The Osborne Center for Historical Methods

The events this past weekend surrounding the House Divided Launch were all captivating and interesting in their own rights, but I was personally most excited by the Social Studies teacher information session.

As a future Social Studies teacher, I was extremely interested in learning about the uses for the site in a classroom context. Furthermore, hearing input and feedback from other social studies teachers made me think a lot about the uses of technology in the classroom and the future of students using digital history. Keeping students interested often means being able to show them things they haven’t seen before, and technology is certainly a means to accomplish this. A resource like the House Divided Project could be incredibly powerful when used alongside strong instruction, introducing students to captivating stories and important methodological strategies.

While the teacher instruction segment was my personal favorite, the visit to the Old Courthouse showed me a new way to look at history in Carlisle, quite literally. The augmented reality tour is an amazing tool that holds very exciting potential for historical tours. The difficulty of finding appropriate photographs and getting them sized correctly will be a process well rewarded once it is fully functional. I was so excited after the experience I came home and tried to download Layar on my iPad, but then I realized – to my dismay – I didn’t have a camera on mine, so it wouldn’t work. I can’t wait to see how far the project goes, however.

In all, the experience this weekend was very exciting. The scope of this project is so far beyond what I realized that it seemed like every five minutes I was learning something new about it. It was a truly exceptional experience, and I eagerly await further developments.

This weekend was the launch of the House Divided Project. One thing that stood out to me in particular was the tour at the courthouse. Though the weather was horrible, we were still able to get an abbreviated version of the tour and witness the new technology being used in it. This event started with a video giving the background of the courthouse. Then came the heart of the tour. The tour was supposed to be a walking tour around Carlisle, though we ended up staying in the main room of the courthouse and on the steps of the courthouse which were shielded from the rain via an awning. What was special about the tour was that it utilized augmented reality. I had heard the term ‘augmented reality’ thrown around before, but I really didn’t think too much about what it meant and I guess I really didn’t know what exactly to expect. However, I ended up being blown away by this concept. In the case of this tour, you hold up an iPad or a smartphone and images of Carlisle as it was back in the day would appear on the screen (there would also be text, audio and other forms of streaming). Even though we only got to go to two destinations on the tour, this was enough to demonstrate the potential of this new technology. You definitely got the sense that in a few years this will definitely be not only a staple of historical tours, but a tool that will revolutionize and be used throughout various aspects of society and life. Asides from being impressed by the technology, it was also great to finally go in the courthouse after having studied about it through class and research, and learn more about the history from the civil war era.  Overall the whole weekend was a great experience!

This past weekend, I attended the various House Divided events and enjoyed the opportunity to participate in this historic experience that included the augmented reality tours, focus groups on the Washington Post Twitter Page and the lecture by David Blight. 

Saturday morning began with resources for teachers of the Civil War.  Many of the lecture and focus groups provided valuable teaching resources for these educators.  It also gave them new outlets to use in their lessons such as the Washington Post’s American Civil War Page on Twitter.  Some of the teachers did not know how to use Twitter, but they seemed very engaged in the activity.  They were willing to learn and wanted to explore how Twitter could be used with maps, primary sources, and photos. 

The augmented reality tours were a success and I found them enjoyable as well as informative.  This type of tour was interactive and spurred interest, giving more depth than a normal tour.  The video showed at the beginning added a nice touch to the presentation.  It allowed people to obtain a basis for what they would see on the augmented reality tour, since it was raining outside.  The teachers seemed pleased with all the activities and use of the new technology.  This technology will be very valuable since students love to learn new activities instead of just reading textbooks and viewing PowerPoint presentations. 

The Blight lecture was a perfect ending to the weekend.  Blight was a very compelling speaker and I was interested in his point of view on memory of the Civil War, since we had read his article. 

I believe the weekend was beneficial and that many teachers gained insight into creative ways of teaching the Civil War.  Even though it rained, the augmented reality tour was successful and introduced people to the program as well as House Divided.  Everyone involved in the preparation and presentation for this weekend should be proud of all the accomplishments.

The House Divided weekend meant too much for me to publish in just one blog post, so I’d like to highlight what I think is one of the most important things I took away from the events. The House Divided Project and this weekend’s events made me take a deep look at why we actually study history and who it impacts.

Working on my documentary, I had definitely been fairly caught up in the workload and technical details of the film. But as I sat there in the theater with hundreds of people watching, it really started to hit me how much the documentary was impacting the audience and the town. The slow walk of the AME choir only highlighted who should be benefiting from our historical work. It’s the town, the people, the teachers and the students. And I believe this idea of extending history beyond the scholarly gates is exactly what the House Divided Project embodies.

This motif really came to light during the teacher workshops. I think the teachers had no doubt that they were asked to come to the workshop not just to show off a product, but really to hear out criticism and figure out how House Divided can best help out them. How can a teacher inspire a student to map out the path of a famous historical figure? How can they eliminate the struggles and frustration of online search for children and allow them to more easily tackle historical research?

It’s questions like these that I think the weekend events really tackled. The documentaries showed an audience how history can be entertaining and moving. The teacher workshops connected historians to teachers to students and started to chip at the wall between scholars and the classroom. And the tours aimed at drawing out the community and making historical representation interesting for the computer savvy world.

