Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week

“Practice Makes Perfect"


Saturday 26 November 2016

Mapping the World of History

The semester is drawing to a close, and my weeks are now one, big, long never-ending day filled with project after project. The end is in sight, and yet there is still a long way to go.

One of these projects is for my Digital History class, which asked that we explore some new area of digital history and try it out. It was basically an exercise I learning something new, and having something to put into our portfolios for when we eventually graduate (which admittedly at this point does not feel like it is going to happen).

For this project I chose to explore the world of GIS and see how it can be applied to history. GIS stands for Geographical Information System and it was developed in the late 1980s by academic geographers. It was initially designed to represent quantitative data, and was used almost exclusively for social scientific information. This has been steadily changing in recent years as GIS technology has been applied to history. It has been developing so quickly in fact that there is now a separate category for GIS in history, creatively named Historical GIS (HGIS).

In history GIS technology has been used mainly for spatial representations and information. It has been used to visually show a historical event, such as the movements of an army on a battlefield, or the spread of a disease through a city, or even how the parameters of a location have changed over time.

For my project I decided to apply this technology, and its visual capabilities to the Fathom Five National Marine Park and see if I could tell its geological and cultural history more effectively through this location based system. I used a program called ArcGIS, developed by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri). They developed a program called storymaps, which is what I used to communicate my information.



 




















I really liked this program, it was easy to use, and it easily combined GIS information with historical photos and information.

Map with GIS data over-layed. The boundaries of the park and the bathymetry of the park.
I used the ArcGIS online database to access the boundaries of the park, and the underwater topographic information, but I also added points of my own. The Fathom Five park is home to twenty-two shipwrecks, which are used to preserve and study shipping history on the Great Lakes. I discovered that the parks website had a map of these wrecks, but that the map was not interactive. Through the GIS software I was able to change that.




The history of the Fathom Five National Park is something close to my heart, as it is an important part of the development of my hometown. I have visited this park many times and every time I am blown away by its beauty and wealth of history. This is only part of the reason I chose to explore the parks history through GIS. This technology and its application to history is a rapidly growing field, and one that I think could change the way that historians approach researching and representing events from the past. In the words of Jack Dangermond, the creator of ArcGIS, “The application of GIS is limited only by the imagination of those who use it”

If you want to see the finished storymap follow this link! The Fathom Five National Marine Park storymap

Tuesday 8 November 2016

Portraying Dark History and the Challenges of Techonology

One of the assignments in my Digital History class was working with my fellow graduate students to create a dark history walking tour of London, Ontario. Our assignment was to each create a page for the tour, after researching a moment of dark history from London's Victorian past. We walked out a route, decided on various points and chose people and places that all fit together into one cohesive walking tour. After all this was done the Death, Destruction and Disgrace in Victorian London tour was born. Sounds simple right?


We very quickly discovered that the technology we were using to create our tour was not the most user friendly. Despite being given a personal walk through of the technology, there were still many challenges and unknowns that we had to over come to make something that looked polished and professional. Most of the time the app worked well, but when it didn't it REALLY didn't. The biggest lesson I learned from this assignment was that you need to leave ample time between when you complete a project, and when it is going to be used by the public, because there are a lot of things that can go wrong. A few days before our tour was set to go public, the entire system that supported it crashed. Because of this we had to do some quick thinking, and convert all of our pages to pdf format so that our test group could still use the tour. Eventually everything worked out, but inevitably the final 3 days before the due date will be the most stressful and will be when everything goes wrong. This is the way of digital history.

The second part of this blog post is on how dark history should be portrayed, or if it should be portrayed at all. Each person and event in our Death, Destruction and Disgrace tour contained some rather dark information, hence the term dark history. One issue we had to wrestle with is if we should be presenting this information for the amusement of others, because essentially that is what this tour was designed to do; educate but also amuse.

