Oct 27, 20231 min
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2019-2021 Partnership
African American
Schoolhouse Museum
23620 Newtown Road
Worton, MD 21678
The second partnership of the DSMP project was between the African American Schoolhouse Museum of Kent County and Washington College. Built in 1890, the school served the Worton Point black community until 1958, when it closed and its students were transferred to Chestertown. Located in Worton, Maryland, just 4.5 miles away from Washington College, the museum houses a collection which conveys what it was like for African American children to attend school in the one room schoolhouse during the era of school segregation.
The first phase of this project was completed by incoming first-year students in the college's Orientation Explore program, Washington's Secret History: Sleuths On The Shore. In just under three days students were able to engage in object-based primary-source research, digitize parts of the museum's collection and begin the creation of a VR exhibit of the museum's holdings.
In 2020 and 2021 students at Washington College interviewed five* former students of the Worton Point schoolhouse who shared what it was like to attend the school. These interviews informed the creation of this virtual tour, interactive interpretive exhibit panels, 3D models and other educational materials. This research was supported by a Chesapeake Heartland: An African American Humanities Project fellowship.
*This virtual tour includes a sixth interview with a former student of the Colemans Schoolhouse. This interview provides some insight into the student experience at another rural Kent County schoolhouse in the 1950s.
Above: The VR exhibit curated by Washington College Students through this partnership.
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Interactive Exhibit Panels
Hannah Flayhart and Leah Morris, students in Dr. Sara Clarke-De Reza's Spring 2021 Designing and Measuring Learning Experiences course used the museum's digital object and oral history collection to design the exhibit panels below. Printed versions of these panels will serve as the basis of a traveling exhibit aimed at K-12 students, while interactive virtual versions will link viewers back to oral history clips, 3D models, and other digital museum objects.
Above: Irene Moore views print and digital versions of the exhibit panels.
Onsite 3D Scanning!
Students used the Qlone app to create 3D scans of objects in the museum's collection.
Qlone is a mobile-device based app, which makes it ideal for photogrammetry (photo-based 3D modeling) in the field.
Qlone's built-in Augmented Reality (AR) feature allows researchers to view 3D objects from the field back home in the lab, classroom or any other space!
New 3D models are being created through our Chesapeake Heartland fellowship!
The Collaboration in Action
Student Digital Curators
Washington's Secret History
Pre-Orientation Group:
Katherine Desrosiers
Valery A. Tabraj Huaccachi
Olivia J. Payne
Eylie B. Sasajima
Sandra D. Kahnplay
Chad A. Angelini
Elizabeth M. Pastula
Kristina G. Curley
Dahye Yun
Gaelle E. Descloitres
Soobin Kim
Iscander Hagerty
Instructors:
Raven Bishop, Instructional Technologist
Dr. Courtney E. Rydel, Professor of English
Museum, Community and Field Education Students:
Hannah Flayhart
Professor Julie Markin's Museum Studies Course:
Gianna Cannao
Ross Douglas
Hugh Plumb
Sophia Rooks
Amber Russo
Lillian Schimp
Rose Stevens
Holly Williams
Bella Wilson
Professor Julie Markin's Archaeology Methods Course:
Allen Arscott
Melissa Defrancesco
Amy Luther
Hanna McCarthy
Jack Oldford
Ian Parks
Emma Poole
Kaitlyn Pritchard
Holly Williams
Gwendolyn Zytka
Professor Sara Clarke-DeReza's Design & Measuring Learning Course:
Hannah Flayhart
Leah Morris
VARDIS Student Digital Imaging Consultants:
Eniya Jaber
Jonathan Miranda
Worton Point
Collaboration News
Follow our Progress!
Read our blog and follow along as our project develops!
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