JCHC Updates: Journeys

Hello everybody!

It's been really busy here at the JCHC. We just opened up a new exhibit, "Journeys," that focuses on people of color and their experiences in Jefferson County. The exhibit features an Underground Railroad "tunnel" entrance where guests enter into a "dark basement" where a motion sensor triggers the playing of audio that exposes visitors to the sounds and feelings of a group of slaves running away and hiding from Federal Marshals. Also featured in the exhibit is a scale model of the historic Heath house on Pickering Street that was used in the Underground Railroad.

I took the time to record some footage of the new exhibit and put together a short video "trailer" of the JCHC project using my Flip Video and iMovie. Please take the time to enjoy the brief tour of the Jefferson County History Center's new exhibit "Journeys":



This project is supported by a Preserve America grant from the National Park Service and administered under the Preserving African American Heritage in Pennsylvania program of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

-Nathan

JCHC In The Works: Informational Sign Design

I've been working hard lately, spending most of my time in Photoshop working on graphics for some future signage.  Here are the results:

Click To Enlarge Image

This is still very early in the design process, but I'm pleased at where this is going.  What do you think?

-Nathan

JCHC In The Works: Walking Tour Signage

What a nice day out today!

Here at the JCHC, we have just begun work on our smart phone walking tour for Brookville's Main Street.  We are working on gathering pictures and information about all the great historic landmarks in town.

After some talking, we also see this time as a great way to develop some permanent signage to place around town.  What we are thinking of would be 10 signs that have graphics and text about the most interesting places and events from Brookville's past.  The signs would provide people with a lot more information and larger images than they would receive on the smart phone tour.

This idea is still just in the very beginning stages, but I did take some time to throw together a sample graphic to get an idea of what the basic designs of these signs might look like.

I hope you enjoy:

-Nathan

JCHC Fun Fact: Charles Bowdish

Hello everybody!

Tomorrow marks the opening of our new Civil War exhibit, Drumbeat to War.  It also happens to be the date of our annual Charlie Bowdish Birthday Celebration.  I thought I'd share a little local history with a brief story about Bowdish.

A Brief History of Charles Bowdish...

Charles Bowdish (1896-1988), famous for his miniature railroad displays, called Brookville his hometown.  After being released from service in World War I due to exposure to mustard gas, Bowdish began building models of real buildings in Brookville while he recovered.  Every Christmas, he would assemble his models into a display that featured Lionel trains running throughout.  

On Christmas Eve, 1920, Charles played host to his brother's wedding and reception.  Guests were entertained by his miniature railroad display.  One guest enjoyed it so much that he asked if he could invite friends over to see the display.  Word quickly spread and close to 600 people showed up to see Bowdish's work.

Every Christmas season to follow, Charles began constructing his display with a new theme (White Christmas, Indian Summer, etc.).  The railroad grew so big that it took up the entire second floor of his house.  Thousands of guests would come annually to see his creation, and Bowdish never charged a fee to view his work.

Flooding that would nearly destroy his models and an insurance company that would not cover the amount of people coming to view the displays forced Bowdish to look for a new home for his railroad.  Eventually, Charles chose the Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in Pittsburgh to house his work in 1954.

In 1987, Buhl officially became part of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.  Joining with Carnegie allowed Buhl to expand, and in 1991, under a new name, the Carnegie Science Center was opened.  This new building allowed enough room for Bowdish's railroad to be displayed year-round.

Today, Bowdish's Miniature Railroad and Village display can be viewed at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh from Thanksgiving through mid-September.  The railroad goes into a two-month shut down period for maintenance, cleaning, and the construction of new features on the railroad.

To view some old photographs of Bowdish's creation, follow this link.

-Nathan

JCHC First Look: Civil War 150th Anniversary Commemoration

Hello everybody!

Today has been spent working on getting the word out on the next big thing going on at the JCHC.  What we are planning is a five-year commemoration of the Civil War.

2011 marks the 150th anniversary of the war, and museums and historical organizations across the country are busy putting together exhibits and programs to commemorate the people effected by the conflict.

To read more about our plans and efforts, please follow this link to the JCHC e-Newsletter presenting the first information about the commemoration.
(Note: This is a sneak preview of the e-Newsletter scheduled for delivery on Monday, Feb. 14th)

A lot of excitement can be felt around the History Center as we prepare to unveil our very first contribution in this five-year event.

Keep looking for updates along the way as more information can be shared about our commemorative celebration.

