Κλειώ is My Girlfriend

Accidental Sacred Cows

2012-01-14T14:19:00.000-08:00

It's a normal Saturday here at the museum. We've decided that Saturdays are going to be the day that we change some of the cases for the coming year, so on this particular Saturday I was in the basement looking for a few items to put on display. "first things first," I thought, "I'll need to move the chairs." So, off I went to move the chairs.

In the course of my work I knocked over some water skis that were propped up between the cases. So, gently setting them back up I went about my business. As I turned I knocked them down again, and set them up again. Over the course of the morning I knocked those stupid skis over several times, and when they didn't hit the floor it is because I caught them. Annoyed, I finished up my work and went back upstairs. As I left the basement I thought:

"What a second, this is silly."

I walked back over to the skis, and lifted them onto a bare space on one of the top shelves. The skis had a new resting place that was out of the way, a place where they would be knocked over anymore. It seems so simple, yet it hadn't been done before. Apparently these skis had been in the same place for several years, being knocked down all the time, but no one had thought to move them.

Why?

The skis, and more importantly, their location, were an accidental sacred cow.

What?

The location of the skis wasn't given any thought when they were put down in the basement, but for the longer they stayed there, the more the workers saw where they were as the "skis spot". There was no rhyme or reason for it, but eventually people accepted that henceforth we'd be knocking these skis over and that was the way things are. This was our new reality. The skis would forever be there to taunt and eventually break us. The skis controlled the pathway. and then, in a moment of clarity, the skis' hold on the pathway was destroyed. We were free to walk once more.

Sounds silly, right? But how often do things around work, or even in life, become accidental sacred cows? We work around objects we don't have to, we don't resolve issues, we avoid simple fixes purely because those things have always been, and they will always continue to be.

This is still a half baked idea, but I had to write it down before I forgot.

Spreading the Message; or In Which a Historian Becomes a Concert Promoter

2011-10-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

"This is not what I signed up for."

A phrase all too common, a cliche, a phrase that some jaded ex-soldiers use when they describe their time at the front. It is a negative phrase, one that conjures up images of being bamboozled by recruiting officers or college reps or shady HR professionals. It is a phrase that denotes a bait and switch, a sly hand. Basically it is used most often in the context of someone getting screwed over.

This Winter we have an exhibit coming through the museum about vaudeville in Canada. An interesting topic, if a bit out of the range of what I'm usually interested in. But, "onward and upward" I thought, "this won't be so bad." About three weeks ago things got serious. My boss mentioned to me that for the opening of the exhibit it would be fun to have an authentic vaudeville show. I've come to realise that when something is mentioned as being something "fun to do" it means that "if this doesn't happen, your life will no longer be fun."

This is not what I signed up for.

So that is that. Me, the friendly neighbourhood historian was at once thrust into the roll of concert promoter in charge of finding acts, workers, a location, and advertising. It is a far cry from the Indiana Jones style adventures that I'm used to. Alright, so they are far and few between, but planning an event like this falls outside of field of expertise. I should be doing research, not planning concerts; I should be organizing artifacts, not organizing kick-lines. Right? Right? .....?

Maybe not.

Because even though this is not what I signed up for, I love it. I love having a goal and working toward the set date, getting acts together (though it is sometimes like herding cats), I like finding plays and jokes and dances, I like talking with venue owners, getting ideas and dressing up in a top hat and tails. Sufficed to say, I'm really enjoying myself.

Television has taught me that at the conclusion of every event, there is a lesson to be learned. The lesson here, I spose, is that if we can just get over ourselves then there is a lot of fun and cool learning opportunities to be had, both with history and with life. It is okay to look at a project and say, "this is not what I signed for" It is okay to be a bit scared, or nervous, or even annoyed at non-history projects that you have to work on as long as you jump in with both feet. I was all three of these things, and I jumped into the project with both feet, and am now finding that I'm having a lot of fun. Anyway, there are a number of cliches I could throw in here to wrap this up nicely, but the truth of the matter is, even if something "isn't what you signed up for" put your head down and get it down, and you may be surprised at how you feel at the end.

History is written by the pack rats

2011-07-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Not history on the grand scale, it would be pretty hard to hide something big like a war or an election. I'm talking about the small time stuff, the things that people don't really think about. That stuff is historic too, right? For example, we have an entire album of pictures of when the main street in town was paved. We don't have any other pictures of the public works of the 1930s. None. The only official record we have from the Kenora public works from the 1930s is when they paved main street.

I'm sure they did other things, why wouldn't they. Right?

... right?

Of course they did other things, they paved basically the entire town in the 1930s, but since we don't have records of it, we have a hard time proving it. In the same way as our one album of public works pictures shapes the history of the outfit, so it is with all small time events and histories. I know from other sources about the paving of the roads in the 1930s, but what about other stories that we don't know about? What have histories have the pack rats influenced?

What are the things that we think were important, but only appear that way because someone took the time to record their version of events, or take pictures, and then squirrel that information away so that their child could give it to the museum when they are cleaning out their closet. This is why we don't record official histories from one source, I suppose, but this is a question that has been nagging at me for a while now.

History isn't written by the victors, it is written by the pack rats.

Big events, little entries

2011-04-16T13:29:00.000-07:00

I've been cataloguing a lot of diaries recently and I'm struck by how... hmmm, how can I put this nicely? Brutally boring. I feel like there is this idea that diaries are filled with the sordid and salacious details of the writer's life. Unfortunately that is not the case.

Why not?

I have no idea. I think it may be that the writers of the real juicy details go out of their way to destroy the diaries in question. Maybe people don't right about that stuff? I don't know. But I do know that a lot of diaries record the weather and the day's chores, and that's it.

But at the same time, you have to put yourself into the mindset of the writer. A farmer from Albert County New Brunswick isn't going to care about the big political events going on in Europe, no matter how important a modern historian thinks they are. A farmer is going to write about things that are important to him, like weather and what the cows are up to. I think there is an important lesson here.

What is that lesson?

That we study real people with real problems, not just some abstraction. These are people who felt emotions, fear, love, sadness. They lived and loved and cried and went about their lives in a way that they saw fit. They weren't little robots that were addicted to the latest news, they were people who worried about the house payments, and what they would eat if the crops gave out.

Not a huge deal, but something a lot of historians forget. As much as we want to build up our little castles of historical themes, fundamentally we are still in the people business.

It is shopped, I can tell by the pixels...

2011-04-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

In the museum business you work a lot with things that are broken or ripped. Objects or pictures that people have found stuffed in some suitcase or behind a box in the attic. The spring time is especially bad(good?) for this. People are cleaning our basements and craw spaces and finding all sort of little treasures that they don’t want to keep, but can’t stomach throwing out.

We got a donation here at the museum a few days ago of a great picture of the 13 Platoon, D Company, 94th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. They’re standing in a group holding a banner that reads:

“Thompson’s Kenora Hun Killers
94th Batt 13 Platoon D. Co
United We Stand
The Battalion of the Lake of the Woods”

It is a great picture. The only problem was that the picture was actually 4 different pieces all rolled up tight. So how does one deal with with a picture that is in pieces and all rolled up? Well, using a scanner and GIMP I was able to digitally piece this picture back together. Using the patch tool I was even able to hide the rip marks and make it seem like the the picture was all one piece.

Great. Right? Well yes, but as I was working with the picture, manipulating it to put it back together I got to thinking. I don’t have the names of the men in this platoon, and even if I did I wouldn’t be able to place them. the 94th was broken up to serve as replacements on the way to France, so there wouldn’t be any institutional memory that I could go back to, or any regimental diaries to look at. The fact is, if the mouse slipped a little to the left or to the right I could erase any one of these men from history. My actions on a sleepy Thursday in Kenora could wipe a person, a human being, from memory forever.

Obviously many of these men returned from the war and they would have relatives likely still alive who would have known them. But those relatives will soon be gone, and what of the men who did not come back? Anyone who would have known them is now gone, a distant memory.