The person that I chose to research and present was Cornelius Burley, whose hanging was one of the most unique in London's history. He was the first, and the second man hung at the London courthouse and recent scholarship suggests that he was innocent of his crime. He was accused of murder, and later admitted to the crime after hours of interrogation from Reverend Jackson. This confession was read by Jackson at Burleys hanging, and was later published into a pamphlet and distributed throughout London.
After his death, Burley's body was dissected immediately at the site of the hanging in front of the 3000 people who attended. This practice was not uncommon, and acted as a kind of second show. Burley's skull was taken by the famous phrenologist Orson Squires Fowler on an international tour across America and Europe. This skull eventually ended up back at Eldon House museum, and was buried in 2001.
I found that my subject in particular had a very hard life, death and afterlife full of humiliation and pain. This made the decision to feature Burley's demise on the tour all the more important.
Cornelius Burley's skull
Orson Squires Fowler
To go along with this tour, we had a lot of classes on how dark history should be portrayed, and if it should be portrayed at all. It is a hard topic, especially for people like myself and my classmates who want to be able to communicate all kinds of history. How historical people and information is represented is an especially important consideration when dealing with hard topics. The exploitation of history and heritage is an unfortunate reality of the field that I am looking at getting into. My class was not making any money off of our tour of London, but if we had been, one thing to consider is if it is right to be making money off of the deaths and disgrace of past figures.

This topic continued throughout many of my classes, and one topic that was brought up again and again was the Holocaust. How, as public historians, should we approach this horrifying moment in history? There are many sites connected to the Holocaust that already exist. Many concentration camps are part of tours across Europe designed specifically around these sites, and many different approaches are taken. As with many facets of history, there really is no one right answer. My conclusion is that if we are doing our best to remain empathetic and respectful then there is really no recipe for how to portray dark history.

Tuesday 25 October 2016

What in the World is an Ignite Talk?

As a still fairly green masters student I have encountered many MANY things that I have no clue about. How do you search through newspaper archives efficiently? Where is this lecture series being hosted? How am I supposed to read 200 pages for tomorrows class?

The most recent question I have come across is what in the world is an Ignite Talk? This was something I was assigned in my Public History class, and something that I had no idea how to begin. An Ignite Talk is a new phenomenon at conferences and lectures which condenses material, and presents it in a new and innovative way. The presenter is responsible for preparing a presentation with fifteen to twenty slides, that are between fifteen and twenty seconds each. These slides ideally have very little text on them, and are composed of mostly images that emphasise what the speaker is saying. These slides also advance automatically after the designated times, whether the presenter is prepared for it or not, just for the fun of it. If it is done well, an Ignite Talk can be a great way to convey key information in five minutes in a very memorable way. If it is done poorly, an Ignite Talk can be five minutes that feels like fifty.

If anybody is interested in seeing how this is done, check out this video! I did before I wrote my first talk, and it really helped.

I decided to do my first talk on a topic that I know very well, my recent trip to Menorca, Spain where I dug a 3rd c. Roman city for eighteen days. I chose this topic because I was comfortable talking about it, I knew it really well, and I had all my own pictures which made it more personal.

I began with an introduction of where I went, the field school I chose to dig with, the affordability of the experience, and an overview of the site itself.

This was my site! I dug with the Sanisera Archaeological Institute, and worked on uncovering new walls in the Roman City. Sanisera is one of the most affordable field schools I found through my research, and a great place to start if you are new to archaeology! For 18 days of digging, classes, transportation, accommodation and 3 meals a day I paid $750 (USD).






The above information was broken up into about 4 slides. The next phase of my talk was about what exactly I did while I was digging on site, and how my day was broken up. My day started at 6:00 am, and digging on site began around 8:00 am arrival at the site and then there was seemingly endless digging until lunch. After lunch it was either a few more hours of digging, or lab work where I learned how to clean, classify and label pottery and bone. By 3:00pm we were back at the residence, and had free time until we did it all again the next day.
 By that point I was about halfway through my talk. One of the most amazing things I did while on Menorca was participate in a three day crash course in underwater archaeology and diving. I had never been scuba diving before, but it was something that had been on my bucket list. I was also a fear of mine, which I am proud to say I managed to overcome!



 The rest of the Ignite Talk focused more on the process of excavation, some of the things that I found while digging, the people that I met, and my experience on the island. One thing that I struggled with while writing and putting together my talk was the lesson I was trying to teach. What was the point of what I was saying? Did I want to just tell people about my amazing trip, or was there a way to bring in some larger life lesson? What I realized while I was going through my slides is that the larger lesson is that travelling is important, and it can be done fairly simply. Because I went to Spain and dug up a city I learned so much about myself, and about my capabilities. I also learned more about Spanish culture and language, and met people who are now great connections for me even in my life as a masters student.


