No future in history?
Last summer, Tom Thomson and Rebecca Sibert-Johnston of the museum studies graduate program took historical studies to a modern medium.
Under the guidance of Jeff Manuel, assistant professor of historical studies, Sibert-Johnson and Thomson created an android app as an experiment in digital history. The goal of which was to display historical information in modern settings.
The idea to create the app originated with Thomson. Sibert-Johnson came on board to manage the technical challenges of creating the app, and as a way of combining her computer science background with her historical studies. The two worked closely with the Belleville Labor and Industry Museum.
The app, now available for free on the android market, is a walking tour of Belleville historical sites. It allows users to view maps of the downtown area and places historical information and photographs at their fingertips. The information presented in the app came from the Labor and Industry museum in the Belleville and connects pieces from the museum’s collections to modern maps of the area provided by Google.
The app represents the way historians are embracing new tools to convey information. By utilizing new technologies like smart phones historical information is able to be connected to the locations where events happened allowing museums to expand their collections beyond their walls and into the world around them.
Filed Under: Historical Studies