When I stopped to consider this I realised that what I was doing was much more important than just putting a picture together, I was being entrusted with the memory of 50 men. 50 brothers, fathers, sons, and friends. To someone, at some point, these men were the most important people in the world. It is my duty to make sure that they don’t disappear from history. In our world of Facebook, Flickr, and the rest we take photographs for granted. Many babies born now have more pictures of them before the age of 1month than a man 100 years ago would have in his entire life.

We owe it to these men and their families that they not disappear from the record. Not because of what they did, but because of who they are: human beings.

A little rambly today, but I think you get the idea.

Until next time.

Here is the picture in question:
http://i.imgur.com/NkPvc.jpg

Keeping Everything?

2011-03-25T12:51:00.001-07:00

What makes things historical? What makes things important? Is everything important to keep? Should we always save at least one of every product we consume?

We have a problem here at the Lake of the Woods Museum, and I believe it is a problem that other museums share. Our collection is made up of really important items. Items that, in their own time were priceless, or just very expensive. Military officer’s uniforms and wedding dresses, the sorts of things that people would cherish for a lifetime and pass on to their children.

But what about the other things? What about socks? how about a pair of underwear issued to the Canadians in the Boer War? What about little trinkets and little things that were critical in everyday life, but we don’t consider important. What about those things?

When I was with the City of Hamilton in 2010 working on the War of 1812 commemoration, I discovered in my research of the Hamilton and Scourge warships that no one has any idea how the rigging on these ships was set up. What? But weren’t lake schooners extremely common all the way up until the 1900s? Indeed they were. So common, in fact, that no one bothered to document how they were rigged. Once the lake schooners were put to shore, that institutional memory was lost.

What is the solution here? Honestly, I have no idea. But this is something that we need to keep in mind as museum historians. We need to make sure that our museums don’t start portaying the past as a sort of cartoon version of reality. With museum collections dominated by the very best of the best from the era (wedding dresses, tuxedoes, fine jewellery) we need to be aware that the reality of everyday life was very different from the finery that dominate our collections.

I guess I’m going to get back into blogging. I’m going to try to post something every Friday, giving thoughts on museum life and life in general.

Until next time.

Back to the Grind

2010-06-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

I feel like the web is becoming a wasteland of abandoned blogs, so I'm going to try to keep this one going. Why you ask? Well, mostly to procrastinate, but sometimes I do have a decent idea or two and it's nice to be able to share them with the internet at large. Sometimes I will venture into politics, sometimes religion, but mostly history. Anyway, that is it for now. If you're a potential employer, check out this post and this post. These two are my favorite, I think.

-Braden

Accepting Defeat?

2010-04-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

In a word, yes. I have accepted defeat. I have been hoping for a 11th hour breakthrough, Hollywood style, where I am just about to give up, and everything springs to life.

Not so, friends. Not this time.

I've been working with the Spikenzie Voice Shield trying to get a this little project off the ground. What I wanted to do was play a historic sound recording (in this case a recording of Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery announcing the surrender of the German Armies facing the 21st Army Group at the end of Would War 2) through an old timey radio at the push of a button. A sort of rudimentary radio time machine.

Here is the radio I wanted to use. Obviously I wouldn't have been able to actually use it, as it is in my parent's basement back in Fredericton, but this would have been the radio that I showed as an ideal piece for this sort of display. It is a 1940 Philco radio, bought brand new by my grandfather in 1941 with his first paycheck from the army (he lost his toes on his left foot in a wood cutting incident, so he was station in Fredericton with the Carleton and York Regiment as a logistics officer).

This is the sort of setup I was looking to put together. The Voiceshield/Arduino unit would sit inside the radio, and when a laser plain is broken, or a button is pushed, you'd hear the nasally, but strong and proper, voice of Monty proclaiming the surrender of Germany. I love this sort of thing in museums, and from what I've learned, it is much easier to put together then I once thought. Of course, now that I've said they're easy to put together, I look even worse by my inability to put something together successfully.

I'm not sure what the issue was. I guess one of the big issues is that there isn't a whole lot of people working on this stuff at the moment. The Spikenzie Voice Shield is quite new, so I was limited by the programs that were written by the company. This would be fine, except their program was written for a fairly specific purpose (a sound effects board) and nothing else. I've tried to modify this code in a few different so that my single sound would play. The farthest that I got was a sustained static from the headphones connected to the Voice Shield. I could upload the sound on the shield, and play it back through my computer, but it just wouldn't take any sort of programming. Of all the things in academia that have frustrated me, I'd say this is in my Mount Rushmore (along with Office auto-format, PC Load Letter, and .docx vs. .doc issues) of technological issues.

So that is that. I have nothing to show for my Voice Shield experiment but pictures and shame. I have learned an important lesson in all this, though. I've learned about the possibilities for Arduino and Voice Shield in a museum setting. If I had more knowledge, especially of hardware, there would be no limit to the kinds of presentations you could put on for reasonably cheap. A museum should be a 3D experience, and the Arduino/Voice Shield combo hold a lot of promise to make that a reality in the near future, even for small museums.

One Step Closer to the Matrix

2010-04-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

So as part of Prof Turkel's exhibit design class we've branched into some things that aren't necessarily directly related to exhibit design. The best example I can think of is 3D data collection. I sat down a few weeks ago and played with the 3D scanner in the Niche office. I'm going to recount that experience now.

So the type of scanner that we have in the Niche space is called a Next Engine 3D desktop scanner. It looks like this and works pretty well for what it is. This is the sort of machine that a small museum would buy to digitize small objects in their collection. The object that I was digitizing was just a foam football, nothing to special, but a good shape to scan. Also the surface unreflected enough that it doesn't need any prep to scan.

Here is what you start off with:

So you have all the pieces, but they aren't in the right order. The way the scanner works is that it turns the object, takes a scan, then repeats. In order for the ball to look like something, you have to give the computer matching points on the scans. I inputted the location of the first seem, and the computer did the rest. Not bad.

Here is what you end up with. The scanner has a computer on it too, so you get a realistic surface. There is a problem, however.

The ends don't have anything on them. The ball was sitting on the scanning platform on its end, so neither the top nor the bottom was scanned. This is an issue.

So here is the ball with the bottom scanned. Done and done, right? Not really.

What?! I thought it was scanned and good to go? Not so much. The ball caused a bit of an issue here, since it didn't really have any identifying marks. But part of the other issue was that there was no simple way to line up the ends exactly. Once I had the initial scan finished there was no way to line up the parts I needed exactly. I think this would take some practice, but I don't think it'd be impossible.

Here is another issue with the scanner. The scans of the bottom of the ball are a different colour than the original scan. Could this be worked around, or even fixed by changing some lighting? Probably, but I think that would require more skill than I have.

So I think there is a lot of potential for this technology. Being able to scan things, have a 3d image, and then print it out with a 3D scanner is an awesome resource. The problem is, the technology is a bit expensive, and as we can see, a bit problematic at times. Are there other things a small museum could spend its money on? Yes. Does this technology have a huge potential in the coming years in the museum world? Absolutely.

Choose you own Adventure?

2010-03-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

When I'm not making poorly drawn maps in the GIS lab, or attempting to light a bulb using a computer I like to study military history. The idea that I can spend my life learning about something that interests me so much blows my mind, it is really quite extraordinary. Just tonight I'm watching the second episode of HBOs 'The Pacific" which a friend kindly taped for me. It's amazing, a great mini-series and a subject that not a whole ton of people, even Americans, know a lot about. That being said, its ratings are doing gangbusters because people love learning about the Second World War.

Whenever I tell people that I'm a student, I usually go straight to what I've studied in the past. To many times I've tried to explain what public history is to people, and then explain that there is a thriving historical community, then tell them that I'm not interested in being a teacher. It is really quite tiresome. These days I get right to the point.

"What do you study?"

"Military history"

"Really? Like all of it?"

