Limits

I have added the map for guests to know where to go for each tour stop.

As I get closer to the end of the official internship I am becoming more aware of how this project will continue to expand beyond my abilities. I have the app in a working state, but its not ready for the public yet. I have to populate the 3 features with content beyond the placeholder information I have used. My issue now is to get this content and that requires either patience or annoying the employees for this while they are swamped with their other duties.

For example, I have picked 17 exhibits in the museum for the app. By scanning a QR code guests will get extra information on objects either through text, video or audio. I want to get some of the veterans who donated to the museum to do a short bit about their time in the service or war which is associated with their content. I know this would be far more effective in making a connection with guests if they can hear the guy who wore the uniform in Vietnam talk about his time there, or the woman who served in Korea talking about that experience with her own words.

One of the objects that I really want to get more information on is a mourning braid. In the past, when someone died, their family would take a lock of hair or in women’s cases they would often cut a braid and keep it. There is one in the exhibit on the early Polk pioneers and everyone stops to look at it. Even though it is amongst a dozen or so other artifacts like dresses and mirrors and boots, everyone looks at that braid of hair that still has its color. I have seen it for years and there is no information about the woman it came from.

I am now waiting to get that information so I can research this woman and possibly find out how she died and what her life was like so when someone sees the braid and has that emotional connection they will learn about the woman as well. This is how I see technology being used in the future of the profession of history. We have the ability to connect to the past rather than just study it. People don’t forget feelings as easily as they do information so, as historians, we should strive to facilitate the connections to the past since humans don’t change.

The braid and some of the other artifacts can be researched this coming week, all the paperwork is in the museum, the problem for me and my time is the human element. I want to create something that the public would enjoy beyond a frivolous app in a small history center. I want to get people who worked in the court house to talk about their experiences or people who’s objects are in the museum to personalize their meaning. I also would like to get experts in pre-Columbian Florida to give more details on some of the objects associated with their times. Maybe we can get the Seminole Tribe to talk about their perspective. I cannot force this to happen in the next few weeks, so I am coming up against the limitations of my time, but I am not going to stop when the internship does.