By Keli Ganey The Harrisburg monument, “A Gathering at the Crossroads,” commemorates the passing of the 15th and 19th amendments and the multi-cultural community of the Old 8th Ward in Harrisburg. The sculpture represents four orators, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, William Howard Day, Jacob Compton, and Thomas Morris Chester. These four were powerful forces of … Continue reading The Story Behind the Bronze
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
By Derek M. Murphy Greetings! Photo by author Prior to the Digital History course with Dr. David Pettegrew, I had little knowledge of the digital humanities, especially pertaining to history. My main exposure to digital history was through another course at Messiah University, Public History. In this class we discussed some of the ways history, … Continue reading Encountering History in the Digital Age
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
The Monument on the day it was dedicated August 26, 2020 marked a historic day in Harrisburg history. Titled “A Gathering at The Crossroads: For Such a Time as This,” a new monument was erected in the Pennsylvania State Capital Complex to honor a forgotten piece of Harrisburg’s history: The Old Eighth Ward. The Eighth Ward was a complex … Continue reading Commonwealth Monument Dedication
As the school year comes to a close, we are happy to announce that a resource we've been working on for a very long time, is finally live.
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
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
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.
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
Digital Harrisburg 