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 is not a tool simply geared toward the delivery of information visually-- rather it is a tool for manipulating data in a visual manner so that new questions can be asked of that information. The difference is the same as that between watching a documentary and creating one: the user’s questions decide what visualizations the HistoryBrowser’s powerful tools will generate.
The user’s questions drive the exploration of data in powerful new ways, exposing patterns and connections buried in the data they may never have expected. The purpose of the HistoryBrowser, at base, is to create a digital microscope of sorts for humanists, to allow social scientists to probe information with the same depth and effectiveness as researchers in the hard sciences.
HistoryBrowser Demo
Sample HistoryBrowser Projects
Jefferson's Travels to England
A visualization of Thomas Jefferson's 1786 trip to England in collaboration with the Monticello Foundation.Texas Slavery Project
A mapping of slave ownership in Texas from 1837 to1845 by Andrew Torget.James Smithson
A look at Smithsonian benefactor James Smithson from 1760 to 1830 created for the Smithsonian Institution.Jefferson's Travels to Poplar Forest
A visualization of Thomas Jefferson's travels to Poplar Forest.More Information about the HistoryBrowser
Tools
ArcGIS map importer
A tool to convert Maps in ESRI's ArcGIS formatConverter for Flash XML Text
A tool to convert text to be used in a Flash text displayJefferson's Travels Class Website for HIUS-401
2008 (search for Jefferson's Travels)
Contact
Bill Ferster, Director
bferster - @ - virginia.edu
+1 (540) 592-7001
This project is partially funded by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities
