Cities hold history in various forms. Some cities utilize murals to capture their past, others may use walking tours, but most city histories resides in archives and with local residents. Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, does not have the most accessible history. Due to my work with the Digital Harrisburg Initiative, I have spent an … Continue reading Mystery of McFarland
The first thing that strikes you about Sankofa Theatre Company's latest production is its music. The play opens with an old-fashioned piano riff as we look at a picture of a Harrisburg building from the early 1900s. As the image shifts to an image of the same building in the present day, the soundtrack fades … Continue reading “Voices of the Eighth” is Historical Theater at Its Finest
Last Sunday my friend Andre Frueh and I jumped in the car and drove twenty minutes from Messiah to the steps of the Harrisburg Capitol. We parked on the street by a meter, where parking is free on Sunday. We may be budding historians, but that doesn't mean we aren't on a budget. Our reason … Continue reading Story Mapping Harrisburg’s Old Eighth Ward with ArcGIS
The team of students and faculty at Messiah College's branch of the Digital Harrisburg Initiative have been hard at work for the past few months on a variety of different projects. Our on-going involvement in the Look Up, Look Out campaign and Commonwealth Monument project allows many different students to lend their voices to important … Continue reading New History: Updates on Digital Harrisburg
As the Capitol building was erected The Old Eighth Ward, a culturally rich area mostly populated by immigrants and minorities was torn down to make space. The narrative cast painted The Old Eighth as a place of vice. Destroying it was justified because it was believed to be a seedy crime hub, a place not worth saving. The goal of this project is to restore life to a place that it was taken from.
At the end of the fall semester of my sophomore year of college, I was told that through my current internship I would be able to research and write for a monument that would later be installed in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building. Without hesitation I accepted, but as the exhibit developed it became a … Continue reading My First Job as a Digital Historian
Join us this Saturday, May 4, 2:00-4:00 for a Salon Celebration honoring white carnation descendants of the 100 Voices and other inhabitants of the Old Eighth Ward. The event will be held at Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center at 1102 N. 3rd Street. Between 2:00 and 3:00, visitors can circulate between different tables and information booths, … Continue reading Saturday Salon, May 4, 2:00-4:00
Recently the Digital Harrisburg team have been looking for photos to pair with the stories written for the Look Up Look Out campaign. These stories are the culmination of months of research dedicated to the residents and businesses of 8th Ward before its destruction in the early 1900s. Despite work done by Stephanie Patterson Gilbert … Continue reading Picturing People from the Past
When researching for a history project, one can run into a lot of inconsistencies that make collecting any kind of data difficult. We expect the things we find to hand us information that correlates with our theories, but it's hardly ever that easy. In order to get a realistic perspective from the artifact, one has … Continue reading Looking into the Old 8th Ward
M. Diane McCormick published a recent piece on the Commonwealth Monument Project at The Burg. Titled Pieces of the Puzzle, the essay details the project and also includes a video interview with Mr. Lenwood Sloan. Here's a taste of the article: "The stories lurk in half-forgotten memories. The images hide in boxes stashed in attics. … Continue reading Pieces of the Puzzle (The Burg Article on the Old Eighth Ward)
Digital Harrisburg 