The “Impressions from a Lost World” website and related public programs will tell the story of the 19th century discovery of dinosaur tracks along the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The significance of these fossils extended far beyond the emerging scientific community, as they exerted a profound effect upon American arts, religion, and culture that reverberates down to the present day. The website will use stories of real people to engage visitors to think about relationships between science and religion, amateur vs. professional scientific pursuits and the role of specialization, participation of women in science, and the impact of new scientific ideas on American culture. Website visitors will draw connections of these important humanities themes to current issues. Accompanying public programs will attract diverse audiences and build interest in the website.
This will be a unique video game based on the writings the American author Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond. Designed and directed by game designer Tracy Fullerton, Walden, a game, will simulate the experiment in living made by Thoreau at Walden Pond in 1845-47, allowing players to walk in his virtual footsteps, attend to the tasks of living a self-reliant existence, discover in the beauty of a virtual landscape the ideas and writings of this unique philosopher, and cultivate through the game play their own thoughts and responses to the concepts discovered there. The humanities content of the game will focus on an interactive translation of Thoreau’s writings and will also include references to the historical context of those writings. The game takes place in the environment of 1845 New England, when new technologies such as the railroad, the telegraph were first being seen and were part of the changes to pace of life that Thoreau so articulately resisted in critiques of society.
The exploratory phase of a project to bring a new humanities initiative at the John Carter Brown Library to a much broader public than has traditionally been the case for the Library’s exhibitions and scholarly projects. “Exploring the Four Elements: Toward a Digital Environmental History of the Americas” takes a simple concept -- the cultural significance of earth, air, fire, and water to the diverse populations of the Americas, from the continent’s earliest indigenous inhabitants to the last waves of European scientific explorers at the end of the colonial period -- and examines the ramifications of human engagement with these elements as a window onto changing ecological relationships throughout the pre-contact and early modern periods in the early Americas.
A public event series, “Ecohumanities for Cities in Crisis,” will bring humanities scholars and the public together in Miami, FL to discuss the tension between humans and nature over hundreds of years. Miami is on the verge of an environmental crisis from a warming planet and rising seas. As the region grapples with policy and science issues, humanities scholars have a unique role to play. The project will frame humanistic discussion about urban environments, risk, and resilience. The centerpiece is a public forum in March 2016 which includes a plenary of scholars from diverse humanities disciplines, a walking tour, and a panel on diversity and justice in environmental advocacy. There will be five subsequent public programs through the Fall 2016, an on online archive of all events, professional development activities for high school teachers, a graduate public environmental history course, and a curated museum exhibit.
Mystic Seaport received an implementation grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund a suite of online, onsite, offsite, and onboard public programs and exhibits that will provide new national insight into universal and important humanities themes, through an interdisciplinary exploration of historic and contemporary American whaling. The Museum and its partners will explore through this project how, when, and why dominant American perceptions of whales and whaling took their dramatic turns. The project will raise public awareness in New England and nationwide about the role the whaling industry played in the development of our nation’s multi-ethnic make-up, our domestic economy, our global impact and encounters, and our long-standing fascination with whales. And it will promote thought about the nation’s whaling heritage, and how it continues to shape our communities and culture.
In the summer of 1938, newlyweds Geneviève and Bernard de Colmont and their friend, Antoine de Seynes, set off from France on an adventure to kayak and document the great American West. They launched from Green River, Wyoming, and emerged 900 miles later in Lee’s Ferry, Arizona, with their travels vividly documented in 16mm color film. The French Trio’s journey offers a unique, previously unseen, window into a historic and cultural turning point for America—a first-hand pioneer experience in the pre-war West, and the beginning of a new era of recreational river runners. In collaboration with humanities scholars, and University of Utah archivists, the project team members seek support for an America’s Media Makers Development Grant to fund preparation for a one-hour documentary film, to search out additional archival materials, to conduct further historical research, and collaborate with scholars to refine the humanities content.