I began my talk, just excited to share some trip pictures and talk about some things I learned while digging in Menorca. I ended up being able to convey a larger message about why it is important to travel, and push yourself, and how if you have 18 days and some savings it is possible to do it.

I have one more Ignite talk to do in my Public History class. I learned A LOT from my first talk, both through personal experience and feedback, and I am excited to apply those lessons to my next one. Ignite talks are daunting, especially because you really have to know what you are talking about, but I think with practice, they are a great way to engage an audience and convey some important lessons in only about 5 minutes.

For more information on the Sanisera Archaeological Institute and how you can sign up for a dig check out their website! Sanisera Field School


Monday 17 October 2016

Producing a Podcast

Podcast's are becoming an innovative tool for heritage organizations and museums to expand their audience. They are part of the quickly growing field of digital history, and for those who are good at them, a great way to get ideas and concepts out in a fun and engaging way. I had the chance to research, write and produce a podcast of my own for my Digital History class, and it is not as easy as it looks! Below I would like to share some of the steps, tips and tricks I learned about producing a podcast which will hopefully help anyone considering starting a podcast of their own.

Step One: Brainstorm an Idea
Coming up with an idea that can be effectively researched, but is also interesting and appealing to a large audience can be tricky! When I was trying to come up with an idea I thought about topics I liked, things I already knew about, and something that would be interesting enough to hear about for 15 minutes. I decided to combine two of my favourite things: Disney movies, and Greek mythology. Admittedly, for the purpose of my Digital History class this idea kind of missed the mark. It did not really have a strong enough historical connection, and as much as I did a lot of research on the myth itself, and how Disney changed it to fit their movie, I fell into the "So what" trap, where the things I was saying did not REALLY matter. Something I learned here, is that if you are going to take the time to do a podcast, you need to make sure you come up with an idea that both appeals to you, but also has a strong message or point.

Step Two: Complete your Research
Before I wrote any kind of script, or began even thinking about recording I had to know what I was talking about. Fortunately for me my undergraduate degree was in Classical Studies and Religion, and I still have most of my textbooks. This gave me an easy resource for researching the Herakles myth , and making sure I had all my facts right. As for researching the film, this was done with a bowl of popcorn, a notebook to mark down whenever I saw a discrepancy or heard a soundbite  I could use later.

Step Three: Write a Script
While sometimes I am a huge fan of the strategy of "winging it", this is not advisable for a podcast. It will increase recording time, editing time, and afterwards there is a good chance that you will not like what you are saying. Even with writing a script I ended up re-recording my podcast three times...I am maybe a bit of a perfectionist. With that being said, sometimes the way you write will not be the way you speak, and remaining flexible and relaxed while recording will help! It is also advisable to practice your script prior to recording, because this allows you to work out your kinks before you go anywhere near a microphone.

Step Four: Record
It is a really good idea to learn the program you are going to use to edit your podcast before you start recording. This will save SO much time when you are editing! I learned this the hard way. When recording, it is also a good idea to leave a bit of time without talking at the beginning, as it is useful in the editing stages. Make sure you speak regularly as well, instead of trying to rush your way through the script. Learning the equipment you are going to be using is a good idea as well, as there are many different types of microphones available, and some are better then others when trying to get a good sound quality. One thing I learned during recording (all three times), is that tone matters. After my first attempt, I got home and realized upon review that I sounded very monotone, and slightly bored with what I was saying, even though as I was speaking I thought I was sounding professional and academic! I also realized that an academic tone did not suit my topic, which was a lighthearted look at Disney movies and their sources in history.

Step Five: Edit
Editing takes the longest of any of the steps, so do not leave this until the last minute! For a good podcast it is a good idea to take out background noise, normalize your vocals and equalize them so that your sound levels remain regular. I also included sound clips from the film, but this takes longer! Other classmates of mine chose to do an interview for their podcast, but this also takes longer in the editing stage. There are also a lot of tutorials online which can show you how to do a lot of cool effects, how to edit out certain sounds or inflections, or how to smooth out or strengthen your voice.

Step Six: Listen and Enjoy
Here is a link to my newly produced podcast! I would love if you had a listen!
Debunking Disney: Hercules

Enjoy!

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Balloons...Who Knew pt.2

I have finished Richard Holmes book Falling Upwards and I must say, I really enjoyed it! For my second post on the fascinating subject of balloons I am going to be looking at the role of women in ballooning near the end of the nineteenth century.

Apparently, as ballooning became more established in Europe, particularly France and Britain, people began to be bored of a simple balloon just floating in the air. What was once a marvel became mundane, so people began to push the envelope for what could be done with these floating sacks of hydrogen gas. In Britain, the aerial champagne culture produced an avenue for women to begin the risqué tradition that was already popular in France; the spectacular and dangerous parachuting, trapeze and acrobatic performances by female aeronauts. This was the fin de siècle of ballooning. Female aeronauts began to frequent fairs and festivals, executing acrobatics while floating in the air

Fanny Godard sitting in her balloon
and releasing aerial fireworks displays. What began with Sophie Blanchard, continued and to a greater extent. Some of the most famous names in Britain were Maude Brooke, Cissy Kent and Marie Merton and Fanny Godard. As was the case with the male balloonists, the threat of injury was always great, and these women had to be careful.

One of the most famous Edwardian balloon girl was twenty one year old Dolly Shepherd. Much like Sophie Blanchard, she was fearless and regularly pushed the limits of safety to achieve a good show. Her biggest trick was truly terrifying. She would climb several thousand feet in her balloon hanging from a trapeze beneath. When she reached her desired height she would pull a special release cord and be dropped to the earth by parachute. In addition to this terrifying stunt, she was made famous by her costume which was very scandalous for the time! She was dressed in a blue trouser flying suit with a little cap placed on her head and tight lace up boots that showed off her legs. Unsurprisingly she had many male admirers, and offers of marriage, but more significantly she had a large following amongst young working class women, and she was regarded as a potent figure in women's rights. Dolly's greatest scare happened in 1908 when she ascended with a twin parachute
Dolly Shepherd in her risqué flying suit
harness with her friend Louie May. Louie's harness failed to release her when they went to drop, so Dolly had to transfer her friend to her own trapeze while thousands of feet in the air and still attached to the balloon. She managed to hook Louie up to her harness, and the two of them reached the ground safely with one parachute. Louie was unhurt, but Dolly suffered a spinal injury which left her temporarily paralyzed, and in a wheelchair for several weeks. After she recovered she returned and performed for several more years.

Severe injuries such as this were an expected part of the job as ballooning became part of the festival circuit. Displays and presentations had to become more daring to attract crowds, but this also placed the acrobats in a great amount of danger. According to Dolly most of the parachutists that she worked with eventually just disappeared, be it because of an injury that prevented them from jumping anymore, or sometimes because they did not survive. These risks were increased because there were no regulations or licensing for these kinds of displays and no insurance on the lives of the performers. It was not until the First World War that these festival demonstrations stopped. These young performers were the last representatives of the great nineteenth century tradition of ballooning as entertainment in Europe and marked the end of a glorious and dangerous era.

Saturday 24 September 2016

Balloons...Who Knew pt. 1

This semester I am working as a teaching assistant for a class about the history of aviation. Now, I like planes as much as any person, I mean who doesn't like planes! But I really have no idea about their history or the history of flight. To try and make up for this I am currently reading various books on aviation, beginning with the history of hot air balloons.

The topic of balloons is actually very interesting! The assigned book for the class is Falling Upwards by Richard Holmes. It is a very readable book, filled with stories and anecdotes beginning with the first barely successful flights of sacs filled with hot air and going all the way up until...actually I haven't yet finished the book so I don't know how it ends! But I do have some interesting things from what I have read so far, things I never knew existed!

The first hot air balloon was created by Joseph Michelle and Jacques Etienne Montgolfier.
They were a pair of French brothers who were in the exceedingly interesting business of making paper. In June of 1783 they put their prowess with paper to good use and turned some of this simple product into the very first hot air balloon. That's right, the first hot air balloon, complete with open flame, was made out of flimsy paper.
Their flight kicked off an air race in France, triggering the transition from air to gas balloons (hydrogen mostly). After the first successful floating of large balloons the phenomenon took off (get it). The balloons got bigger, most elaborate and would go higher and float longer. It was not an endeavour without challenges or dangers. New innovations, done in the name of science, caused many crashes or explosions. One such mishap occurred with a renowned French balloonist named Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier. He tried to invent a type of dual balloon that combined a hot air component below a hydrogen ballon. Now for anyone who knows anything about hydrogen, when it is mixed with oxygen and placed over and open flame it tends to react badly. Needless to say this innovator did not last very long in the air.

The balloonist that I found the most interesting in this novel was actually a woman named Sophie Blanchard. This woman sounds like she was completely fearless! She was the wife (the young wife)
Sophie Blanchard standing in her small basket
of a ballooning pioneer named Jean-Pierre Blanchard. She was introduced to ballooning by her husband and continued after he died. She was the first woman to work as a professional balloonist! Her employer? Napoleon Bonaparte! He saw some of her exploits (which included night ballooning, aerial fireworks displays, skydiving and standing in a basket the size of a champagne bucket), and promoted her to the role of Aeronaut of the Official Festivals.  She had many close calls, including losing consciousness on many occasions, crashing her balloon in a marsh and almost drowning and almost freezing to death due to how high she floated. Unfortunately, her illustrious career ended when some fireworks ignited the gas in her balloon. It crashed into the roof of a house. The impact didn't kill her, but she fell out of the basket onto the roof, and then slid off to her death.  




One of the most interesting things that I learned from the novel was how hot air balloons were used in the American Civil War. This was the first time two opposing armies used an air force during battle. Balloons were more commonly used by the Union army as a way to scout enemy movements before and during battles. The Aeronaut (Balloon pilot) would use a small telescope or binoculars to track the armies movements and relay messages to the union generals. The Confederate army also used balloons. Most famously, because the army did not have as much money as the Union, the south supposedly constructed a small balloon made out of beautiful silk dresses donated by the belles of Dixie. This balloon, known as Gazelle, was actually just made out of silk dress material premade dresses. The below video explains more about it's use in the war!


This is only part one of a two part blog post. I am going to keep reading, and next week post about how the novel ends. Stay tuned for some more interesting facts about balloons!

Saturday 17 September 2016

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” ― L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between

Hello all, and welcome to my second ever blog post!

I have now finished my first full week of grad school, complete with every class I am takign this semester, readings for all of those classes, my new TA position, a new part time job and a whole bunch of new friends! So much has changed, even in a week, which I suppose is tangible proof that studying the past is as important as it is messy! Like the titel of this post states, the past feels like a foreign country where everything is done differently, and this quote relates to everything I have been learning so far! This post is going to be a reflection of my second week, all of the new glorious challenges and changes that I have come across, and some of the things I have learned in just a week.

1. The readings never stop
So I am not exactly sure what I expected, but the readings seem to be never-ending! Two things that I have noticed about these readings though are that 99% of them are both crucial to the classes (and very interesting to read!), and that it gets easier! I attended my first "professional development seminar" on Thursday, where the upper year graduate students gave the new masters students some tips on how to approach the next year of school. One of these nuggets of wisdom, which I took to heart, was that the readings never ever let up...but the way that you read changes for the better. Even in one week I think that my reading has become much more efficient. Either that or I have so much more to do that my brain has decided that something needs to give. That is still under review.

2. With many friends come many responsibilities
One of my biggest worries coming into grad school, even more then the work, was making friends. It is not that I am antisocial, but coming to a new city where I only know a few people was daunting. Turns out I needed to worry about the exact opposite of this, even after only two weeks I can already see that socializing is going to have to be done strategically. So far though I have been able to get to know the amazing people in my program at Trivia night, Grad Club campfire and a Public History night on the town. I also have discovered that socializing happens when we are all in the office together (which happens on a daily basis). There is going to have to be balance between productive socializing, like in the office, and times when we just want to forget we are in school, but I have confidence in our ability to be awesome.

3. Parking, freeze punk!
This week I started my "part time" job, and by "part time" I mean 4 hours a week. I have worked one shift doing parking enforcement on campus and I discovered that four hours of walking around campus making sure everyone has proper permits is actually a welcome break! It is a great way to get to know the campus and get some exercise. The people I work with are great, and I get to make some extra money while taking a break from school work. Who knows how this will work out later on in the semester when assignments start, but for right now I'm loving it.

4. School work and Classes
I have now had at least one of all of my classes and I can say with confidence that I am in the right program. In my digital history class have been discussing the use of technology in academics, the concept that my generation is the "technology" generation and how to make an effective podcast. Fun fact: coming up with a podcast topic is almost as hard as coming up with a blog name! I am excited to continue work for this course, because as a newly budding public historian, being able to work with many kinds of software's and programs will be invaluable.
The second class I had was social memory. It was an AMAZING class! It is going to be SO much work! I have learned that social memory is essentially what society as a collective remembers about historical events and people. This class fell very close to the anniversary of 9/11, and this seemed to be almost fate, because much of the discussions centred around what we remembered about that day. One important question was raised: can you differentiate your memory of the event from all the information you have learned since then. Some of us answered yes, but evidently the answer is no. An event, once experienced, can never be experienced again. Only the memory can be re-remembered and therefore it is subject to constant change and alteration no matter how hard you try to keep the memory the same. This topic is complex, it is sometimes controversial, and there are no right answers. I am in love. This is why I went into grad school. I am so excited about the upcoming weeks in this class and the things I am going to learn!
The final class was public history, which is getting more interesting by the week! This week was oral history, and how interviews and primary accounts can be very important. It relates to our first assignment in that class, assisting with videos and conducting first hand oral history interviews.

Just like in the past, grad school can sometimes feel like a foreign country. There are different rules, expectations and sometimes even what seems like different languages. I am excited to keep learning about how to navigate this new world and become a master of history.

Friday 9 September 2016

And so it begins...


Well…I survived my first day of graduate school…barely. Hour and hours of preparation, orientations and meet and greets admittedly did not prepare me for the avalanche of new information, new people and a campus that is the size of the small city that I grew up in! There were a few things that I managed to reflect on after my first day that I want to share in this, my very first blog post!
I am so excited about the work that I will be doing! I was presented with projects and assignments that will not only will give me invaluable skills moving into the world of careers, interview questions and endless cover letters, but will also allow me to leave a mark on the community. I am most excited to dive head first into these major assignments and show what I can do. This is also what I am most nervous about. This work matters. When I was writing endless undergraduate essays and assignments, that work only really affected me, and my academic success. But these assignments affect not only myself, and my future job opportunities, but the community, and the professionals who are relying on me for quality work. The importance of these assignments is a double edged sword, a chance to sink or swim.

This relates well to what I want to accomplish during the next year of this program. There are many different goals that I set before beginning this next chapter of my life. Personally, I want to be able to grow as a student. My undergraduate studies were successful, but I dedicated the majority of my time to my studies and did not have a balance when it came to socializing or taking care of myself. The importance of balance was emphasized over and over during the orientations, although admittedly somewhat contradicted by the sheer volume of work that was then assigned! Nevertheless, as a personal goal I want to be able to work towards this balance, and make my masters an enriching experience.

Academically, I want to be able to take every assignment and learn from it. Even having only been to one day of class, I can already see that there is a wealth of knowledge and skills at my disposal, and I think it is my job as a developing student to embrace that. I know there are going to be times when I don’t want to read for a class, or when I feel like I can’t do any better on an assignment, or when I really don’t want to revise my essay for the fourth time. My goal as a student is to remember during those times why I chose to pursue graduate level education, and in the end be able to continue improving the quality of my work. Essentially, I want to make an impact during my time in this program. I want to be able to explore things I find interesting and discover things I had never before considered (such as blogging, thank you Digital History!). So far, every person I have met and every class I have attended seems to be designed to challenge me, but ultimately help me achieve these goals.
When I was preparing to apply to this program, I received nothing but encouragement from my professors, mentors and friends. I heard over and over how suited I was for graduate school, how it would be challenging but it would be the best time of my life. I came into the first day with determination and confidence, and I left feeling slightly (ok, maybe more than slightly) deflated. This is going to be hard! However, I once received advice from someone that I held very close to my heart; if it were easy, everyone would do it. What makes it hard is also what makes it worth it. I am looking forward to seeing what this year brings, being part of the amazing community that is my program and moving forward into the world of public history!