The public history project described herein was performed at Blakeley Historic Park, Alabama. The project included the preparation of survey maps depicting the location, size and directional orientation of Confederate and Union earthworks, which were used during the siege and battle of Fort Blakely in April 1865. The project also included historical research and documentation of findings relative to the design, construction and use of the Confederate fortifications at Blakeley Park. This research attempts to answer the questions; who ordered or directed the earthworks to be built, who designed them and supervised their construction, when were they built, and who provided the labor for their construction? Recommendations are made for the acquisition potential of earthworks found that were outside of present park boundaries. In addition, recommendations are made for preservation of existing earthworks within the park. The historical essay on the Confederate fortifications advances the argument that the design and construction effort was beset with shortages of engineers needed for design and supervision, shortages of labor needed for construction, and a shortage of troops to man the fortifications. Because this project combined modern day Global Positioning System surveying and Geographic Information System mapping technology with historical research methodology, collaboration with faculty experts in the College of Engineering and Computer Science was essential.

The creation of a digital model of a physical artifact can be a viable method for preserving physical artifacts from deterioration. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how to make digital artifact creation more accessible to non-scanning experts in order to expand the field of historical preservation to all people. The goal of the thesis is to determine which method of digital artifact capture produces the highest fidelity digital artifact while balancing user accessibility, cost, and usability. This study analyzed this through the creation of an online survey that asked participants to compare models created utilizing various digital capture methods. The results of the survey suggest that photogrammetry is currently the best method of high-fidelity digital artifact creation that balances accessibility, cost, and usability. The results also suggest that photogrammetry is effective at creating digital models of small artifacts with characteristics that typically cause errors in data capture and three-dimensional model creation. These results support the potential for democratizing digital artifact creation to include the contributions of non-experts from all communities and backgrounds, potentially deepening historical knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to present in brief form, far too brief for the wealth of material available, an account of the history of the town of Elko, Nevada. There has been no attempt to include in these pages all the interesting events which are traditional in the gossip of the town. Every effort has been made to include only such material as can be readily verified either by the memories of those still living who remember the events or, in cases where this has bailed or there has been an evident conflict of stories, by resort to the written records. It is fortunate, indeed, that there are so many still living who were present in the early days, especially since the written records are not so complete as might be desired. Because of the limitations of space, the history has been limited to the years 1868-1890.

The power of losing control: Deconstructing Elfreth’s Alley documentary archive-based aesthetics using image-making experimentation is an interdisciplinary and multimodal media dissertation based on the experience of collecting, transforming, and validating archival information that is the foundation of history: its creation, interpretation, and recording. This research includes a manuscript or monograph, a series of lectures about the investigation, a physical multimedia exhibit of modified archival material from the Alley, and the publication of a creative journal that involves the processes and results of the exhibit in Elfreth’s Alley Museum. Observers have built most public records based on what is present and absent in the assemblage of documents, images, and found objects in particular settings. An example of these processes is the record of traditional and historical sites like Elfreth's Alley in Philadelphia, PA. This Alley is a traditional historical residential street considered a National Historic Landmark for its structures built between 1720 and 1830. This street has been home to everyday Philadelphians for three centuries, and its museum celebrates the working class of America who helped build the country through sweat and commerce. The Alley is still a thriving residential community that is home to artists and artisans, educators, entrepreneurs, and everything in between. While this research starts in this neighborhood, it explores connections that can take us across the city, the nation, and around the globe. In this dissertation, the record of the Alley life has been deconstructed to expose the understanding and perception of personal narratives that offer alternative views of collective memory and public history. The processes and results that deconstruct Elfreth’s Alley archival documentation have been used to analyze and question ideas of presence and absence of ethnic groups, the exercise of power and control, patterns of privilege assigned to race, gender and ethnicity, as well as concerns of domestic and child labor, environment, gentrification, and social networks, offering a rich description of the Alley. The methodology of this work, through its five chapters, is based on the study of analog experimental photographic processes and digital Artificial Intelligence (AI) new media creations with uncontrolled and unpredictable results, their relationship with archival studies from the Alley, and the impact of new contemporary archival creations in the construction of public history and collective memory. These mechanisms were applied to documents, archival and found materials (taken from different sources around the city and the nation) in various experimental artworks. The objects created for the exhibit and the analysis of these archives use pinhole cameras, expired paper, lumen prints and cyanolumens, panoramas with polaroids and chemigrams, stereoscopes and anaglyphs, augmented reality, and AI-algorithmic editions, as well as the existent sources and interdisciplinary collaborative work of the historians and museum professionals of the Alley. The multiple intellectual, theoretical, and creative layers involved in this work build a different record of the Alley. The artworks prepared in this study are a contemporary archival record of the interaction with the community and scholars of this historical place. This interaction, collaborative work, open access to the public, and reflections —consequences from this experimental artistic-creative process— constitute an academic record that expands the studies of historians, ethnographers, and academics, and contribute to an exhaustive analysis in the construction of public history and the collective memory of the city. / Media & Communication

Ybor City is a historical neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, and a tourist attraction known for its immigrant roots and once-thriving cigar industry. This thesis places Ybor City into the context of the burgeoning heritage tourism market, examining how cities financially reliant on tourism often sanitize their public historical narrative. I identify the main actors involved in Ybor City's marketing and preservation by investigating contemporary newspaper articles and multiple National Park Service documents, thereby uncovering the motivations and decisions that led to Ybor's cultural image of a bustling, relatively peaceful early 20th-century "Latin" community. To correlate Ybor's aestheticized public image with the official record, I review and contrast historical primary sources, academic literature, tourism advertising material, and Ybor's physical historical markers designated to its landmarks. My main argument is that embellishing local memory with overt celebratory overtones and a patriotic message not only fosters a misleading narrative, but it also sidelines traditionally marginalized racial and ethnic groups: Ybor's working-class families, as well as its Jewish, Black Cuban, and African American heritage. This thesis seeks to advance a more authentic interpretation of Ybor City history by proposing a reinvestigation into literary sources and applying both GIS and mobile technology to update the existing scholarship.

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