The House
The Historic Haile Homestead is a plantation house built in the mid-1800s. Serena and Thomas Haile lived there all their lives along with their 15 children.
Florida was a new venture for many families in the late 19th century, and with that brought its own struggles. Periods of financial hardship hit the Haile family, and in these times luxuries such as paper were given up. Local historians and docents of the Haile Homestead deduce that during these periods the matron of the house began writing on the walls of her family home.
Once she started, the practice of writing notes, messages, and diary-like entries took storm and soon everyone in the house started adding their own contributions. Truly a window into 19th century Florida living, rat counts in the kitchen, children's maths equations, and party songs are scrawled in different rooms throughout the house.
What I'm Doing
This project was completed as part of my MA Library and Information Studies dissertation with UCL Department of Information Studies. The aim of my project is to determine the value of a digital resource for the Historic Haile Homestead. With walls of historic graffiti, the experience was lacking a resource for visitors to use while exploring the house and later at home after they've left.
By examining literature across information studies, a multidisciplinary approach sought to mesh historical bibliography and digital humanities techniques in a way that allows users to fully experience the Haile house graffiti.
A 360-degree model was chosen as the approach for this project. Using photograph stitching applications and a variety of technologies, a 360-degree interactive tour was produced with the aim to bring a sense of spatial awareness to the user (Read more about what I used here).
After comparing with similar institutions and the current visitor experience, it is suggested that a resource of this nature has potential to be successful for both institutions and users.