at other popular sites around the city?

New Nonprofit to Support City's Ethnic Parades and Festivals

2010-06-02T18:22:00.000-04:00

U.S. Representative Bob Brady announced today that he has formed a new nonprofit, the Greater Philadelphia Traditions Fund, to help support ethnic parades and festivals that now have to pay the costs of police and other city services.

(You can read my earlier posts about why the city pulled the plug on subsidizing costs for the parades here and here.)

Philanthropist Gerry Lenfest has agreed to donate $500,000 to the new fund over the next five years, and additional donations are apparently in the works.

Reporter Steve Highsmith writes that the fund aims to give at least $7500 each year to 10 groups: the Mummers, the Odunde Festival, the Columbus Day Parade, the Von Steuben Day Parade, the Puerto Rican Day Parade, the Greek Independence Day Parade, the Gay Pride Parade, the Pulaski Day Parade, the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Chinatown Mid-Autumn Festival.

New Museum on the Parkway?

2010-05-22T09:53:00.000-04:00

Family Court building, 1801 Vine Street, photo courtesy of PhillyHistory.org

Gov. Ed Rendell announced Friday that the Parkway will be getting a new museum (apparently to be named later) in the Family Court building at 1801 Vine Street.

According to the governor's press release, the city of Philadelphia will be accepting bids starting in June to convert the existing structure into a "museum with a new luxury hotel." (You can read more about the planned new building at 15th and Arch Streets in this Inquirer story.

As for the existing building, Rendell's office says the "hotel and museum on this site will be in keeping with both the architecture of Logan Circle and the Parkway and the museum character of the area."

Hm, could this be the new home for the currently homeless Civil War Museum?

Reclaimed "Things" From Our Commercial Past

2010-04-28T22:38:00.000-04:00

Claimed and unclaimed artifacts from the city's former Commercial Museum will be on display beginning Friday April 30 in a new exhibit at the Slought Foundation in West Philly.

The exhibit's curators seem to be considering some very interesting questions about cultural ownership, forgotten history, and the nature of museum collections.

But even more intriguing is the foundation's invitation to "members of the community" to borrow artifacts from the display.

You too can display remnants of foreign cultures (with no known provenance), in your very own home!

I wonder if the foundation would consider adding bar-codes and tags to these objects a la "Tales of Things," letting users create and track new memories for these orphaned artifacts. (For more on the "Tales of Things" project, check out the Center for the Future of Museum's recent blog post about it.)

You can read more about the Slought Foundation's "Commercial America" exhibit in this Philadelphia Weekly article, or on the foundation's web site.

The End of Student Field Trips?

2010-04-22T10:03:00.000-04:00

With school budgets getting tighter and learning standards more stringent, many museums these days are creating traveling educational programs, online curricula, or even videoconferencing to reach schools that are no longer scheduling expensive field trips.

This isn't exactly new, but the New York Times published a nice update on the trend on Wednesday, with some eye-opening numbers from the assortment of institutions surveyed.

At the Museum of Science in Boston, school visits have dropped about 30% since 2007. At the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, school visits have dropped more than 40% since 2007.

The big question left unanswered in the article: what do museum experts think this trend will mean long-term?

How do these drops in school groups compare to museums' overall attendance trends during this economic downturn? Is there any evidence that in-school programs create enough excitement for families to visit the museums at a later time? And, most importantly, does it matter to the long-term viability of these institutions if kids stop visiting in person?

I recently had an opportunity to get a glimpse of one local institution's new "traveling trunk," which holds all the goodies that an educator will use to present the museum's program in the school or classroom.

It looked amazing.

I don't have a handle on how widespread this trend is in the Philly region, but Bartram's Garden, for one, received grant funding in 2009-2010 to develop traveling trunks on colonial history and natural science for several local schools.

For inspiration on what your own institution might be able to present, check out the Chester County Historical Society's list of traveling trunk programs, focusing on Lenape children, the American Revolution, the Underground Railroad, and more.

Free PSA Air-time for History, Arts Groups

2010-04-08T20:30:00.000-04:00

The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance announced a new partnership today that promises $500,000 in free media for local cultural organizations on the national cable channel Ovation, which is newly available in the Philadelphia region.