"No, mostly the Second World War. I mostly write about tanks"

This always elicits a "wow, that's really cool" reaction from at least one person in the room. Just yesterday I was at the dentist, and when he asked about school I mentioned WW2. He was jacked up. He mentioned that he goes on yearly battlefield tours in Europe with his friends and this year because of "The Pacific" they are going to the USMC Pacific locations. (as a little aside, how many times has a non-historian gotten excited and went on trips to learn about NFLD coal miner history, or northern Yukon dishwasher history, or Saskatchewan farmhands history? What's that? Never? Alright, just checking. Moving on)

Anyway, it is a great blessing to be interested in something that can so easily be turned into a tourism empire. In fact, it already has started in places like Normandy, where bus loads of people my parents ages tour around looking at battlefields and sites that their fathers saw a half century ago. People want to go to Second World War sites, people want to learn, people want to be armchair generals. Since there is such a huge demand, I think the least we can do is look into ways that the tourist experience can be the best possible.

So over the last few blogs I've been looking at the augmented reality people filter. That's great, it'd be cool at museums and historic sites that are busy. The bread and butter of augmented reality though, is adding new things in. Consider this video. This video is a textbook augmented reality project. Being able to see that temple as it was is amazing, and a great learning tool.

So how can we apply this technology to military history, and more specifically, to the Second World War? I think it is pretty obvious that if we applied this technology to many sites in Northwest Europe, it'd be a real hit. Here is a great example of what I'm talking about. Consider the Mulberry Port at Arromanches and Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer (tl;dnr Ports were to heavily defended, so in Op Overlord the Allies brought ports with them). It is nearly impossible to explain the massive scale of these ports, the thousands of ships that moved tonnes of men and equipment from freighters to land. An amazing operation that very people know about. Why? Because there is no way to show the grandeur and logisitics aren't that sexy. We can't do much about logisitics' sexiness, but we can display them in such a way that shows just how massive they were.

Here is a picture of me in Arromanches. Those long things in the background are what's left of the Mulberry Port "Winston", they are massive concrete breakwaters towed across the channel in 1945. Cool site right? Absolutely. But, it could be better. Here is what it looks like down on the beach and here is what it looked like from the air back in 1944. Looks a bit different, yeah?

So what if we put a augmented reality viewer where I'm standing in the above picture? What if we could project a re-creation of the working port from 1944? That would be friggin' amazing. Not only would it be amazing, but it would be a great learning experience for anyone who looked in. The day that I was in Arromanches was a Wednesday in mid September. The cliff overlooking the beach/port was packed. There was a ton of people there looking over the remains of one of the largest WW2 sites in Europe. This thing has some legs, this thing could literally change how people see the past. And what if the site could be wired to include sensors so people could download a "WW2" app on their smart phone and not even need a viewer? It would be incredible.

The reason why I chose this site is because it is right next to a 360 degree movie theatre that plays an invasion movie, while they don't always get their facts right, as you can see here, but they are dedicated to technology.

So it is possible to make this happen? Absolutely. Would it make the experience at Arromanches better? Yes. Is it necessary to fight crappy history with good history? Yes.

We can build it, we have the technology.

Until next time.
Braden

A Person Filter? What the heck?

2010-03-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

Alright, so last time I briefly touched on my idea of the augmented reality person filter. So to recap from last time, augmented reality is when you project a computer image onto a real world scene in real time, like a HUD.

So how do we take a technology that is meant to project a small computer image onto a real time view and change it into a view that filters out certain things in the foreground. The practical answer is that I have no idea. The theoretical answer is that you enable the device you're using to communicate with censors that are implanted in the ground or in a wall to triangulate you exact position. Once you have you position registered exactly, a noise free image will be displayed on you phone or camera that relates to that position.

I think a demonstration is in order.

You can see here a picture of the Parthenon in Athens. I took this picture in the Spring of 2009. Cool picture, right?

Not really.

Why not?

Well, the mass of people and the scaffolding kind of take away from the affect.. What would be awesome is if there was some way for this technology to allow me to take this exact same picture, but with the people and scaffolding removed.

"But then it isn't really myyyy picture!" This is partially true, an augmented reality people filter would a bit of a limit on the creative process. But if one chooses the angles, time of day, and snaps a few shots, it can still be unique. And lets face the facts here, most of us aren't exactly Annie Leibovitz, if you're using this technology, I doubt you'd be worried about being screwed out of your perfect shot.

So, is this possible? I have no idea, but it probably is. Even if it isn't, I think I could find something else to use augmented reality for, something more.... invasion themed.

Next time-> A descent into Hell on the beaches of France... on your cellphone.

Braden

A New Way of Seeing the Past

2010-03-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that the title of my last post has a typo... that's awesome...

Alright, onto the weekly harangue. I've been thinking a lot recently about different ways to improve the visitor experience at historic sites. Obviously no one is going to come to a site specifically to see the technology (unless you have a boatload of cash to spend on it) but they may be influenced to check out a site by how it is being presented. When it comes to history, it doesn't take much to impress people, so that can be used to our advantage, but it shouldn't be a cop out. Technology is something that historians need to embrace, because if they don't, someone else will.

I think the thing that has intrigued me the most over the past few months has been the idea of augmented reality. What is augmented reality, you say? Well, it is projecting pictures or lights or objects onto a real time picture in order to convey some sort of message. For example, this program on your smart phone can be used to find real estate locations.

So how can this help us in the historic field? I think the implications for this sort of technology in historic tourism is off the charts. For example, this picture I took in the Louvre is a pretty good picture. We can see Napoleon crowning himself emperor - a real classic. Now, what would make this picture ever better? If I could hold up my camera and take a picture of this painting with the people filtered out.

What?!

Let me explain. You see, augmented reality has been used thus far to include things in the picture that you're looking at, a sort of heads up display (HUD). What about using this same technology to pinpoint where you are in the room, and giving you an person free picture? Isn't that what people want?

I feel like this might go a bit long, and in the mood I'm in might get a bit rant-ish. Hold onto that thought for part two (and maybe part three... or four!) on historic site uses of augmented reality, the 'person filter' and possibly even a way for you to step into your favorite video game.

Braden

Oward and Upward!

2010-03-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

Here is a running diary of my time in the Niche lab on Wednesday. It has only been slightly edited, so it is a pretty good view into the working of my mind through this process.

12:55- Arrive at the Niche lab. Tim’s here working with the 3D scanner.

1:04- Looking for some parts, gawking at the 3D scanner.

1:05- alright, found a potentiometer, Arduino board and a chord to put it together… I was looking for something else, but a potentiometer will have to do.

1:08- The expression “Live by the sword, die by the sword” was just used to describe Corey Haim’s passing. This is going to be a good afternoon.

1:12- Alright, I’ve got my materials, time to find someone online who can tell me how to do this. Also, I switched the potentiometer for a push button and all the necessary accouterment.

1:13- Okay, I guess at this point it would make sense to tell the reader what I mean by “this”. What I hope to do with this project (and it is looking less and less likely by the day as to whether I’ll be able to do it) is set up a rudimentary interactive museum display. I’m sure you’ve been in museums where when you walk into a room something happens – a sound, a movie, a light turns on – to introduce the content of the room. That is what I hope to build. I want to use the Arduino hardware to act as a mediator between a sensor and some sort of media (which I think will end up being a record player, but may end up just being a light.) This is the goal, we shall see where I end up.

So, onward to the Internet!

1:20- I’m checking out http://www.freeduino.org/ first. Seems like the place to go for Arduino info, and I’ve had success with them in the past.

1:29- Sara has arrived.

1:37- looking though the LED section. It is really easy to get sidetracked on this site, people are doing some neat stuff with the Arduino.

1:41- Alright, the LED section has yielded meagre results, so I’m going into the ‘Light Sensor’ section. Maybe we’ll get something going there.

1:43- Found someone who appears to be doing something similar to what I’m doing.

1:44- their website, Gasoy.com, has folded. Awesome.

To the internet archive!

1:48- Internet Archive has yielded no results. Alright, moving on.

1:57- Back from a brief bathroom break. I was wondering as I was walking past posters for Bobby Kennedy jr. how long the Kennedy’s will be able to make money/be renowned based on their last name. I’d say the over/under is at 2 generations and I’m taking the under. Bobby jr’s son better hit the books hard if he wants CNN to ask him his opinion on stuff.

2:00- Alright, back to work.

2:04- okay, maybe not back to work yet. The topic of Halloween costumes came up, so I had to pull up this guy. Amazing.

2:05- Here is a tutorial from a fellow that is using the Arduino to work a computer fan.

2:06- Problem the first: How can I get a 5V Arduino to run a 110V record player? The player is totally analog, so wiring directly into the power mechanism is technically an option, but I feel like that may result in being electrocuted. This requires further study.

2:20- I’ve found ways to use 110V power sources as an input on the Arduino, but not as an output.

2:25- So from reading the forums on the Arduino website, and on other sites on the net, it looks like this project probably shouldn’t be undertaken by someone with limited electrical experience as the possibility for error is high, and the cost of error is injury/death/mysterious super powers. I’m not deterred from the project, but I may not be able to try it in earnest, but instead make a mock up displaying what it could do (using 5V lights, etc)

2:31- Success! Okay, not success, but I think I have found my solution and it is actually quite simple. It totally bypasses any breadboard work and actually looks pretty simple. Now to find/modify/write some code to make it all work.

2:40- My friend’s wife puts videos of herself singing on Facebook. She’s not that great, and should probably keep it to herself, yet she gets tons of “you’re an awesome singer” type comments from her (girl) friends. Are these types of compliments helpful or harmful? The lab is divided.

2:43- A tutorial that explains how to use a push button as an ‘On/Off’ switch for Arduino. Now I feel like we’re getting somewhere.

2:58- First test of the previous setup. Done compiling. And…. Nothing. Rats. Alright, it is downloaded on the board, but nothing is happening. Let’s try to figure out what the problem is.

3:05- I can’t figure out what the problem with the breadboard is, so I’m going to hold off on that for a bit. There is a switch and a light right on the Arduino, so I’m going to use those to test things while I screw with the code.

3:08- I just realised that the button on the Arduino just resets the thing. The blinking on the light from pushing the button just resets it, that is why it was blinking. Rats. Back to the breadboard.

3:09- working through a push button tutorial.

3:19- I don’t know who decided skinny jeans look good, but for every person that they look good on, there are at least 100 that they look terrible on. Okay, back to Arduino.

3:25- The LED is turning on, but the push button is not. I’m thinking maybe it is the wrong resistor?

3:30- trying new resistors, maybe one of these will work.

3:35- trying a new button.

3:37- new button makes no difference. I can feel the anger rising within me.

3:41- Success! Well, kind of. The LED stays on constantly now, and when I push the button there is a slight change in the brightness of the LED. A partial victory.

3:49- I’m going to screw with the code to see if I can get it to do what I want. There is something in here talking about what to do if the output flickers. It says to increase it to fix the problem. I am now going to increase it from 200 to 900. Let’s see what happens.

3:51- Didn’t work.

3:55- I’ve gone back to the basic tutorial just to check to see if the LED is set up correctly.

3:56- It is. Alright, so definitely a software issue.

4:00- Going to try a whole new code. This one reads the button push and relays that info to the computer.

4:04: Never mind, that code won’t compile. I’m going to try to modify the basic button switch code to do what I want.

4:06- I just realised that I could use this simple code (push the button to power on) to build my device. If I could get a hold of a pressure sensitive floor panel (or, more like, make one… I’m sure it can’t be that complicated) I could build a device that when someone walks past a display, music or a light or a movie turns on. Wow, I’m a bit surprised I hadn’t thought of this earlier. I suppose this does defeat the purpose of using the Arduino a bit, since this could be completed without one (you could make stepping on a panel simply close a circuit) but still, I see this as progress.

4:10- Time to pack it in for the day, I think.

Digital History Continues!... On Flickr!

2010-03-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I've taken a few pictures of what I hope to be working on with this upcoming digital history project. This isn't the only thing that I'll be working on, but I love the idea of merging old and new, so I'm pretty drawn to this project.

What project?

Well, I found a bunch of discarded A/V equipment in the Metras collections storage room. I've had to fend off janitors and A/V guys coming to throw it out a few times, so I'm fairly certain that it is fair game. A lot of the gear is fairly worse for ware, but I did manage to find a record player that is working pretty good.

Anywho, here are some photos (with descriptions) of what I found in the office. They are in a set on Flickr If you click "slideshow" to view the photos, make sure you click on "show info" (it is on the top right corner) otherwise you'll miss out on the explanations.

-Braden

Back on the Chain Gang

2010-02-11T19:53:00.000-08:00

So this winter in Interactive Exhibit design the task is to... well... make an interactive exhibit. Simple enough- or is it? I actually don't think it is very simple, no sir, not very simple at all. Let me explain.

In 2004 a fellow named Barry Schwartz released a book called The Paradox of Choice - Why More Is Less. Now the Dr. Schwartz makes a bunch of points (mostly related to psychology) in the book to support the central thesis. What is that thesis? Schwartz believes that more choices are not always better. In fact, he argues that the massive amount of choices available to the average American contributes significantly for their unhappiness. Like when you're in the cereal aisle and you're choosing between Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Golden Grahams, or Mini Wheats. In theory this is great. You can have exactly what you want. In practice, though, all it does is generate stress.

Stress that you won't get the one you really want...

Stress that there is a fourth option that is much better still...

Stress that maybe you'll magically stop liking the cereal mid-week, leaving you cereal-less.

All of a sudden you've gone from whimsical cereal shopping to a near life and death situation. I never would have thought that cereal shopping could be such serious business. More choice is not always better. In fact, more choice is generally much more stressful.

What does this have to do with exhibit design. Well, the very simple fact is that I can't decide what I want to work on for a project. There are so many different choices. "Great" you say, "What's the problem?" you ask. The problem is, like the cereal decision, I don't want to screw it up. I want to do something that is worth my time. I want something to show for my efforts. There are only so many hours in the day, and days in the semester, and come April, I want something that I can point to and say, "yes, yes, I am awesome."

Will I do that even if it is a lie? Yes, absolutely. But when speaking of one's own awesomeness, it is better to be sincere. You can't fool yourself.

Alright, what have I been working on. Well, there are a few things. I guess first and foremost I'd like to do a little research and put a map together showing the journey of the 104th Regiment of Foot in 1813. (they walked from Fredericton to Kingston in February/March!). Continuing with this theme, I'd like to get into Google Sketchup, and try my hand at making authentic forts of the time. After they're ready to go I'm going to try to print them out, cut them, and make 3D models of them. I think that would be tre awesome. In keeping with Sketchup, I'm going to try my hand at making some tanks, also for cutout and 3D modeling.

At the Metras collections office there is a room full of old A/V gear from the 1960s and 70s. The housekeeping staff has come by to throw it out once before, so I'm going to assume it is fair game. I want to break down some of the movie projectors, slide machines and audio devices and try to make something cool with them. I'm thinking of using a laser to trigger an Arduino to give the projector a little power, just enough to turn it on for a few seconds. This is the sort of thing you'd see at a museum, when you walk into a room and something just starts happening. I think that'd be neat.

I'd like to try to get a good hold on using the 3D scanner. I haven't thought of a project for that yet, but I'm going to keep a lookout. I may ask the Curator of the Metras Museum if he is interested in digitizing some of the collection. Who knows. Anywho, that is on the docket as well.

Finally, I'd like to do some map making using the foam core printer. Making a 3D map really helps explain a battlefield (they've been doing it since 1914) and I think that would be a fairly simple project, but also one that lets me learn some stuff.

So there you go. I don't know where to start. I don't know how it all shake down. I do know that even just typing this has got me thinking about even more projects that I can consider doing.

Awesome.

Braden

Arduino? Hmmmm

2010-01-27T15:22:00.001-08:00

Today in our Exhibit Design class we worked with Arduino. What is Arduino? Well, it is a little computer that will do your bidding.

What?

Well, the Arduino is a little computer unit that can be programmed with the processing language to complete tasks. The only real limit is what inputs and outputs you have. For example, you can program the Arduino to tell a LCD display what to do. That is what Sara and I worked on today.

The first hour or so was a bit frustrating, as it appeared as though all the pre-written script was for an LCD screen that we did not have. Perfect. Well we tried a few different codes, and got what basically amounted to Klingon language (yeah, I was surprised it was a real site too) on the display screen.