-Nathan

JCHC First Look: More Civil War Maps

Hello everyone.  Work here at the JCHC has a definitive focus on the Civil War right now.  So, I was hard at work designing more maps today.  I made some alterations to my previous designs.  Mainly, I included the Mason-Dixon Line and dotted lines marking the path from location to location.  Take a look:

I'm really pleased with my progress on this project.  I'll post a picture of what the final display looks like when it's finished.

-Nathan

JCHC First Look: Civil War Maps

As I've mentioned before, the JCHC is participating in the Pennsylvania Civil War 150th Anniversary movement.  Since 2011 marks 150 years since the beginning of the war, we are currently in the process of developing a new exhibit about soldiers from the area and life as a Civil War era soldier.  One thing that was needed were some custom maps to be put on display...so, this is where I got to apply my technological skills.

Basically, we needed an 8" x 10" map that showed desired locations.  What I did, by using Photoshop, was merge together outline maps of a few states that include borders and major rivers.  I then had to pinpoint exact locations, mark them on my map, and label everything.  I'm quite pleased with how these turned out.  Here is an example:

Now I have to go finish my work on the rest.  Feel free to leave questions and comments.

-Nathan

JCHC Fun Fact: Brookville's "Bird Man"

LEWIS EARLE SANDT (1888-1913)

A local to the Brookville area, Earle Sandt would become better known as Brookville's "Bird Man."  This wasn't because of an obsession with winged creatures.  Rather, Earle got his nickname from his love for flying and aviation.

At the age of 20, Earle first learned how to fly, and he would soon take the aviation world on by surprise; after purchasing his first airplane for about $4,000.00 Sandt accomplished aviation feats that no other had before.  Flying in his "pusher," a biplane where the pilot sat in the front of the plane while an engine and propellor mounted on the back provided the power to the vehicle, Earle would set two new records on February 20, 1912.  On this day, Earle became the first aviator to fly over Lake Erie as well as the first American pilot to ever land in a foreign country upon landing in Ontario, Canada on the other side of the lake.  Later that year, on June 15, Earle accomplished another first when he became the first pilot to fly over the city of Pittsburgh.  No other aviator had done any of these three things prior to Sandt.

Just as Earle Sandt was about to reach his prime as a pilot, his career would suddenly come crashing to a halt, literally.  On June 12, 1913, Earle was flying in an acrobatic air show in Grove City, PA.  During one of his stunts while flying low to the ground, something went wrong, and Sandt was forced to jump from his plane before it crashed into the ground below.  Since parachutes wouldn't become regularly used until about the time of WWI, sand hit the ground hard.  Luckily, he was flying low enough to only suffer a broken leg from the fall.  However, 10 days later, on June 22, Sandt would die due to an infection while in the hospital.

Earle Sandt was a pioneer in the aviation world.  He is honored for his feats and accomplishments in both the DuBois and Pittsburgh airports.  Next time you are at one of these places, try to find his plaque/picture hanging on the wall.

We also have a section of our main gallery devoted to sharing some of Earle Sandt's story with our guests.  These include newspaper clippings and photos, as well as a model of his biplane.  Be sure to come and check out the exhibit if you are interested.

I hope you all found this story of a local legend to be interesting.  Look for more updates in the days to come.  Right now, my focus is on designing us a few new brochures for the JCHC, a general one and one for students.  Feel free to leave any questions or comments.

-Nathan

JCHC Kid Days: Final Round (Home School)

Hello everyone!  Today was the last and final day for our October visits from school students.  The students today weren't your ordinary students either.  This group was made up of students who all get educated from their home by their parents.  This isn't the traditional form of education, but not everything comes is "one size fits all" in the real world.

This day also was a lot different in how the program was formatted.  Instead of a group of students all the same age and grade level, we had a mix from Pre-K through high school.  So, we split them up into three groups (pre-k to 2nd, 3rd to 5th, 6th and above) to make our lives at the JCHC a lot easier.  Carole, our curator, was in charge of the oldest group, and she did a hands-on type lesson with them.  As she did this, I was in charge of the middle group that started off doing our museum scavenger hunt.  Mark, one of the JCHC employees, took charge of the smallest group who got to see a train show first.  As we moved along in the day, my group also got to see the train show as well as the gift shop, and Mark's group got to see everything as well.  After the museum activities were finished, each group was lead by the group leaders on a walking tour of Main Street.  This was my favorite part because I got to take the reigns in an instructional role for the first time since the end of my student teaching experience last spring.  The kids really seemed to enjoy all the places we went to, and they got the chance to see some pretty neat places that they didn't even know existed.  I was particularly impressed with the knowledge that some of these students possessed about topics like the Civil War, and I was also pleased with the quality of questions and input they provided.

