During our last few Digital History class periods, we've gained an introduction to GIS (geographic information system). I'm familiar with the basics of GIS from my internship this summer. I worked for the Bureau for Historic Preservation, in the CRGIS (sculptural resources geographic information system) Office, but I really only used a program call GeoMedia. I am not overly familiar with ArcGIS, … Continue reading Have a Spatial Day
As the days are getting colder, our research is getting warmer. At the moment our Digital History course at Messiah College is waist deep in our third project for the semester. Over the past few class periods we have been learning a lot about the inner workings of ArcGIS, a digital mapping technology. We take … Continue reading Mapping the African American Reformers of Harrisburg
The Digital Harrisburg working group is pleased to announce a beta version of an interactive map of Harrisburg in 1900/1901 hosted at ArcGIS Online. This map and the data it contains was developed as a collaboration between faculty and students at Messiah College and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. The Historical Society of Dauphin … Continue reading Explore Harrisburg in 1900: An Interactive Map of Buildings and Population
It’s been an eventful month for our work on the Digital Harrisburg Initiative. About time to round up some of the latest updates: 1. Presentations Since our last update, faculty and students from Messiah College, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, and Harrisburg Area Community College presented on research related to Harrisburg’s City Beautiful movement. … Continue reading The Harrisburg City Beautiful Project: A Mid-December Update
Joseph Thomas and his wife Marian lived in the 8th Ward of Harrisburg at the time of the 1900 census. Their home (see cyan dot on map below) was smack dab in the middle of where the current Capitol Fountain exists today. Joseph was an undertaker and he and his wife had two boarders, a … Continue reading Beneath the Capitol Fountain
A small team of faculty and students is putting together a presentation and paper for Saturday’s digital conference at Bucknell University. The presentation is titled “Harrisburg’s City Beautiful Movement: Mapping the Growth and Transformation of the Pennsylvania State Capital” and details the collaboration between GIS and History faculty and students from Harrisburg University and Messiah … Continue reading Connecting the Dots
After the flurry of activity on this site last winter and spring, it may have come as a surprise that activity at this site would drop so abruptly in May. Behind the scenes, however, the Digital Harrisburg initiative has continued to develop and expand over the last sixth months in new and exciting ways. I’ve … Continue reading Digital Harrisburg Reboot
I never wanted to take this class. I stood outside, as my last class ended at the end of the fall semester, talking to my fellow History majors in regards to this course. I squished and squirmed about the possibility that I could learn anything from taking a course titled "Digital History." "What kind of … Continue reading Digital History, an experiment.
Messiah College offered its first Digital History class in the Spring of 2014. The digital history class was helpful not only with providing us particular computer skills, but it changed the way we as students think about the study of history. In the class, we focused on GIS, collecting data from census records, archiving and much … Continue reading Digital History Wrap Up
Digital History is opening my eyes to the different avenues that students can use to understand history. As an aspiring Social Studies teacher, this course has given me a new way to make history more enjoyable for both middle and high school students. Two weeks ago, some fellow students and I gave presentations about other digital … Continue reading Local History Taught Through Digital Harrisburg