We eventually did find a code that would work, here it is from the SparkFun message board:

// this program counts up to 4 and prints out the index on line 1 and "caio" on line 2

int i = 0;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);// Open the serial port at 9600 bps:
//blinkon();
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////
void clearLCD(){
Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE); //command flag
Serial.print(0x01, BYTE); //clear command. //
}
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

void firstrow(){
Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
Serial.print(0x03, BYTE);
delay(2);
}
//////////////////////////////////////////////
void secndtrow(){
Serial.print(0xFE, BYTE);
Serial.print(0xC2, BYTE);
delay(2);
}
//////////////////////////////////////////////
void blinkon(){
Serial.print(0x0D, BYTE);
delay(2);
}

void loop (){
//for (i = 1; i <= 4; i++) {
//delay(1000);
clearLCD();
firstrow();
//Serial.print( "i =" );
//delay(1000);
//Serial.print( i );
//delay(1000);
secndtrow();
Serial.print("Hello World");
delay(1000);
}

We wanted it to say just, "Hello World" and not do all the other things that the program was telling the Arduino to do. We modified to code to exclude the other instructions, and changed the message from "ciao" to "Hello World" Is it imperfect? Yes. But it is a good start.

The possibilities for the Arduino are limited only to the imagination, and programming skills, of the people using the equipment. This little processor could be used for a whole variety of museum applications, and it'll be exciting in the next few months to really open them up and see what they can do!

Digital History Continues!

2010-01-13T20:06:00.001-08:00

Alright, so I haven't blogged for a while so I figured I'd get back at it with a little note on what I'll be working on. Over the next semester I'm going to be looking a ton of War of 1812 projects, including mapping battlefields, doing some battlefield dioramas, and possibly even mapping the journey of the 104th Regiment of Foot from Fredericton, New Brunswick to Ontario to participate in the defense of Upper Canada.

Should be an exciting semester, and I'll be sure to put up everything I'm working on right here!

Braden

Digital History: A Brief Summary

2009-12-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

It was getting cold, so I decided to put on a sweater. I don't have access to the heater dial in my house, actually I'm not sure if anyone does, and if someone can reach it, they must like it cold. I wasn't planning on writing this blog entry tonight, I really wasn't, but like so often happens I got inspired by the act of donning my lounging hoodie. You see, in the same way that I can't control the heat in my room, so it goes with history. I cannot control what happened in the past, nor can I go back in time to view specific events (which would be neat, but frustrating, because you would come back to the present with new information about the past but with no way to prove anything. It would, unfortunately, be a fruitless exercise). Like putting on my sweater, though, I can control how I react to history and its problems. In the same way that I can put on a sweater to fight the problem of the cold, I can use digital tools to fight the problems of piecing together history. This past semester in my Digital History class, I gained some valuable new tools for my historian's utility belt.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from a digital history class. I figured we'd talk about Wikipedia a lot, which we did, but apart from that I had no idea what was coming. The class was a pretty good swath of everything that wired historian would need to know. Everything from HTML & CSS, to online sources, markup, tagging, and twitter. To be honest, there were a few times when I would do the readings, feel confident in my knowledge of the day's subject, and then realize in class that I had no idea what people were talking about. While those days were few, it did happen a few times, and really opened my eyes to the fact that there is so much more to learn about the digital humanities than can be gleaned from a couple readings. That being said, I feel like being exposed to these digital tools is much more than just mastering their use, it is about being exposed to the attitude that surrounds the digital humanities. It is extremely refreshing to run into a group of academics(the digital humanists) who are as progressive as they are intelligent. As I wrote those last two sentences I started ramping up in my brain for a jag about typical academics and their attitudes towards the digital humanities, but I think instead we'll just move on.

Right. Moving on.

It is supremely important that historians grasp these new technologies and use them to their fullest, lest history is left in the dust. Now obviously that is a worst case scenario, and I don't actually think that history will cease to exists as a discipline if we fail to move with the times. Moving forward, however, there is a huge potential for historians to commit sins of omission by not utilizing all the tools possible to push their final product to the public. One of the things I have harped on all semester is how the academic historian is creating a pop history vacuum for the unprofessional historian to crawl into. by appealing to the boomer generation and not the technical generation (basically everyone under 40), academics are not fulfilling their potential. As public historians appealing to the public should be our primary focus.

How do we appeal to the public? How do we get people excited for the past? Well, in a phrase, "if you build it they will come". People will always be interested in their roots, and people will rarely oppose cultural institutions like museums in their neighborhoods. But in this 21st century world, is that enough? In a world of instant communications, twitter, and 24 hour news, is there room for museums? Oh course there is, but it means that museums may have to change their ways of doing business. I've got more P.T. Barnum in me than I would care to acknowledge, and I think to compete in the 21st century you have to carefully intertwine the old and the new. With new things like multimedia displays and interactive exhibits, mixed with the solid academics of old, and given a healthy splash of showmanship and grandeur, museums can appeal to even the most hip of the techie hipsters.

So I guess in summary I should give a break down of what I've learned. The truth is, the biggest thing that I've learned in this class is that I don't know a whole lot about digital humanities. But, like any good class, it has lit a fire in me to explore the possibilities of new technology with old history. To apply API technology to finding antique furniture in New England, to look at crime records in 17th century england, to bolster battlefield tourism by providing a movie in real time projected onto the actual battlefield, and to share a private audience with the Mona Lisa in real time using your cell phone. The possibilities are endless, and it is making me excited just thinking about it.

ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα hen oída hoti oudén oída!

Braden

The Infinite Library? A Rope of Sand.

2009-11-17T14:32:00.001-08:00

So the assignment this week is to find the whole text of classic books online. How will I do that you ask? Well, thanks to the hard work of Google(and their lawyers!), Archive.com, and The Gutenburg Project, many books are available online. These can't just be any books, they are going to be lifted from the books section Eaton's Fall and Winter Catalogue 1913-14.

So here we go.

The first book I'm going to try to find is The White House Cook Book from p. 258. According to Eaton's, it is endorsed by the 'Highest Authorities.' Done and done.

I did a quick search for it on Archive.com and came up with The Capitol Cook Book: Adapted from the White House Cook Book. Obviously not exactly what I was looking for, but still a book that contains all the recipes of The White House Cook Book. This copy is owned by Cornell University and there are no copyright restrictions on it.

So that one was a bit of a softball. Lets go for one that is likely still owned by someone looking to make some money. Book number two is going to be the sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass.

Again, this one was easy to find, and again, this book is in the public domain. I found a copy on both Google Books and Archive.com, although the Archive.com link directed me to a Gutenberg Project page.

Moving on, I think the next work is going to be Canada: From Ocean to Ocean as a shout out to my man Sir Leonard Tilley, prominent New Brunswicker, staunch teetotaler, and the Father of Confederation that pushed for The Dominion of Canada's motto to be 'A Mari usque ad Mar' or 'From Sea to Sea'.

This work was not found in the database of Archive.com or The Gutenberg Project, but it came up in Google Books as the first thing. It wasn't a full text however, or even a preview. No, the only thing that this search came up with is a list of places where the book can be bought. I'm not surprised by this, as the title is a bit obscure. If you're really interested though, you too can own a copy of Canada: From Sea to Sea for a mere $20.

Ladder of Swords: A Tail of Love, Laughter and Tears by Gilbert Parker is the next book on tap and was found very easily. The book came up as a full text available copy in the Archive.com search, and actually linked to the Google books project. A little team work there by the infinite libraries. This book is not in copyright and I only choose it because I love its over dramatic name. (I just altered the name of this blog post to represent my love of ridiculous titles, see if you can guess what I added.)

We're going to go old school on this next one, and going with Grimm's Fairy Tales. Okay, so I was just over at Wikipedia, and it turns out to be not as old as I thought when I wrote that first sentence. I do not apologize for my flagrant use of the term 'old school'. There, I said it. Moving on. The Archive.com search came up with this title in full text almost immediately. This title is in the public domain.

Alright, the last book for this little experiment is going to by David Copperfield.

To easy, Archive.com to the rescue again, this time with the help of the progressive folks over at the New York Public Library. The full text of this Dickens classic is available here. Wow, that might have been the easiest of them all to find. One more time, this book is in the public domain. I think I'm starting to see a theme here.

