The winter snow and bitter cold are slowly receding in central Pennsylvania and giving us hope for the early arrival of spring. Our semester at Messiah University is rolling along in the sixth week. Our annual Humanities Symposium is upon us and the Center for Public Humanities student fellows are engaged in a range of work. It’s time for a brief update!
I’ve been working with Dr. Pete Powers again this semester and a talented group of students and alum. In the coming weeks you’ll be hearing more from or about that work from students, alumni, and myself. Here’s a teaser of some things in the works:
You will hear from Sarah Onufer, a junior public history major, who is working with the Civic Club this semester for a new thematic tour of their Women’s History Garden. Sarah is writing about prominent pioneering women in Harrisburg history for an event planned for late March and I’ve heard Maude Coleman is on that last. More soon.
You will also hear from several students (Emmy Fogle, Maddie Graham, and Faith Snyder) who have been working all year to finalize a searchable, interactive map of Lincoln Cemetery in partnership with Saving Our Ancestors’ Legacy and the Center for Applied Environmental & Geospatial Technology at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. We began the work of geocoding stones several years ago, but it took not only some time to digitize all the visible stones of the cemetery, but also some more time to make sure the transcriptions were reliable. We are finally close to the point where we are ready to launch that map. More soon on that.
In the meanwhile, JT Crocenzi, Messiah alum and former managing editor of Harrisburg Historical, has been working on a half dozen stories that will be coming out via that platform this spring.
Finally, one of our fellows, Sarah Meeks, is working on a series of short articles about educators and community leaders who are doing impactful work on civil rights in the Harrisburg area. This series will be dedicated to the memory of Lenwood Sloan, our friend and long-time collaborator, who passed away unexpectedly in late December. Lenwood’s impact on us was profound, and we will have much more to say about his collaboration and legacy in the days to come.
David Pettegrew is Professor of History and Archaeology, and Coordinator of Digital Humanities at Messiah University. He has directed the Digital Harrisburg Initiative since 2014.
Digital Harrisburg 