This past semester I have learned an incredible number of applicable skills in the world of digital history. Our class went through learning multiple platforms of website builders, while also learning a lot about different softwares that can be used in many creative ways - especially in the field of history. Some our first little … Continue reading Reflections on Digital History and my work with Frederick Douglass
Learn about the epidemic of measles and whooping cough that swept over Harrisburg in the year 1916. A graph of the numbers of diseases per ward. Source: Faith Swarner I was presented with a kind of mystery this semester. For our final project, we were to find information from the PA State Archives to produce … Continue reading The Untold Epidemic of 1916
Image Source: Alex Shehigian by Alex Shehigian When this semester’s Digital History course began, I was capable of discussing the more theoretical elements to this facet of the discipline of History but lacked technical experience in the vast majority of applications and tools that have now become central to the field. As our class explored … Continue reading Sharing the Stories of Harrisburg’s Schools through Story Maps
By; Sam Erikson According to historians Daniel Cohn and Roy Rosenzweig, digital history is the process of “gathering, preserving, and presenting the past on the web.” It sounds simple, yet complex. However, if you utilize the historical tools and platforms that work for you, the possibilities for conducting digital historical work are endless. Going into … Continue reading Digital History: Learning to Gather, Preserve, and Present J. Horace McFarland and the Harrisburg Park Commission
by Rachel Petroziello Now that my fifth semester at Messiah University is quickly coming to a close, I can definitively conclude that this has truly been the semester of leaving my comfort zone. Of course I've had to broaden my horizons at other points during my education - taking a math general education course as … Continue reading A Semester of New Experiences
- Kelan Amme, Lenwood Sloan (who plays Martin J. Delaney), and Lewis Butts (who plays Jacob T. Compton) discuss project details. Image by Kelan Amme. For part one of this story, click here. For part two of this story, click here. When I first began brainstorming how the Chester Way walking tour, my idea of … Continue reading Retelling the Story of Harrisburg’s Historic African American Community: My Final Reflections
By Sam Erikson Going to The Pennsylvania State Archives and The Dauphin County Historical Society were both formative experiences for me over the course of this Digital History course. When my classmates and I traveled to The Pennsylvania State Archives together a few weeks ago, I was immediately overwhelmed by the vast amount of collections. … Continue reading Harrisburg Transformations: Digitization and Datification
Image source: Pexels by Alex Shehigian As we move deeper into the month of November, it is incredible to think how far our Digital History Class has come. Since the first few weeks of class, we have explored so many different aspects of this way of doing history, from learning the benefits and drawbacks of … Continue reading Digital History and Data
An exciting part of the Digital History course here at Messiah University is the opportunity to test the skills we learn in class out in the field. Over the semester Dr. Pettegrew took us to both the Pennsylvania State Archives and the Dauphin County Archives. Our mission was to find information that will help build … Continue reading Lost Treasures in Plain Sight
I've always been fascinated by cemeteries. There's just something that is so intriguing about visiting the final resting place of dozens - possibly even hundreds - of people and wondering about what kinds of lives they led. Considering this interest of mine, it's likely unsurprising that I immediately volunteered to work on the Lincoln Cemetery … Continue reading Respect for the Dead at Harrisburg’s Lincoln Cemetery
Digital Harrisburg 