Overall I'm quite impressed by how easy it is to find these works. That being said, since I was getting titles from the 1913-14 copy of the Eaton's Catalogue, most of the titles I was looking for were in the public domain. These tools, Archive.com, Google Books and The Gutenberg Project are very useful in looking for well known books in the public domain. If I were so inclined, I could sit down tonight in my underwear and read from each one of Charles Dickens' books without so much as leaving my computer or putting on pants. Now that is progress.

Stalking Public History?

2009-11-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

For some reason my friends often come to me for advice. I'm not sure why, I think it is because I speak slowly. Anyway picture this, a 25 year old friend comes to me for advice on the future. I ask her,

"have you thought about career plans? Having a family?"

"Yeah, I would love to have a family, and I think my boyfriend would too." she replies.

"Oh, that's great," I continue, "so you have a boyfriend, what is he like?"

"Well, he has this yellow coat that he wears that I just love. He stops every morning for coffee down at the UCC Tim's and rides a bike to school. I have a couple classes with him and his notebook is red. He lives just down around Oxford street" My friend seems quite satisfied with that answer, but I'm a bit curious for the rest of the story.

"What is his name?

"Name?" she asks.

By this point I'm confused. "Yes, you do know his name, right?"

My friend leans forward, "No, of course I don't know his name."

I sat back in my chair, crossed my fingers over my chest and said, "Friend, you're not his girlfriend, you're his stalker."

Are historians in a relationship with public history, or just stalking it? In course readings for public history we read every week the opinions of academic historians on things like heritage, nostalgia, and tourism. The overwhelming opinion of these historians is that public history is often done poorly, or just plain incorrectly. The idea being that history driven by what people actually want to see is tainted and should be cast aside like so much dross. But are these historians really in a relationship with public history, or are they just stalking it?

Let me break this down. Roger Ebert has never made a movie, never directed, never starred, never had his name in lights. When you talk about greatest film reviewers ever, however, he is at the very least in the top conversation. Why is that? Because Roger Ebert loves films, he studies them, he has devoted his life to films and their study. Roger Ebert is in love with movies, he loves their taste, their smell; he sees in films things that no one else sees. Some movies he enjoys, some he detests, but he seems to always try to let the movie speak for itself.

I fear historians are not allowing public history to speak for itself. Let me explain by giving a brief example. During the past summer I worked in an 1890s style print shop at a historic village (full disclosure, I think historic villages are awesome). When we had British visitors come in, they always asked about the printers of the 1960s. The machines I used were operated until the late 60s so I didn't give it to much thought, but on a slow day I did ask an older English fellow why this was such a hot topic among the limeys. During the 1960s and '70s, he explained, the English printing industry was moving away from lead set type and moving toward the offset press. The printers of the time resisted this change through work stoppages, strikes, and even armed protest. Why were they standing in the way of progress? They were going from being skilled type setters to being unskilled printing labour. The rise of the new technology made their highly skilled job irrelevant.

I feel as though, like the British printers, academic historians are afraid that the rise of pop history tourism will take their hard earned degrees and flush them away. The push back against historical tourism seems to be rooted in the skilled fearing that they will be marginalized. That is why there is such a push against things like historical villages, pop history, and historical tourism in general. Historians writing about heritage tourism have their minds already made up that history education cannot happen anywhere not under the guidance of a proper historian. They cherry pick examples of how history is being done poorly to support their argument, then they have their thoughts published by like minded editors, and read by like minded historians. They are not letting the historical tourism sights speak for themselves.

Why aren't academic historians allowing historical sights speak for themselves? They are not in a relationship with public history, they are simply stalking it. They are intelligent people that see that the cultural winds are blowing toward the pop narrative, and they are looking at historical sights and heritage tourism like an over zealous TA looks at first year papers- with disgust. They have divorced themselves from the process of spreading their knowledge to the masses, they have accepted that their dissertations that they spent years on will only be read by 100 people if they are lucky. They have assigned to themselves a sort of elitist medicority. Instead of working to help tourist organizations to do history 'right' they instead go the route of the british printers, they stand at a distance and throw stones. They lament that Canadians know nothing about their own history, and in the same breathe talk about how 'worthless' historic tourism is to educate the public.

I'm not saying that all academic historians should tailor their research to the masses, there are some areas that deserve to be studied that are not in the public spotlight. What I am saying, is that historians who wish to enter the conversation on public history should really do so and not simply stalk it, they should engage with it,embrace it, they should be in a relationship with it. Not all historical sights will always be perfect, but offering only criticisms based on previously held conclusions doesn't help anyone. Historical sights and history tourism sites do need to be held accountable, but to write off all historic tourism because of things like appealing to the public's interest and trying to be inclusive is not the path that historians should be taking.

So interested historians, are you in a relationship with public history, or just stalking it?

A good chunk of this blog post started with a conversation that my friend Tim and I had walking home from trivia.

Note: The 'friend' example is totally fabricated, I don't know any weird stalker people.

New Website!

2009-11-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I'm putting together a new website for class and I figured it'd be a good idea to mention it on here. It isn't particularly fancy, but I'll be working away at it for the next few weeks and hopefully when I'm finished it won't be to much of an embarrassment. So, here it is, I hope you like it.

A Brief Introduction of The M4 Sherman... What? Did You Expect Me to Write About Daisies?

2009-10-27T20:09:00.000-07:00

Alright kids, the assignment is to find something that I'm passionate about, is historical, and can be easily explained to beginners with the links I provide. Since I read Malcolm Gladwell's Blink this past summer, I've really been trying to go with the first thing that pops into my head with decisions like this (you see, this is what I did before, but now I have quasi-academic backup). Anyway, the first thing that popped into my head for this assignment was the introduction to the tank, and since armoured warfare is an exceptionally complicated issue to try to deal with in one blog post, I decided to narrow it down to the much maligned and misunderstood M4 Sherman Tank.

The best introduction I can point to on this subject is the Wikipedia entry for the M4 Sherman Tank. I know, I know, Wikipedia is not a research tool. But, if someone is looking for a quick and dirty explanation of a subject, Wikipedia is actually not a bad place first place to look. I often find myself looking for essay topics using Wikipedia, and then with topic in hand, setting out to the library for the proper research.

There is a lot of 'nuts and bolts' type information at the Armoured Vehicle Data Base on the Sherman. This document gives the figures for many different variations of the M4 and really shows the improvements and variations that were made during and following the war. Here is a brief film from RealMilitaryflix.com listing some of these variations.

Now that you have the basic service history of the Sherman down, you should look at this publication from 1946 called Tanks are Mighty Fine Things. It is a basic history of the Chrysler Company and its products during the war, it gives great background on the tank development that lead to the M4, and has a really good section on the tank itself. Even if you just flip through it for pictures it is worth looking, because there are a ton of them. Speaking of pictures, this site has a bunch of pictures of several different variations of the Sherman, taken from many different angles. Both of these resources give you a great visual of the M4.

Now that you've had a basic lesson on the M4 Sherman, and you've seen it up close, we can move on to the use of this tool by Allied forces during the Second World War. The Sherman was introduced in 1942, and was first used in the North African Campaign. The website, TheLoneSentry.com has a wonderful selection of documents from the time, including a tanker manuel issued to American troops going to Tunisia, that can be found here. If you are so inclined, here is a very interesting piece published just after V-E day about infantry/tank cooperation, it is taken from a US Army document called Combat Lessons. The contrast between the two publications is very interesting.

Alright, so now we know some history, what the builders thought, and some basic tactics of the M4. So what did others think of the tank? Here is a very interesting interview of a Russian gentleman named Dmitriy Fedorovich. Mr. Fedorovich had experience on both the famous Russian T-34 and on a lend-lease Sherman, and he offers very interesting insights. This interview is from Iremember.ru.

There are a great many videos of the M4 online. The other links that I have given all require reading, but these videos require only that you sit back and enjoy. It is tough to visualize the Sherman in action with the pictures already provided, so here are some videos to help out with a mental hook. The first video is here, it is from Flightjournal.com and features a private collectors tank. Here is some period video from youtube.com. If you are so inclined, you can look up these two films, Band of Brothers, and A Bridge To Far, as they both feature extended scenes of the Sherman in action.

