In 2004 the Old North Foundation assumed responsibility for the interpretation of the Old North Church historic site. Surprisingly, very little scholarly research had been conducted on the 280-year history of the church and the congregation’s records were unorganized and broken up in various locations.
Foundation staff began an aggressive campaign to consolidate, conserve, and catalogue the church’s archives under the expert and able guidance of the staff of the Massachusetts Historical Society. At the same time, scholars in a variety of disciplines were invited to explore these largely untouched records to uncover their hidden secrets.
As this exciting work progressed two things became clear: 1) it would take years of intensive research before any “conclusive” or broad-reaching history of the Old North Church could be compiled based on this documentary evidence and 2) what was being discovered was too compelling to exist only in the notes of our scholars, awaiting some future publication date.
And so, Foundation staff began brainstorming innovative ways to use technology in order to give access to this new information to the general public. How could we invite people into our process of discovery and let them experience first-hand the challenges and reward of creating an understanding of the past using the documentary evidence left behind by our forebearers?
The Foundation identified a group of partners and advisors covering a broad range of expertise including American history, historical research, genealogy, the use of technology within the humanities, and website architecture and design. Together, the group hashed out the basic goals and structure of the Tories, Timid, or True Blue? website and applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities for funding to build and test these ideas.
The NEH awarded the Old North Foundation a Digital Humanities start-up grant in September 2007. After an intense year of work by the entire project team, a prototype version of the website was built and underwent an extensive round of evaluation during summer of 2008.
This website, and the four stories/historical dilemmas that it presents, is the end-result of the project team’s almost two-year journey of research, organization, building, evaluation, and revision.
Our intention is to continue to build from and add to the stories and documents on the website as well as the different tools and means of exploring this history using today’s technology. But for now, we hope you enjoy taking on the role of historian on your journey through Tories, Timid, or True Blue? We’d love to receive your thoughts and comments on our work thus far. Please email them to TTTB@oldnorth.com.