What if you could stand in the present and see the past? It might look something like this. Over the last several months, the Encyclopedia team has been involved in an exciting project with the City of Philadelphia Department of Records and Azavea Inc. to develop an augmented reality app for the lastest generation of smartphones. Read all about it on Azavea’s blog, and get your phones ready for the app in the near future!
Blog Author: cmires, page 5
We’re in the Knight News Challenge – you can help!
We are working on an exciting new project – “Backgrounder,” which will provide journalists with links to historical background information, delivered via Twitter. Working with WHYY, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Temple University Libraries Special Collections Center, we propose to build up news-related content in the Encyclopedia, then provide it to reporters when they need it. We also propose to provide new content related to breaking news, and that will become part of the Encyclopedia as well.
You can help us shape this project and earn funding for it by adding your feedback to the project proposal, which we have just posted in the Knight News Challenge:
http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/18812768763/backgrounder-blasts-from-the-past-for-busy-reporters
You may also follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders
Thank you for your participation in the Encyclopedia project!
We’re In The News
An array of organizations and individuals met April 16-17 at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to begin the work of imagining and planning The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. Our first Civic Partnership and Planning Workshop made the news in the Inquirer and on WHYY. Thanks to the many people who devoted time, energy, and inquisitive minds to make this event a success.
We’re Inspired, Too
Drawing inspiration from The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, a new encyclopedia effort is underway in Cheshire, Connecticut. We’re pleased that the town historian, Jeanné Chesanow, shares our commitment to building a strong community for history and connections between the past and the present. Read about her project in a Cheshire Patch report, where you can also add comments to encourage this endeavor.
Welcome to Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery
We are pleased to add the Friends of Laurel Hill Cemetery to our growing Civic Advisory Board, which helps to assure that the Encyclopedia project serves community needs. Gwen Kaminski, Director of Development and Programs for the Friends of Laurel Hill, has helped us plan our “Green Country Town” roundtable, coming up in May at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The President and CEO of Laurel Hill and West Laurel Hill Cemeteries, Pete Hoskins, will be a panelist for the program. Welcome to these supportive friends of the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project!
Welcome to Our New Friends in Virginia!
This week we noticed a spike in traffic to our essay on yellow fever, by Simon Finger. We were very happy to discover that this interest came from Hines Middle School in Newport News, Virginia. Students in Ms. Christine Mullins’ sixth-grade social studies class used our essay in combination with other sources to build their critical thinking skills and learn about the yellow fever epidemic and life in the late eighteenth century. Welcome to our new friends! We hope you will find other topics of interest on our web site.
Who Do We Think We Are?
Familiar phrases such as “City of Brotherly Love” and “Workshop of the World” have described Philadelphia’s history as well as its aspirations for the present and future. Slogans such as these are frequently used, but what role do the ideas they represent play in our history and civic life? These are the questions that we open for discussion with “Phrasing Philadelphia,” our new series of Greater Philadelphia Roundtable programs. Registration is now open for the first four programs. Don’t miss this opportunity to help us continue to build public participation in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project. For more information and to register, simply click on the events calendar. Teachers, this year we offer the opportunity to earn Act 48 credits by attending these programs.
William Penn Foundation Grant
We are pleased to announce that The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia will enhance its digital platform with a two-year, $81,040 grant awarded by the William Penn Foundation to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities (MARCH) at Rutgers–Camden, the Encyclopedia’s institutional home. The grant will allow us to add photo galleries of material artifacts; place-mapping; new text about Philadelphia’s history; links between history and the news; and more. We look forward to working with our civic partners as well as the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University in developing these new features.
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, works to close the achievement gap for low-income children, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. With assets of nearly $2 billion, the Foundation distributes approximately $80 million in grants annually. Learn more about the Foundation at www.williampennfoundation.org.
Your chance to see new exhibits at the Philadelphia History Museum!
Our next program in the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable series, “City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes,” will take place at the Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent – a great chance to see the new exhibits there prior to the program. Make sure to register in advance for the program at https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events. Here’s a preview of the museum’s new offerings:
The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent recently reopened, in part, as a preview to the museum’s full reopening this summer. A three-year renovation has upgraded the pre-Civil War structure (the original home of the Franklin Institute) adding new galleries and two currently opened exhibitions with more to come this summer.
Start in the orientation gallery where City Stories: An Introduction to Philadelphia welcomes visitors in a multi-layered exhibition featuring almost 30 artifacts that help illustrate Philadelphia’s transition from the “greene country towne” founded by William Penn to the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed to the Workshop of the World and the World Champion Phillies. City Stories features an original media presentation with contemporary Philadelphians sharing their feelings on the city of neighborhoods.
Philadelphia Voices: The Community History Gallery serves as a preview space for the five additional galleries to be unveiled this summer. Celebrated artifacts displayed here, including Joe Frazier’s boxing gloves, George Washington’s pocket watch, and a Passmore Williamson family portrait, provide a further glimpse into the Museum’s extensive collection.
The Philadelphia History Museum: 15 South 7th Street
http://www.philadelphiahistory.org
Free and open to the public Wednesday to Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.