So many people have asked me why in the world I chose to study history. Usually I just take it in stride, tell them that everyone is different, and move on. It wasn’t until I spent a month doing intense research, getting very little sleep, trying to understand the changes that occurred in turn of … Continue reading Looking Back on Digital History
During this class, I have grown exponentially in my digital skills and digital awareness. Regarding skills, I have learned how to use Microsoft Access, ArcGIS, Story Maps, Microsoft Excel, Zotero, WordPress, and Omeka. I have so many more opportunities on my hands now that I know how to use these programs. One of the programs … Continue reading A Review of Digital History
Not many cities are able to make the kind of turn around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania pulled off between 1900 and 1930. This town that started as a tiny grouping of houses on the east bank of the Susquehanna River was able to revamp its image and become the center of national attention within 3 decades. The … Continue reading Harrisburg 1900-1930: From Industrial Blight to Shining New Metropolis
Harrisburg has been the state capital of Pennsylvania since 1812, but has had its fair share of ups and downs in city appeal. Nearing the end of the 19th century, the town was at a crossroads. After a brief period of industrial boom in the steel business, it had lost its luster and looked nothing … Continue reading Digitizing City Beautiful: Remaking Harrisburg and its History
This week, Digital History pivoted on two topics, digitization/archiving and Harrisburg’s City Beautiful movement. At the beginning of the week we broadly explored these topics; by the end of the week, we practiced archiving techniques in the Pennsylvania State Archives and Dauphin County Archives on our own individual class project. The City Beautiful movement was … Continue reading Digitally Archiving Harrisburg
The primary sources about Harrisburg and the City Beautiful movement are mostly physical copies in archives. Since we are learning about City Beautiful in the context of digital history, our first project focuses on digitizing a selection of these items relating to each of our specific themes. That’s why we spent almost seven hours on … Continue reading Digitization in the Real World
When our class began to discuss Harrisburg history and digitization, I thought I would be ready for the onset of information. Of course, there is so much more to learn, but I knew thousands of early 20th-century Harrisburg residents by name and worked comprehensively with digitizing historical Harrisburg. That’s a good base, right? Similar to … Continue reading Expanding the Narrative of a Beautiful City
For our first project, we were each asked to choose The Patriot newspaper articles, from among those we’d previously collected, and analyze what they tell us about Harrisburg’s “campaign for beauty.” As a class, our hope is that this brief study will provide us with a better understanding of the progress of this movement and how … Continue reading Ask Not What Your [City] Can Do For You…
As our City Beautiful project comes to a close, we reflect on the time we have spent on the project and what we have learned throughout the course. There have been ups and downs, but the course overall has been a great learning experience. Allow me to start off by saying this course was not … Continue reading Reflecting on Digital History
It is hard to believe that the school year is over. Most of us are one step closer to our bachelor’s degrees; some are obtaining them in a week. It was a wonderful experience being a part of Messiah College’s first digital history course. Not only did we make discoveries about the city of Harrisburg … Continue reading Looking Back
Digital Harrisburg 