Talking with my step-mom tonight, I told her, “The thing about academia is that no one will ever care as much about your topic as you do.” You have to know your audience and know what they want, need and care about. And I believe the House Divided events made it very clearly that historians can do the research, now it’s time to engage the rest of us.

This past weekend had many exciting events involved in it. The movies on Friday night and virtual tours on Saturday afternoon were extremely interesting and fun to be part of. However, I found the most interesting aspect of the weekend was the lecture by David Blight. Not because it was the last thing on the list and then I was finally free to enjoy my Saturday night but because he really got me thinking about this war and the reasons we remember it. He posed some great questions that I have been thinking about since I left ATS that night. The biggest question I still ponder is “Why do we remember and celebrate such a terrible event in our history?” After thinking long and hard about it during the lecture and listening to the possible answers he offered I cam up with a few answers of my own. The first answer is because it was a war of independence in a sense and had flashbacks to the Revolutionary War. One group of people trying to free themselves from a ruler who they did not like and a government they could not stand. The second answer I came up with was it was terrible and so devastating we have no choice but to remember it and celebrate/remember everything that occurred during it. For example the freeing of an oppressed people, the fighting that pitted neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother, and finally how small towns and unknown people and soldiers have a story to tell now for generations if it wasn’t for this war. 

The second question he posed to the audience was “What is your oracle?” What makes us think about the war and where do we get our thoughts about it from? My answer is as follows. I have two places that I get my memory on this war from. The first is Gettysburg National Park. Every time I go here the feeling of emotion sweeps over me. I stare out over the vast ground that 147 years ago was covered with bodies, horses, weapons, and had the sounds of screaming, moaning, gun shots, and explosions. When I stand at the marker behind the wall at the center of the Union Line where General Lewis Armistead fell during Pickett’s Charge. The story of him and his friend General Hancock was also wounded on the same day but would survive the war. Both men wanting to see each other one more time but never getting the chance. The other place I get my oracle from is opening the book General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s most Controversial Soldier. This book is important to me because as I read it I become more entranced with the general and his role in the war and what became of his legacy after the war. It brings in the question that was also asked “What was Justice?” Longstreet certainly received no justice from the southern people. He certainly may have criticized Lee but he served his country of the CSA with honor and courageously during the war.

It’s thoughts like these that make people remember this war and the authors who write books on it getting people to read about it. This war will forever be remembered by American people. Something so terrible is also something so great.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure to attend the Saturday events of the House Divided Opening Weekend. I was very sorry to have missed the Friday night film festival, but I found myself engaged with other activities of the track and field nature.

I arrived on Saturday morning somewhat groggy, and found myself greeted by a more than appreciated table of coffee and doughnuts, as well as several teachers from across the country. Our first order of business was to be introduced to the House Divided project by professor Pinsker. I have been familiar with the project, so I spent the session observing the teachers, and came to the conclusion that high school teachers don’t know much more about certain topics of history than I do, and that the trick to being a teacher seems to be in the methods of actually teaching rather than knowing facts. I don’t know how I feel about this, since I was always brought up with the idea that the teacher always knows what he/she is talking about.

After the information session, the History 304 class found itself engaged in a discussion with a woman from the Washington Post, whose name escapes me (I am never good with names, especially after little sleep), who talked to us about the importance of Twitter in conveying information, in this case historical. Her project involved tweeting direct quotes from various historical sources about the Civil War as it was happening in “real time” 150 years ago. I thought the idea was very interesting, but that it has a limited audience, namely students and history geeks (I use the term with as much affection as possible). Also, the percentage of those people who have a Twitter account could affect the usefulness of it. I personally don’t follow those kinds of things, or celebrities in general, except Lady Gaga, which is something I should not be discussing on a public blog post.

The afternoon found us in the old Cumberland County Courthouse. I personally found this part of the day a bit tedious, partially because I was tired, but also because I have been listening to the same information for the majority of the semester, and it seemed like another opportunity for me to go and hear the same thing. The demonstration of technology was fantastic, especially the part with the iPad and the images overlaid in the real world. However, I couldn’t get the technology to work on my blackberry, which was very frustrating. The movie was also well done, and Prof. Osborne’s voice is very soothing (sometimes; it is also terrifying sometimes).

David Blight’s lecture was in the evening, and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. After a brief discussion with Professor Isherwood about Hemmingway and in particular “A Farewell to Arms”, I settled back into my chair and was carried away by Blight’s humor and knowledge as well as insight into how people remember historical events. His lecture somewhat indirectly inspired my current historiography paper, which I am working to shape into how the Great War has changed in societal perceptions. Hopefully that will turn out.

In conclusion, aside from the exhaustion and repetitive information, the weekend proved to be a very interesting one. I was very impressed by the display of technology in the HD project, and think there is a lot of potential, although also that there is still a lot of work to be done. I was very impressed by what I saw of the films, especially the one done by Colin, after hearing how much time he spent on it and how much time he had to work on it.

