Blog, page 11

Read about Bob Skiba in the Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday published a front-page feature story about Bob Skiba, who helped to form our partnership with the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. Bob is currently president of the Tour Guides and heads the archives at the William Way Community Center in Philadelphia. Read all about it. Congratulations also to the Tour Guides on completion of their recent certification training and examination — as a result, twenty-nine newly certified guides are prepared for the tourist season of 2011.

New Film: The Work and Legacy of W.E.B. DuBois

We’re pleased to call attention to a new documentary produced by area high school and college students under the direction of one of the Encyclopedia project’s advisers, Professor Amy Hillier at the University of Pennsylvania.  Legacy of Courage: W.E.B. DuBois and The Philadelphia Negro, was created as part of the Mapping DuBois Project.

 

We’re Augmenting Reality

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!

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!

Report from the PHA

The Encyclopedia editors had the opportunity to lead a roundtable discussion about the project at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association conference, held October 14-16, 2010, at Susquehanna University.  We were pleased to see scholars from so many universities taking interest in the project and contributing their ideas and thoughtful questions.  Thanks to the historians from Penn State, Temple University, Villanova University, Philadelphia University, Millersville University, Lehigh University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and elsewhere for your participation.   (That was quite a lineup of past presidents of the PHA in the back row!)  Specific topics recommendations received have been added to our nominations list on the home page of this site, and we look forward to receiving more.

Connecting the Past with the Present, Building Community, Creating a Legacy