In collaboration with the libraries of Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Mount Holyoke College, the American Library Association proposes a traveling exhibit and public programs for 40 libraries examining the history and legacy of the Dust Bowl. The project spotlights Ken Burns' film "The Dust Bowl," and brings to public view two little known Dust Bowl archives: online oral history interviews of Dust Bowl survivors at OSU, and letters and essays of Caroline Henderson, a Mount Holyoke alumna who farmed in Oklahoma throughout the Dust Bowl. Libraries will display the exhibit for 6 weeks and present at least 3 public humanities programs from a list provided. The project humanities themes include the interaction between humans and nature; the different ways human beings respond to adversity; and how people living in the Dust Bowl tried to understand their social, economic, and ecological environment.
The Pratt Museum will design and fabricate exhibits in its new museum facility in Homer, Alaska. This region is home to culturally diverse coastal communities which make their living predominantly from the sea. The exhibits will awaken a sense of connectedness between people and place and provide a variety of avenues for visitors to experience the stories of the Kachemak Bay region of South Central Alaska. The overall objectives of the exhibition are to present a personal perspective, a sense of place, and a responsibility to self and community. A balance of presentation will accomplish these goals. This grant will help fund: 1) workshops for the staff planning team, evaluator, and the design team, 2) design of the exhibition, 3) fabrication and installation in the Museum’s Main Gallery and adjacent spaces, and 4) gallery guides for selected themes.
From May 16 through October 26, 2015, The New York Botanical Garden will present the first solo exhibition on Frida Kahlo to be mounted in New York City in more than 25 years. This institution-wide exhibition aims to uncover new motivations for Kahlo’s work by focusing attention on the importance of plants and nature in both her painting and her life. As one of the world’s premier botanical gardens, NYBG is uniquely qualified to present the first exhibition to focus on Kahlo’s engagement with nature, revealing her intense interest, aesthetic appreciation, and deep knowledge of the natural world, especially Mexico’s plant life.
This project will design an ambitious multi-partner, multi-format, multi-venue project focused on the Arizona-Sonora borderlands. The project combines experienced co-directors and leading borderland scholars with more than a dozen Historical and Cultural Organizations (HCOs) in small and mid-sized communities to explore and interpret the unique cultures, history, and physical landscapes of the region. The project aims to foster historical perspectives on the international border, cross-cultural understanding, and a deeper sense of place among the region’s residents and visitors. A suite of interrelated physical and digital products will elaborate five themes: the border through time; bridging cultures across borders; nature and history—ties that bind; shared identity amid social diversity; and a storied landscape. Formats include an interpretive website and digital archive; a traveling exhibit co-hosted/produced with our HCO partners; and community sponsored public programs.
This project will produce Into the Amazon: The Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition, a special presentation of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, for broadcast on PBS. This two-hour film tells the story of a remarkable expedition, led by former US President Theodore Roosevelt and legendary Brazilian explorer Candido Mariano Da Silva Rondon, to explore an uncharted spur of the Amazon in one of the most remote and forbidding landscapes on earth. Over eight eventful weeks in the Brazilian rainforest Roosevelt and Rondon encountered and ultimately overcame a seemingly endless array of obstacles, including poisonous snakes, ravenous insects, flesh-eating fish, and impassable rapids. Meanwhile, indigenous people watched the expedition from the shadows, and debated whether the interlopers should live or die.
Between the Waters is a website and interactive virtual tour that will showcase the culture and history of Hobcaw Barony, a 17,500 acre historic site in Georgetown, South Carolina, which is arguably the setting for a greater confluence of humanities themes than any other in the state. Using the website’s artifacts, structures and landmarks as storytelling cues, Between the Waters will connect material culture to the lives of those who inhabited Hobcaw and interpret their history for the general public. The non-linear navigation of Between the Waters will encourage inquiry, analysis and deductive reasoning, giving visitors the skills and incentive to explore and reflect upon the multifaceted story of Hobcaw Barony, how it has helped to shape the American present and its implications for the future of South Carolina and the country.