By Stephen Whittaker ’13

The official launching of the House Divided Project brought together students, faculty, staff and community members through the sharing of technology and ideas.  The most effective component of the weekend-long event was probably the teacher workshop held on Saturday morning.

It was extremely interesting to see how educators from across the country reacted to the more technological side of the days events, and I was shocked to learn from some that they are truly trying to innovate in the classroom.  Coming from a large, public high school, I did not have many history teachers that integrated a great deal of technology into the classroom (or at least it was not that effective).  As a student interested in social studies education policy, it was remarkable to see and hear of all the potentially useful tools that are grossly unappreciated by secondary school teachers.  Resources such as mapping software, video editing tools, and primary source databases are rapidly becoming necessary components of social studies education in order to both improve the learning process and keep students tech-savvy in a world of computers and digital innovation.

Websites such as Twitter, the USAHEC and even Google are providing means beyond the featured House Divided engines to conduct research and change the way that students interact with history.  Twitter offers a way of communicating in real time with other students and interested persons.  One can offer stories and ideas or even follow technologies relating to history as they advance (as shared by the Washington Post).  The US Army Heritage and Education Center offers similar tools to the House Divided.  It is an incredible source of digitized material that should not be overlooked for research and educational purposes.  Google also provides a veritable treasure-trove of tools for both students and historians.  From Google Maps, to Google Books, to the new Ngram Viewer, the potential for lesson-planning and new means of collecting and analyzing data is virtually boundless.  Great attention should be paid to these tools and the countless others in the digital world.  They are the future of the way students and professionals will come to engage with history.

During my research on the invasion of Carlisle I learned a lot of new and interesting things that I have never known before. I also was able to obtain new ways of doing research. The most important thing anyone should know and always keep in my mind when doing historical research is be patient. You might not always find what you were looking for and that’s okay. Sometimes what you are looking for whether it be a document, a memoir, or story just may not exist. That should never mean that you give up. Something is always out there and waiting to be discovered, it just may take more time.

While researching be prepared to look under different search names and change around what you are looking for. For example while I was researching the shelling of Carlisle I was looking up reports from civilians about the event. Instead of just going into the archives of looking up civilian letters or civilian reports I had to get creative and began researching peoples names, their letters to friends and family, or people who worked at Dickinson College. That’s how I was able to find information on John Keggy Staymam. Historical research implies creativity and you have to be ready to think outside of the box while researching.

Before you begin researching make sure that you have a timeline, schedule, or list of the people involved, sequence of events, and topics you want to focus on. This will make your research much easier and make you look like you knew what you were doing. If you just try and throw everything together and just go off a whim you’ll get lost and may end up researching the same thing two or more times. Also if you don’t happen to find information on a person, place, or thing you can cross it off your list to make sure you don’t go back to it. Being organized is probably one of if not the most important thing during research.

Finally while researching make sure you try to link events together. History follows a timeline and everything is connected in some way or another. You may be able to find a similar story about the same topic or even a different topic but it may help your research. History is complicated as Prof. Osborne told us in our 204 class but it’s our job as historians to uncover the past and tell the story about what has happened. Never give up when things get tough, battle through them because you’ll always discover something that will lead you to a great discovery.

By Jason DeBlanco Class of 2012

One thing you should commit yourself to thinking is that the research is going to be tedious and time consuming. Keep reminding yourself to be patient and be aware of all the leads you come in contact with.  To be thorough, it takes tedious amounts of searching and reading published secondary sources on your topic to gain a general context and a comfortable grasp of where the next phase of your research will take you. The more leads you take note of, the more opportunities you have for success so make sure to write things down.  Like any subject you take on, it also helps to have a good amount of prior interest in your topic because you are going to be spending a lot of long hours with the subject if you want to get something substantial out of it. You are not going to want to slave over pages and pages of microfilm on something you have no interest in.

The research can be tedious at times but if done in a logical order, starting with a general figure and moving into individual leads you’ve gathered, the pace will gradually quicken. Starting out by looking at information and evidence already published is the golden rule of any beginning research project. It not only acclimates you better to the subject but is a convenient and useful tool to help you gain a bearing on where you will further explore. It also helps to make a list of keywords dealing with your topic so that way you can have a physical representation of what your trying to look for and not just keeping it all in your head. Not only that, but many times, helpful primary sources are cited and techniques by which the author came about these documents are indicated which will hopefully spawn some creativity in your own research. One thing I learned in researching Black Civil War era Carlisle is that you need to be creative in order to find leads. Obscure topics demand creativity.  Just like you should not limit yourself to primary sources, do not limit yourself to the locations which provide secondary and primary sources. Explore all available archives, databases and libraries at your disposal and outside of your geographic location and ask the helpful attendants at these places.

One of the last important notes and for me, one of the overlooked things in research is what you would consider failing. As Professor Pinsker pointed out, even if you find nothing, the most important thing is the physical process of research and the various techniques and tricks you pick up along the way that you keep with you. Becoming familiar with the various databases, search techniques, and all the facets and facilities at the archives will only increase the efficiency at which you find information. While you may not always find what you’ve been looking for, the various process and practices that led you to this point will do you much more good in the future.