The Digital Harrisburg Project has done much to rejuvenate the culture of the History Department here at Messiah College. As chair of the Department, I am excited about this initiative for several reasons: 1. It allows our students to "do history." So often college history majors sit passively as their professors lecture at them. Since … Continue reading Why I Love Digital Harrisburg
The Allure of the Eighth Ward
Transcribing thousands of census records for Messiah College’s Digital History class can be tedious at times, and I often found myself in the habit of thinking of Harrisburg’s citizens in 1900 in terms of wards and districts rather than as families and individuals. It is all too easy to merely skim the information and forget … Continue reading The Allure of the Eighth Ward
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Navigating Your Way Through the 1900 United States Census Records
Our first assignment, The City Social Project, involves mapping demographic data for Harrisburg in 1900 and creating a digital map of Harrisburg along the lines of the Mapping DuBois project. Each student is responsible for keying 2,000 records of the 1900 U.S. Census. In a class of twelve students, that means we are processing over 24,000 entries total. With the … Continue reading The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Navigating Your Way Through the 1900 United States Census Records
Excelling in Census Data
These past few weeks we have been hard at work taking census data from 1900 Harrisburg and putting it into Microsoft excel. This work was done with help from Ancestry, Dr. Pettegrew, patience, attention to detail, and numerous cups of coffee. Below, you will see one of the many sheets from the 1900 census. I … Continue reading Excelling in Census Data
The Study of History in the Digital Age
Many years ago, we would have never put the two words "Digital" and "History" together because they seem to have two completely different meanings. "Digital" refers to computing technology, while "History" refers to the study of the past. Now, in the digital age, as a result of all of the technological advances, historians are almost pushed to study … Continue reading The Study of History in the Digital Age
Paving a Path for Recognition
These past three weeks, our class has been entering into the heart of our digital history projects. For the “City Social Project”, as noted by previous posts, our class is digitizing US census data of various wards in Harrisburg. We are digitizing these records, which can be found on Ancestry.com, to showcase the people of Harrisburg … Continue reading Paving a Path for Recognition
Digital Harrisburg: The “Pennsylvania History” Perspective
As David Pettegrew noted in his original post at Digital Harrisburg, I am teaching a course in Pennsylvania history this semester at Messiah College. This course is part of our newly revamped public history concentration, so students are not only learning about the history of the Commonwealth, but they are also getting training in local … Continue reading Digital Harrisburg: The “Pennsylvania History” Perspective
Harrisburg and the 1900 Census
Messiah College's Digital History class is currently finishing the digitization of the 1900 Census Records from the city of Harrisburg. I have digitized segments of Wards 3, 4, and 9. In looking at the map below, you can identify the wards by the large numbers throughout. While working on digitizing these wards, many interesting discoveries were made. … Continue reading Harrisburg and the 1900 Census
So What Exactly are We Doing?
As you must have gathered from exploring this site, students at Messiah College are working on projects that involve bringing historical information about Harrisburg, PA and the City Beautiful Movement into the Digital Age. But with all the information about census data, archiving and digitization, it’s easy for details about what is occurring within the … Continue reading So What Exactly are We Doing?
Visiting the Archives
This past weekend a group of Digital History students drove down to Daulphin County Historical Society to take a peak inside the archives. We took time out of our Sunday to begin research for our digital exhibits on the City Beautiful Movement in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Upon arriving, we noticed the connection Harrisburg still has to … Continue reading Visiting the Archives
Digital Harrisburg 