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
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
Digital History in a Pandemic In the blink of an eye, the end of my senior year is on the horizon. I can say that without a doubt this semester did not turn out how I expected it to. On March 12, my digital history class and I were sitting in the archives beginning our … Continue reading Digital History in a Pandemic
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.
Recently, our class has been looking at census data dealing with information from 1900 to 1930. Our census data includes information about each person who lived in Harrisburg during those thirty years. From records, we can learn the first name, last name, address, gender, race, age, birth year, literacy, birthplace, occupation, immigration status, etc. for … Continue reading What Difference Thirty Years Can Make: Harrisburg’s Transformation from 1900 to 1930
Hello, I’m Reid Myers. That's me, to the left. I am a sophomore history major with a concentration in administrative studies. This January at Messiah College, myself and nine other history students have the chance to take the Digital History course offered by the history department. We have three weeks to do so. It’s a … Continue reading Digital History January Session: Reid Myers
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
We have recently wrapped up our work digitizing the 1900 census for Harrisburg and are focusing on creating our Omeka exhibits. However, while we were still digitizing the census it was easy to notice a few connections to the City Beautiful Movement, and therefore to our Omeka exhibits. For example, some students have encountered the … Continue reading The Eighth Ward and the City Beautiful Movement
As many students have already posted, our Digital History class is currently working on two different projects related to the history of Harrisburg and its past residents, which are “City Social” and “City Beautiful”. Each of these projects is our way of getting to know more about this city and its history. The first project … Continue reading From City Social to City Beautiful
Digital Harrisburg 