You can read the full announcement here, or read a good summary on the blog of Philadelphia's Chief Cultural Officer, Gary Steuer.

Local cultural groups have until May 6, 2010 to submit either 1) ready-to-go, 30-second public service announcements; and/or 2) content for one of the six themed "interstitial" short programs that Ovation is producing. You can find the submission/application form here.

So far, Ovation is planning one of the six themed short programs to focus on "history and historic sites," though on the actual application form, "science" sneaks in there in one mention.

A Bright Future

2010-03-29T10:21:00.000-04:00

The Center for the Future of Museums blogged last week about one possible museum future. In this imagined scenario, 24 years in the future, a museum stays relevant to a changed education system by supplementing its small permanent exhibits with an aggressive program of changing exhibits.

The scenario describes a museum focused on three key principles:

1) "Perpetual beta": To summarize, the changing exhibits are always works in progress.

2) "The process is also the product": The museum recruits students to serve on the teams developing the exhibits, and 60% of the students are non-local.

3) "Don't collect, don't preserve": This one involves using a 3-D printer to make copies of original artifacts for exhibitions, an interesting idea you can read more about here.

The first two principles seem especially useful and timely concepts for the many small to mid-size museums in this area to explore.

To take just one example, what could the American Swedish Historical Museum do with this model of changing exhibits and student involvement?

The American Swedish Historical Museum

I visited this interesting jewel for the first time this winter. Located in FDR Park, near Broad Street and Pattison Avenue (down near the sports complexes), the museum was founded in 1926 during the Sesquicentennial celebration in South Philly. After surviving the Great Depression, the museum held its grand opening in 1938, the 300th anniversary of the New Sweden Colony.

The museum is designed as a collection of miniature museums, each focused on an "area of Swedish accomplishment." Some exhibition rooms have decidedly 1930s flare, making the decor itself as visually interesting as the objects on display. The changing exhibit gallery is currently presenting work from two Swedish artists as part of Philagrafika 2010.

The museum's Pioneer Room, a romanticized 1939 version of a 19th century Swedish farmhouse

Obviously, this museum, like so many others, must grapple with limited resources and too many potential challenges to count. But what could the American Swedish Historical Museum do with another changing exhibit space, perhaps online?

Could the small staff create a model of vibrant, changing exhibitions that evolve over time, involve students, and further their mission of preserving and promoting Swedish and Swedish-American heritage, history and culture?

The museum's current galleries are so diverse that online exhibitions could explore topics as varied as New Sweden colonists' life in the 1640s to technological innovations like the first working propeller and early solar-powered engines. And involving students in the creation and evolution of such online exhibitions could connect the museum to audiences far beyond the Philadelphia region.

Certainly that's the kind of museum future I'd like to see.

CEO of Philadelphia History Museum Retiring

2010-03-22T18:23:00.000-04:00

This is proving to be a big year for the newly renamed Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent.

Along with a new name, new branding, and under-renovation building, the museum will soon have a new director. Viki Sand, the museum's executive director and CEO, is planning to retire by June 2010.

A consulting firm is handling the search for the new director. If you or a colleague might be a good match for the position, you can read the job posting here.

More Visitors, Fewer Dollars

2010-03-17T21:34:00.000-04:00

The American Association of Museums (AAM) released an interesting report last month about museum attendance and funding in 2009.

The AAM surveyed its approximately 2,300 institutional members to ask how museums fared during this "year of recession." The responses are mixed.

Among the 481 museums nationwide that responded, 57% reported increased attendance in 2009, in many cases regardless of declines in funding. Among history-related institutions, about 59% of the respondents reported increased attendance.

The museums most often attributed the higher attendance rates to more marketing to local visitors, more people vacationing closer to home, new or special exhibits, and the relative low price of museum admissions among entertainment options.

Not surprisingly, the survey found that most museums experienced financial stress in 2009. Museums with larger budgets were more likely to experience "severe or very severe stress." The AAM defined severe stress as "bad, but I have seen worse in the previous five years," and very severe stress as "the very worst I have seen in at least five years."

Unfortunately for those of us looking for jobs in the area, the Mid-Atlantic region had the highest percentage of museums reporting severe or very severe stress.