Finally, if you want to see an M4 Sherman in person, you are in luck. The Sherman is a very common piece to be put on display in front of legions, army bases and other such establishments. Here is a list from Armoured Fighting Vehicles Database of Museums that feature the Sherman, and other pieces, in case you want to see one in person.

So there you have it, a brief introduction to one of the ugliest beauties North America has ever produced, the the tank that won the Second Word War, the M4 Sherman.

Sapere Aude!

Braden

M4, Sherman, Tank

A People's History?

2009-10-16T18:34:00.000-07:00

In the spring of 2008 I graduated from the University of New Brunswick. Like any good uni grad, I decided that I should better myself by going abroad for a while to work (and also I was about to lose my mind from living in Fredericton). When the opportunity arose to work and travel in Germany, I jumped at the chance. Working in Germany meant I could travel around on weekends and generally do tourist/'middle class white kid on European adventure' things on the weekends.

Perfect.

So, I set out for Munich, arriving with a suitcase full of clothes and a piece of paper with an address written on it for a house in a town about 300 kms away. For the next few hours I was given a crash course in German public transit, getting my share of dirty looks for sitting on my suitcase in the bike rack car, and generally fearing for my life. I eventually arrived safely and began work the next week.

What does this have to do with history?

Hang on, I'm getting there.

Alright, so I continued to work until about halfway through August, when I, and a few of my friends, were given a week off. I, along with my British friend Gemma, and my American friend Melissa, decided to go to Munich. On the trip down, we started to talk about national identities and who had the best country. We all politely disagreed with each other, believing our own countries to be the best. At one point I made the statement, I hope we meet some Canadians in Munich, I miss my Canadian peeps!"

Now we're getting somewhere.

That night at the hostel, we decided to go for a drink and lo and behold, we ran into some Canadians. We got talking to these guys and found out they were from Alberta, and actually knew a guy that was in my home room in high school(crazy!). A few minutes later I decided to go for a walk, inviting Gemma with me. She wanted to know what was wrong, they were Canadians, that's what I wanted, right? Well, that's what I thought I wanted. What I really wanted was some Maritimers to hang out with, I wanted to be with my people. These Albertans were no more 'my people' than if they were from Montana or the South Pole.

So what the heck?

Here is a picture that I took as we were on our walk that night.

Ever since that night I have been fascinated with the tribalism that we see in Canada. We are such a large country that we fall into groups with 'our people', if even only on a subconscious level. No where is this more prevalent than in the academic community. How we write Canadian history is dictated by where we live. For example, it has been my experience that when an Ontarian writes about 'Canadian history', they are actually writing about Ontario history. In my Public History class the other day we talked about the history of public history. Upper Canadians were well represented, as were the Maritimes, but the West was not represented at all. While I was sitting through that class, all I could think was 'they didn't have historians west of Ontario?'

Now I'm a little bit jaded in this respect, as a Maritimer I've been trained to distrust Upper Canadians pretty much since birth, and I freely admit that my attention has been draw to this subject by several different profs, but I do believe that this is a major problem in this country. It is not enough for Canadian historians have to be aware of this fact when they are writing, we must put this information to use! We are an exceptionally large country, and believe it or not, things have happened outside of Southern Ontario. Now this is not to saw that we should abandon our local cultural centres in favor of 'Canada Centres' or anything like that, but it is something that we as historians need to make a conscious effort to address.

Until next time.

Sapere Aude!
Braden

A Culture of Abundance?

2009-10-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

In my Digital History class, much of the conversation thus far has been on the internet's impact on the study of history, and more to the point, how this effects the role of the professional historian. The thing that interests me most about this topic, is how the abundance of information on the internet has caused, really in the last 15 years, the rise of the unprofessional historian. Obviously it is not just the internet that has fostered this growth, but the rapid flow of information made possible by the internet caused the movement to snowball. Is this a positive movement? Is this new found interest in history a good thing? Is this the end of the traditional role of the professional historian as record keeper and story teller? I believe the abundance of information available on the internet, and the rapid communication that the internet allows will, in the long run, do nothing but strengthen and ultimately reinforce the role of the professional historian in modern society.

We've all see the poorly made web-sights, dedicated to family heritage or military conquest, on the internet. It is extremely difficult to bypass these search results when looking for basic historical information, especially when that information is rare. These "mom and pop" web-sights built, mostly by retirees, are generally well intentioned and feature some basic research that has been done by the builder. It is because of these web-sights that university professors have begun to give their students strict instructions as to what sorts of online resources they are allowed to use. "Try to use government agencies' sites, university, that sort of thing" and old professor of mine would say, "stay away from sights made by random amateurs, 'Confederate Bob's History Page' is not a proper web resource." We all thought this was quite a lark and chuckled at the idea of a crazy person writing in his basement about how the "War of Northern Aggression." While it may be funny to think about the people behind these sometimes bizarre amateur sites, filled with flashing images and cartoon site counters, many historians see it as a serious problem. They see it as undermining proper research and as a minefield of dis-information.

So why does the amateur historian feel compelled to post his findings on the web? The obvious answer is that he wants to show the research he has done, and since he cares enough to spend his time in local archives or at the library, he is likely excited to spread the word to anyone that will listen. There is, I believe, another reason, and it is one that established historians will not like very much. I believe that the rise of the unprofessional historian is directly related to the professional historian's inability and unwillingness to connect with the non-academic audience. There is a feeling among some academic historians that I have encountered that the non-academic audience doesn't matter, and if you write for a non-academic audience it somehow de-values your research.

The prime example that I can think of is lifted from the field Canadian Military History. Author Mark Zeulke has been writing books about Canada's involvement in the Second World War for several years. These books are tremendously interesting, tell many neat stories, and are based on interviews the author has done with veterans of the conflict. They are, however, sometimes historically problematic. I have had two professional historians tell me on two separate occasions that Zeulke is a hack, that he is unprofessional, and that he should stick to writing fiction. On one such occasion, emboldened by several malty beverages, I asked my professor, "Why should Zeulke stop? He is telling the story of brave Canadian men and women in a way that people will actually read.... If you guys hate Zeulke so much, why don't you do it right?" I realized what I said as soon as it exited my mouth and braced myself accordingly. The response I got was, "Well...we're working on it."

"We're working on it." is not good enough.

In an age where information flow is so rapid, where anyone can host a web-sight, the professional historian needs to take the wide audience into consideration when writing, otherwise Joe Blow in his basement will do it for us, often time incorrectly or outside of proper ethical standards. In following in the theme of military history, there are some Canadian historians that are doing some wonderful things in their writing, combining meticulous research with well thought out prose and thoroughly readable text. The recent two part work on the the Canadian Forces in The Great War by Tim Cook is an example of this, Dr. Cook recognizes that if he makes his work dry and monotonous, even if well researched, the non-academic crowd will throw it on the Canadian Military History book pile like so much historical dross. Dr. Cook is a prime example of the new breed of Canadian Historian that recognizes the need for research mixed with broad appeal.

All is not lost, however, and we'll continue to move in a direction where the professional historian takes their audience into account. The internet, and its mass flow of information, has shown the professional historian areas that are in need of improvement. Where historians have in the past blamed historical apathy on disinterest, the internet and the rise of the unprofessional historian has shown that the problem lies not with the information, but with the delivery method. With these flaws exposed, the professional historian can act in the appropriate manner to correct the path, to right the ship of academic history in Canada. With this information Canadian historians will be able to" go forward, not backward. Upward, not forward. And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!"

(if you don't get that reference, I feel sorry for you.)

Sapere Aude!
Braden

Preserving to much? Remembrance V. Progress

2009-09-28T20:31:00.001-07:00

There is another fight brewing in the wilderness, or should I say, The Wilderness. You see, Walmart wants to build a new store in the proximity of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Virginia. This part commemorates the Battle of the Wilderness, a famous Civil War battlefield. Many locals, politicians, and historians are trying to fight this decision, saying that a Walmart would be disruptive to the park and its task of remembering the fallen. A more in depth article can be found here.

