The HistoryBrowser allows users to interactively browse historical events in a number of ways. It is a generative browser, allowing users to not only view preset collections of events, but to construct their own views of the events based on selected criteria. The HistoryBrowser makes it easy to construct complex queries about historical events, weaving maps, timelines, and data visualizations to encourage insight.
The HistoryBrowser encourages primary source documents to speak more directly to the audience by providing visualizations of the relationships, chronologies, and causal events. They will often contain word-based narrative, in written or oral forms to help connect the resources, but the browser allows for a new form of storytelling, using guided visualizations. These visualizations use new methods of interpreting and presenting historic inquiry, such as animation over time, charts, maps, data, and interactive timelines to graphically show the relationships between multiple kinds of information.
More Information about the HistoryBrowser
A Historian's View of the HistoryBrowser
How the HistoryBrowser Works
A screencast tour of some HistoryBrowser ProjectsFlash required
The live visualizations below require Adobe Flash v9 or later. You can download it for free here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer
Jefferson's Travels to England
The 2007 project is a visualization of Thomas Jefferson's 1786 trip to England.
Click here Jefferson's Travels to England Visualization to see the live visualization.
Jefferson's Travels to Poplar Forest
The 2008 project looked at Jefferson's Travels to his retirement home and Plantation, Poplar Forest.
Click here Jefferson's Travels to Poplar Forest Visualization to see the live visualization.
Jefferson's route from Monticello to
Poplar Forest on a historic map.Texas Slavery Project
A mapping of slave ownership in Texas from 1837 to 1845 by Andrew Torget.
Click here Texas Slavery Project Visualization to see the live visualization.
Vinegar Hill MemoryScape
A visualization of a 1960 Charlottesville, VA urban renewal project.
Click here Vinegar Hill Visualization to see the live visualization.
Other HistoryBrowser Projects
James Smithson
A look at Smithsonian benefactor James Smithson from 1760 to 1830 created for the Smithsonian Institution.
Parksley
A visualization of the town of Parksley, VA from 1884 to 1900 by Miles Brooks Barnes.
Tools
ArcGIS/AI map importer
A tool to convert Maps in ESRI's ArcGIS & Adobe Illustrator format
Preliminary XML Documentation
Very rough documentation on how to make projects in the HistoryBrowser
Preliminary HistoryBrowser Project Tool
Very rough tool to edit/create projects in the HistoryBrowser
Project Support Blog
A support blog fro people creatingHistoryBrowser projectContact
Bill Ferster
bferster - @ - virginia.edu
+1 (540) 592-7001This project is partially funded by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities