Introductions: Scioto Historical

[Andrew Feight]

Greetings from Shawnee State University.  My name is Drew Feight.  Scioto Historical is a project of the Department of Social Sciences' Digital History Lab.  We are currently wrapping up development of our first series of tours, what we've taken to calling "Phase One."  I'm an Associate Professor of History and have incorporated the app's content development into my Digital History course, where undergraduate students will be contributing stories and other media content to the project.

We've yet to officially launch the app and have only just begun uploading the content for Phase One.  Scioto Historical covers a much larger area than some of the other Curatescape projects -- we plan to cover the whole of the Scioto Valley (south-central Ohio), from Columbus, Ohio, in the north, to Portsmouth in the South, on the Ohio River.  Many of our tours, such as that on the Underground Railroad or John Morgan's Civil War Raid are thus adaptable to multi-day tours.  We are also experimenting with three separate tours that focus on the history of the Shawnee State Forest. These, it seems, pose a bit of a challenge to the app's functionality when off-line.  The lack of cell service at many of the story sites may prove problematic -- but we shall see soon.  The designs of these tours we believe are also innovative in that they include numerous hikes by which the history of the forest and region can be experienced.  We've worked closely with the State Naturalist in selecting sites and hikes, and expect the State Park and Lodge will help promote the use of the app.

Thanks to a grant from a local foundation, we've been able to commission original music scores and sound icons for our audio and video content, as well as new historical illustrations to narrate some of our stories.  We hope to use the original oil paintings as a fundraiser, with an art show and auction planned, to pay for additional illustrations.  Our approach is to view Scioto Historical more as a book series/magazine/journal app, with new and original content being added once or twice a year.  Submissions of new stories, original photos, paintings, mixed-media, etc. will be encouraged, but most content will be written and edited by myself and my students.

I'm interested in hearing more about what works in promoting the app, particularly during the official launching of the app.  We are kicking around the idea of a "Launch Party" and wonder what the other projects have done or are planning to do for their launches.

Regards,

Drew