Harrisburg Historical: Developing a Digital Civil Rights Tour

The landing page of Harrisburg Historical, a collection of digital tours through the city. What if there was a way to conveniently access a diverse array of histories surrounding the Pennsylvania capitol in the palm of your hand? This is the very goal of Harrisburg Historical, an upcoming website and mobile application that will tell … Continue reading Harrisburg Historical: Developing a Digital Civil Rights Tour

The Untold Epidemic of 1916

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

Retelling the Story of Harrisburg’s Historic African American Community: My Final Reflections

- 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

Harrisburg Transformations: Digitization and Datification

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

Retelling the story of Harrisburg’s Historic African American Community

By Kelan Amme This fall, I will be helping to create a video/audio tour of African American History in the city of Harrisburg. In partnership with the Center for Public Humanities at Messiah University, the T. Morris Chester Welcome Center (at the McCormick Public Library), and Mr. Lenwood Sloan of the International Institute for Peace … Continue reading Retelling the story of Harrisburg’s Historic African American Community

Encountering History in the Digital Age 

 by Sam Erikson I have always had an interest in history and for as long as I can remember, I planned to major in History at college to someday become the person working at the museum rather than the curious visitor. Following my first year at Messiah University, I encountered frustration with the course work … Continue reading Encountering History in the Digital Age 

Faithfully Learning Digital History

By Faith Swarner My name is Faith Swarner and I am a senior Public History major at Messiah University. As a senior Public History major I enjoy historical work that creates connections to public applications. My goal for the future is to go into museum work and make history accessible to all and then nurture … Continue reading Faithfully Learning Digital History

Getting Out The Vote at Messiah University

As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 15th amendment and the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, the Center for Public Humanities has partnered with the Student Government Association as well as the MU Democrats and MU Conservatives for a voting drive across campus

My Final Digital History Post

As I have been working through this semester, a good portion of my focus has been on the veterans of the Spanish American War. Back in early April, I posted about my idea for a final project where I track some of the veterans who served in the Spanish American War. Bridging to that idea, … Continue reading My Final Digital History Post

Deserters and Digitization

It has been a hectic past few weeks. You'll probably learn from my classmates how the college has shut down the campus and moved all classes online (not a serious handicap for a Digital History class) due to the COVID-19 outbreak, so I'll spare you the details. Fortunately, we were able to spend our last … Continue reading Deserters and Digitization