U.S. National Park Service Partners with Google to Help Share America’s History: Google Cultural Institute to digitize U.S. artifacts

 

Tuskegee airmen in briefing, Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945. Source: 332nd Group Fighter Pilots and U.S. Library of Congress (public domain).

 

“The magic of technology is that it allows us to fold space and time to bring people together with places, experiences, artifacts, and each other in ways that before were impossible.” – Malika Saada Saar, Google’s Senior Counsel on Civil and Human Rights.

 

In celebration of February’s Black History Month and in preparation for the Centennial Anniversary of the U.S. National Park Service occurring on Aug. 25, America’s Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced Feb. 11 that the Google Cultural Institute will “make thousands of historically and culturally significant objects in the [NPS] museum collection available online.” Explained Jewell, Google will photograph and then digitally link artwork, historical records, photographs, and other artifacts to Google Maps, using “technologies similar to Google’s Street View” as part of a partnership agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior.

“This marriage of technology and history means that anyone anywhere can see artifacts and sites that provide a taste of the rich and diverse story of America,” said Jewell. “Our hope is that this partnership will not only illustrate and elevate our nation’s history and culture, but inspire more people to visit the wonderfully diverse places that the National Park Service protects and preserves for current and future generations.”

With more than 450 million objects and 76,000 linear feet of archived records scattered across nearly 400 national park-based museums, the U.S. National Park Service is now operating one of the largest museum systems worldwide, but simply does not have the physical space to display even a fraction of its holdings. So, this partnership is seen by many public historians and open source enthusiasts as a key victory for the arts and humanities.

One of the park-based museums to be made more visible thanks to Google is the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site where Jewell made her announcement as part of a special Black History Month event featuring survivors of the famed World War II Army Air Corps squadron. The collections from the Tuskegee Airmen NHS document the heroism in the air and on the ground of more than 1,000 African-American aviators and 10,000 military and civilian support personnel who defended the nation while raising awareness of the discrimination they faced on the home front.

In addition to bringing more information about the Tuskegee collections to light, said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis, website surfers will likely enjoy a special Centennial Virtual Exhibit from the NPS, and “will have the unique opportunity to see rare Native American artifacts, browse inspiring works of art that convey our nation’s history and natural beauty, and virtually walk through the homes of great American thinkers, like Frederick Douglass and Thomas Edison.”

“The magic of technology is that it allows us to fold space and time to bring people together with places, experiences, artifacts, and each other in ways that before were impossible,” said Malika Saada Saar, Google’s Senior Counsel on Civil and Human Rights. “That’s what the Google Cultural Institute does, and we are thrilled to work with the National Park Service to help preserve these beautiful American places, objects, and stories.”

 

Eastward Ho! The English Bible of Germantown’s Founder Returns to Philadelphia

For news and behind the scenes details about rare Bibles and treasures found in newly opened, once forgotten, old trunks, the University of Pennsylvania’s “Unique at Penn” blog on WordPress #GreatReads for those who love #History and Genealogy.

Unique at Penn

Last April, a woman called the Penn Libraries from California saying she had in her possession an English Bible that had belonged to Francis Daniel Pastorius (1651-1720). Pastorius is credited with being the founder, in 1683, of Germantown (now part of Philadelphia), which became the new home for thirteen Quaker and Mennonite families who emigrated from Krefeld, Germany in search of religious freedom and economic opportunity. Pastorius also drafted and signed, with three other Quakers, on behalf of the Germantown Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery, the first protest against African-American slavery made by a religious body in the English colonies. The original 1688 Petition is now held by Haverford College and can be viewed on their website.

Pastorius was one of the few intellectuals in the Philadelphia region at this time, with a substantial library (probably the largest before James…

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Time to Clean Out That Attic: National Endowment for the Humanities awards Common Heritage Community History grants

Love letters in grandma’s attic? Photos of unlabeled “mystery men” dressed in Civil War uniforms? A Purple Heart quietly tucked away in your dad’s old box of World War II memorabilia (and never mentioned to you or your siblings)? Paperwork which confirms the war-time service of your family’s very own Rosie the Riveter?

You just never know what you’ll find tucked away in the desk drawers, attics or basements of your parents, aunts, uncles, or grandparents. But thanks to the National Endowment for Humanities, you’ve finally been given the nudge you need to dust off and explore those old family boxes which have been ignored for far too long.

On Dec. 16, 2015, the NEH announced that it had awarded nearly half a million dollars to city governments, county museums, historical societies, public libraries, and other public benefit groups “to bring historical records and artifacts currently hidden in family attics and basements across the country” into the light of day in order to “make them digitally available to the wider public and for posterity.”

The first grants ever awarded by the NEH under the Common Heritage program, which was launched in April 2015, will support preservation by the Town of Westborough, Massachusetts of recently discovered pre-Revolutionary War documents; Sonoma State University’s plan to digitize artifacts, documents and photographs held by internees of the Amache Japanese interment camp; an outreach program by the Holyoke, Massachusetts Public Library to preserve the records, photographs and oral testimonies of Latino elders; digitization by Knox College of memoirs, photographs, records, and other materials documenting the 19th century Underground Railroad and 20th century Civil Rights histories of the African American community in Galesburg, Illinois; digitization by the Marquette County Museum of family photographs and records which illustrate Michigan’s Finnish American history; outreach and training by the Museum of Chinese in America to teach the public how to preserve, store and share photographs and other treasured family heirlooms; and digitization by the University of Southern Maine of materials documenting the wartime experiences of Maine’s Franco-American residents.

According to the NEH, many of the organizations receiving grants during this first funding round will “host ‘digitization days’ encouraging members of the public to share materials important to their family or community histories, such as photographs, artifacts, family letters, and works of art,” and will also provide owners with free copies of their digitized items. In addition, with permission of the owners, each grantee will then make the newly digitized family treasures “publicly available through the institution’s online collections.”

This new NEH grant program is a big win for professional and amateur historians, genealogists and Americans of all ages. So, don’t be shy – and don’t be a slow poke. Stop what you’re doing right now, locate the key to an unexplored trunk in your home or local historical society, and start investigating. America’s future history students and your own descendants will thank you.

To learn more about the Common Heritage Community History program and rally your family members or fellow historical society volunteers for the next grant cycle, visit The Common Good: The Humanities in the Public Square. This website also provides information about additional NEH efforts and funding opportunities to “enhance the role of the humanities in civic life.”

 

Photograph: Mrs. Chandler’s New England attic, Landaff, Grafton County, New Hampshire, Irving Rusinow, photographer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 March 1941. Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (public domain).