The point that this story brings up is how can we remember history while at the same time progressing as a people? Many people want the Walmart because of the positive economic impact to the local community, while others care only for preserving the park at all cost. The Walmart will not be able to be seen from the 2700 acre park, but it will be in the general vicinity. There are other examples, however, of building directly in the middle of significant historic sights. The easiest example to point at is in France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. What are these sights? They are the locations of the great battles of the Great War and Second World War. The common arguement that is made is that, "if we were to preserve every battlefield in Europe, no one could live here." Which is true. But does that mean we should bow down to progress and allow buildings to be erected over the ground watered with the blood of a lost generation? Or should progress be halted in memory of these fine young men who paid this great cost? Isn't that a bit contradictory? For men to fight and die for freedom, only to be told that the very ground that was fought over cannot be used freely by the owners?

I don't know what the solution to this could be. Last fall I was in a town by the name of Hoogerheide, it is the location of a great Canadian battle involving the 5th Infantry brigade in late 1944. My own grandfather was a part of the Black Watch Regiment's carrier platoon that was tasked with repelling a counterattack while the rest of the regiment consolidated in the outskirts of town. "The Cowboys" as they were called (they had a reputation for carrying non-issue sidearms) repelled a German company level attack that was supported by several assault guns. It was a defining moment in my Grandfather's life, and being as I fairly was close last summer, I decided to go see the battlefield. I was armed with two maps, one current and one period. I found the stone wall they hid behind to repell the attack, but on the other side I was quite disturbed to find a school. There was literally a school on top of the site of the Battlefield of Hoogerheide. At first I was annoyed, but soon realized that my grandfather and his platoon of cowboys played a role in driving the German army out of this town, ultimately their actions helped build the foundation for this school and the life of its students. The more I thought about it, the more appropriate I thought it was that school is placed there.

It is an extremely difficult issue, should only some history be preserved? Should there be no limitation on building? Should their be limited building on historic sights? One area that I believe does a good job of finding a balance is Omaha beach in Normandy, France. While it is the sight of one of the most costly days in the history of the American armed forces, they have resisted the urge to turn the place into a tourist trap (like much of the rest of Normandy) The houses are built on the foundations of the houses that were destroyed, or on top of German bunkers on the beach, and while there are some restaurants, they are all very subdued. The area did not look like a battlefield, but it did not take much imagination to see it as one. Perhaps this is the route to take? Perhaps not, I don't have an answer. But it is certainly something to think about.

(above is a picture of Omaha beach I took while I was there. It is taken from a German machine gun nest that took an enfilade position covering the western portion of the beach. From the hard curve in the road to directly in front of where I was standing was the 29th Infantry Division's sector. The majority of casualties taken on Omaha beach were taken by the 29th Infantry Division)

Remember Arnhem

2009-09-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

During the night of September 25th 1944, British and Canadian engineer units ferried the broken remains of the 1st Airborne division across the Rheine to the safety of Allied lines. This operation, Operation Berlin, was the last of a series of episodes that were brought about by Bernard Law Montgomery's plan to bounce the Rheine, Operation Market Garden. Because of the general strike laid on by the people of the Netherlands (to help the operation, in part because they believed liberation was just around the corner) the German military leadership decided that the Dutch would need to be punished for their attempt to help the Allies. The following winter occupying German forces made a conscious effort to block food and supplies from coming into the Netherlands. 18,000 Dutch men, women and children died during that winter. No shots were fired, hunger was the weapon of choice.

Flash forward to April of 1945. Canadian forces have been given the task of relieving the people of the Netherlands from their oppressors. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had been lobbying Allied governments for months, pressing them to do something about the crisis her people faced. The 1st Canadian Corps, D-Day Dodgers as they were, fresh from the Italian Campaign, were tasked with clearing the Western Netherlands. In a two part operation, the 1st Canadian Division launched Operation Cannonshot, an assault river crossing into Apeldorn. While German forces rushed to stop the crossing, the 5th Canadian Armoured Division began a rush behind their lines to the inland sea, effectively trapping over 20,000 German soldiers in the pocket. Only a few days later a ceasefire was negotiated and relief slowly began to pour in to the hungry and abused Dutch.

What does this have to do with Op Market Garden? The point is that nothing in history is a vacuum. Nothing just happens on its own without something to first get the ball rolling. When Canadian troops finally got into Arnhem, the first Allied troops since Market Garden, they found British paratroopers still hanging from their parachutes, draped on church steeples and on light posts. When they rolled into Apeldorn they found the populace was eager to help but often to weak from malnutrition to even stand to greet them. Nothing happens in a historical vacuum, context must be studied and not discarded.

Just a thought on this grim anniversary.

Sapere Aude!

Braden

When did "tobacco" become a four letter word?

2009-09-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

I was out for a stroll on Thursday night, and, being as it was a warm clear night, I decided to enjoy one of the last remaining snow-less nights by having a cigar while I walked. Now I'm not a regular smoker, I've never actually smoked a cigarette in my life, but I do enjoy a cigar from time to time.

Now as an amateur tobacco enthusiast, I am aware of smoke shop protocol, but had not actually been in a smoke shop in Ontario(I am from the booming cultural mecca of Fredericton) since my arrival here. I strolled into a haberdashery and asked the middle age clerk if there was a humidor on hand. She replied in the affirmative and I asked if I could be let in to have a look. Her reply? "No." I was a bit taken aback by this, how would she expect to make a sale if I, the customer, was not allowed to browse? "Well, can I look in the window?" I offered, thinking that maybe this clerk was tired of young men wasting her time with the humidor.

"No, you can not look into the humidor."

"Excuse me?" I replied

"You can't look in, now can I help you or not?"

Now I was getting a bit annoyed by this point, and started to move toward the humidor to take a look. When I motioned towards the oak and glass case, the clerk moved to box me out. I was quite impressed with her gusto, but by this point I was "I want to talk to you manager" mad. She tapped a sign that sat on the glass door. It was a strict warning from the government of Ontario that no one may browse, or even look at tobacco products that are on sale, under penalty of death! (okay, not really, it actually said there may be a fine or a stern talking to)

Anyway, as I was walking away from the haberdashery, empty handed, I got to thinking. When did tobacco become a four letter word in Canada? I can remember as a youth walking out of Tim Hortons and exhaling smoke, and the blue haze that settled down above the ring at an early '90s WWE wrestling event. Well, thanks to the massive online governmental paper trail, I can actually see the date when government declared war on the use of tobacco. In the Tobacco Control Act, passed in 1994, severe restrictions were placed on tobacco products. Since then the act has been revised in 2005 and again in 2008. It appears that 1994 was the official beginning of the general public openly viewing smokers as societal pariahs.

Now don't get me wrong, I not one of these libertarian types that believes that the government should just stay out of my life, but this is getting a bit ridiculous. This is the actual line in the TCA(3.2) that stymied my efforts on Thursday night:

"(2) No person shall display or permit the display of tobacco products in any place where tobacco products are sold or offered for sale in any manner that will permit a consumer to view any tobacco product before purchasing the tobacco product. 2005, c. 18, s. 5"

So there you have it. What is next? Will I have to go to a plain brick wall with a metal door and knock four times in order to purchase a cigar? Am I going to have to have a Cuban hookup out of Miami? This is getting to be a bit much. According to the CCTC, the Canadian Council for Tobacco Control, 95% of the country's tobacco comes from Ontario! You can see in this background paper (here http://tinyurl.com/n7slgw ) that Ontario tobacco farmers take advantage of government agricultural policies in the form of advance payment for crops, job creation programs and other programs designed to keep them in business.

So what is it going to be Ontario? The contradiction is outstanding, you try to limit me, a grown man, from even seeing tobacco products before I have to put money down to buy it, but then you turn around an support tobacco growers financially and through government action. Really? If I weren't a carpetbagging easterner I would contact my local MLA and demand an explanation, but alas, a Maritimer I was born and a Maritimer I remain... at least for now.

Until next time.

First things first

2009-09-15T11:47:00.001-07:00

Alright, here is my blog set up for Digital History.