Overall, today was a very successful and fulfilling day at the Jefferson County History Center.  We always enjoy educating students, and in this case their parents too, about all things history.  I look forward to more opportunities like this in the future.

-Nathan

JCHC Kid Days: Home School Preparation

Today has been such a busy day getting ready for our LARGE group of home school students and parents.  Most of my time has been spent making a "cheat-sheet" to help me out while guiding a walking tour of Main Street.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate tomorrow, and the students and parents will have the opportunity to see and hear about some of the important historical places and landmarks of Brookville.  Tomorrow should be a fun day.  That's all I have right now.  Check back tomorrow for a follow up of the visit.

-Nathan

JCHC Kid Days: #3

Hello.  Today marked the third of the field trips to the JCHC.  Once again, we got extremely lucky with great weather for the walking tour.  The students went through the same routine as usual with the tour, the lesson on artifacts, lunch, then they came back to do the scavenger hunt, watch a train show, and shop in the gift shop.

Today, I had to pay extra attention on the walking tour.  I just found out this morning that our group of home-school students that are coming to the JCHC on Friday will be taking a walking tour as well.  And guess what... I get to be a tour guide.  Looks like I'm going to have to brush up on my Brookville and Jefferson County history over the next couple of days.  This should be fun though.  Well, that about does it for now.  Feel free to contact me for anything as usual.

-Nathan

JCHC Kid Days: Video

This morning, I was up the street in our archives building moving some things around.  I got a pretty good cardio workout lifting boxes up and down the steps.  However, this isn't the only thing that I did today.  Once the work was done in the archives, I took some time to make this video from the cips I took yesterday while the students were here with us at the JCHC.  Enjoy!




As always, I'm on the lookout for questions or comments.

-Nathan

JCHC Kid Days: #2

Hello all!

Today marks the second Kid Day of the year here at the JCHC. It turned out to be a beautiful day in Brookville, which really added to the overall experience.

This time around, I tagged along for the Main Street walking tour and captured some pictures, as well as some video. I learned a lot of interesting facts about Jefferson County, Brookville, and the buildings located on Main Street. For now, I'm going to include some of the pictures that I took along the tour. I will follow up within the next few days with a video that I edit together with all of my clips.

Inside the Opera House

Brookville YMCA

Walking Tour

Main Street

Outside the Court House

After we made our way back to the JCHC, the kids filed into our board meeting room, and were given a short lesson by our local curator, Carole Briggs. The students learned what it means to be a curator and had the chance to examine and identify 19th century artifacts. The kids really enjoyed this hands-on experience. I also took some images of this lesson to share. Again, the video clips that I captured will be available in the near future.

"Please Touch" - Learning Hands-on

Handling Artifacts

Applying Curator Gloves

The next thing that the students did was head over to the Court House Grill for some lunch. I took the opportunity to come back to my computer and upload my videos and pictures. After lunch, the students were given a tour of the Court House before they ventured back to the History Center where they were split up into three groups. These groups rotated between shopping in the gift shop, viewing a Bowdish Model Railroad show, and participating in a scavenger hunt through our exhibits. I also had the opportunity to take some photos and video during this time. Like before, pictures now, video soon.

Gift Shop

Browsing the Shop

Exploring the Exhibits

History: Hands-on

JCHC Scavenger Hunt

Getting Help from Carole

Bowdish Show

Bowdish Model Railroad

These are just some of the photo highlights from the day.

If you notice at the top of the page, I added a new section of photos.  If you click on the link, you can see a lot more pictures from the kids' visit to the JCHC.  I will add more to this photo page as time passes and other special events and activities take place at the JCHC.

Remember, look forward to seeing some video in the next few days.  Right now, I'm working on editing the clips together to make a short video documenting the day.

As always, if you have any questions or comments for me, don't hesitate to comment.

-Nathan

JCHC Fun Fact: Behind the Name "Wild Cats"

If you have been following my progress on the 105th PA regiment project, you have probably noticed that this group of soldiers was sometimes known by their nickname, the "Wild Cat Regiment."  Today, I thought I would take some time to explain why these men got their nickname.

Historically, in the Jefferson-Clarion-Clearfield area, there were many operations on the exploration of oil.  Most of these operations were individual operations where drilling was done in an areas where there were no known deposits of oil.  This process of oil exploration and drilling became known as "wildcat" drilling. This type of drilling is very high risk for investors due to the uncertainty of striking the "black gold."  A "wildcat well" would be the result if a driller got lucky.  The definition of a "wildcat well" is one drilled outside of and not in the vicinity of known oil or gas fields.  Because these "wildcat" drilling operations were common in the area in which the 105th regiment was mustered out of, they received the nickname "Wild Cats."

References:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/tcreynolds/tcrfamily.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wildcatdrilling.asp

So, there you have it, the history behind the name.

Today, my work at the JCHC has consisted of browsing the internet looking for different listings for our organization.  I am doing this to find any errors in contact information, hours of operation, and any other mistakes.  So far, I have contacted a handful of various sites that had the History Center listed with the necessary changes.  Hopefully things will be fixed and help us connect to more interested people.

Next week, we are having Kid Day #2 here at the JCHC.  I plan on, this time, taking the morning walking tour and documenting more of the experience.  Hopefully I will get to play with my new toy that day, a Flip UltraHD camcorder.  I'll definitely work on sharing some of the videos in order to give everyone an idea of what we offer here at the History Center.  Hopefully, I can put together something similar to a movie trailer that would sum up what a trip to the JCHC entails for a classroom.  Maybe it will allow us to get more interested parties into the building in the future.

As always, don't hesitate to contact me for questions or comments.

-Nathan

JCHC Kid Days: Starting Wednesday, Oct. 6th

Hello everybody!

I've been hard at work on the 105th video project like always, but I thought I'd take some time to share some news.  Starting next Wednesday, groups of students will be visiting the JCHC.  While visiting, they will tour the museum, take a walking tour down Main Street, venture into the Jefferson County Court House, watch a Bowdish Model Railroad show, browse our gift shop, and conduct a scavenger hunt exploring our exhibits.  Today, I had the pleasure of completing the scavenger hunt myself.  I found it to be pretty enjoyable, and I think the kids will feel the same way.  It takes you on a self-guided tour of all the exhibits, and forces you to learn new things in the process.

I'll be sure to share some of the happenings of next Wednesday on the blog.  This should turn out to be a really fun and entertaining day at the museum, and I am definitely going to have some stories to tell!

On a side note:
If you haven't already done so, check out our Facebook page and our Twitter page.  "Like" or "follow" us for up-to-date news and event info.

-Nathan

JCHC First Look: 105th Video Test

Today, I decided to start experimenting with screen capture and video editing.  The software that I use to capture the video from Google Earth is called iShowU.  I tested out a few different video screen capture software for Mac OS X, and this one does everything that I want and is relatively easy to use.  For the editing software, I'm running iMovie '08.  In middle school, iMovie had just come out on the market, and my school actually offered a class in iMovie editing (which was one of my favorite classes I've ever taken).  The software has changed a lot since the last time I was an active user, so I'm still getting used to some of the features that this newer version offers.

I did a few tests to see how the editing will work on this video and compiled it into a preview to share.  By no means is this anywhere close to what the final project will look like, but it does offer a little taste into what the end result will include.

Enjoy!

Sorry about the end of the video.  I was having a little trouble getting the timing down for the narration, but I wanted to share this preview.  This is still very much a work in progress.  Whenever I have more clips to share, I'll definitely post them.

-- For anybody that uses YouTube, feel free to subscribe to my new channel.  It will be the host to all the videos I make while working at the JCHC.  --

http://www.youtube.com/NJPearceJCHC

As always, feel free to contact me for questions or comments.

-Nathan

JCHC Grad Assistant Blog: Introduction

Hello,

My name is Nathan Pearce.  In the spring of 2010, I graduated from Clarion University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Secondary Education Social Studies.  I decided at that time that I wanted to continue on and get a graduate degree.  So, I enrolled in Clarion University's Master of Education program with a concentration in Technology.  The same time that I applied for the Master's program, I also applied for a position as a graduate assistant.  Fortunately enough, the History Department at Clarion offered me a position at the Jefferson County History Center in Brookville, Pennsylvania.

This blog is my attempt to document and share my work while at the JCHC.  My position as graduate assistant is one that has a lot of flexibility.  Since I do have a background in Social Studies education and I am currently learning how to properly use and incorporate technology for educational purposes, I am focusing my efforts at the Historical Center on technology.  I'm currently learning how to manage the website (bear with me!).  I am also working on an ambitious project dealing with the Civil War.  Using Google Earth, I am plotting the different locations of major happenings of the 105th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers (these guys were mostly from Jefferson County) and documenting the battles and events in which they were exposed.  I plan on making an interactive display using a touch-screen monitor that will provide a narrated, visual tour through these locations.  This display will be incorporated in our future exhibit on the 105th.

Be on the lookout for images, links, and other media dealing with my projects and work as the graduate assistant at the Jefferson County History Center.

-Nathan