Research and Photos and Scanning, oh my!

Hello, my name is Chris, and I am the graduate intern working on the grant project under the velvety iron grip of Amber. For a history geek such as myself, this project has been gratifying as far as looking at and researching the history of old things is concerned. I am a fan of mechanically old things (and in this case, much older than myself), so this has been quite the learning experience. It has been a crash course in trolly cars, their terminology, destinations, and late nineteen/early twentieth century mass transit, and as a former bus driver at UMass Amherst, I am interested in how people move, specifically the history of it. Right. So, trolleys. As of now, destinations are still being researched and photos are still being selected, and I expect that this will be the toughest part of the whole project, considering the number of albums yet untouched. With this in mind, though, half of the fun is looking for that one perfect photograph to perfectly reflect the background research being dug up, right? I have my work cut out for me, but this should be fun. It has been thus far, at least.

Our new online catalog

The Seashore Trolley Museum Library is now on LibraryThing! We're still adding books, but almost 2000 books are currently searchable by author, title, and keyword. Many thanks to Mike Frost, Andrea Baldwin, Diane Dense, and Kaz Powell for all of their hard work on this project.

You can search the collection from this page: the Search the Library box is located on the right side of this page.

Getting Started on the Maine Memory Network Project

Two weeks ago, Ed and Chris and I went up to the Maine Historical Society in Portland to get our Maine Memory Network training for the new grant project. What an amazing group of people up there! We learned about what makes good history and how to tell stories online. We learned how to scan our images and how to catalog them properly. We also learned how to work with some very cool tools, including ExhibitBuilder which helps make online exhibits.

Chris and I did some brainstorming about how we wanted the online exhibit to look. We're currently planning one main exhibit page with two photo albums in the sidebar (The Virtual Trolley Tour of Maine and A Field Guide to Trolley Cars). Can't wait to get started!

The photo above was taken by Ed on his Iphone. Chris and Amber geeking out!