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A new initiative in Beaver County history has been launched. This is Beaver County History On-Line.
This project is striving to put Beaver County's rich historical heritage on the Internet, thus making written documents and pictures available to all local residents, schools and other organizations as well as being available to the worldwide audience.
One of the norms for history is the theme of continuity and discontinuity. It is the balance and tension between these two dimensions that moves history forward. On a microcosmic level this explains Beaver County History On-Line. On the side of continuity is presenting history in a traditional linear way through documents and books, historical archive collections, museums, historical society meetings, and through speaking engagements. In the new technology driven knowledge paradigm, another mode of presentation offers its discontinuous presence - - presenting local historical knowledge and interactive virtual reality tours over the Internet. It does not replace, but merely complements the many fine projects already in existence thanks to the varied efforts of Beaver County's individuals, historical societies, and organizations.
The genesis of this project occured when a book written by my sister, Peggy Townsend, and myself cried out for a publisher, but to no avail. So I published it on the web server at Beaver High School where I am the technology coordinator. The book, Milo Townsend and the Social Movements of the 19th Century, centers around the antislavery movement and other causes in Beaver Falls and New Brighton. We are also working on a history of South Beaver Township. Why not put this on-line when it is finished? If we can do that, why not all of Beaver County? I can go on-line now and find out almost everything about national and international history: why not Beaver County history?
So about six months ago I started putting some local history on-line. Larry Mahon, president of the Little Beaver Historical Society, sent some Darlington information my way which went on-line. In August George Schmersal (a computer teacher in Beaver) and I taught a web publishing class for teachers. They became interested in the project and put up some history on each community in the county. Beaver students Kate Falloretta, Bill Murphy, Keith Shovlin, Chris Walker, and Greg Steel have also been helping in this project. Bill Murphy has created an Internet virtual reality tour of the Beaver Heritage Museum. He plans on adding other historical sites. Keith Shovlin has taken on Beaver history as a major project.
A Beaver County History On-Line project meeting was held on September 18 at the Ed Schaughency Memorial Theater at Beaver Area High School. Representatives from most of the county historical organizations attended and have since been very helpful in providing information and resources. Valuable assistance has been given by the Beaver Area Heritage Foundation, Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation, Beaver Falls Historical Society and Museum, Little Beaver Historical Society, and The Resource Center for Beaver County.
BeaverArea School District, along with Big Beaver Falls School District, received an educational grant of $137,000 to be partially used to help students collect and Internet-publish Beaver County history.
As an educator, I am especially interested in having local history on-line for young people. This is a project which every county school can participate in by having students add resources to the collections and using the electronic collections for classroom assignments and enrichment projects. As students study American history, they can now see how the period under study was reflected in their own county or their own town. For example, when studying canal transportation, they can go to the local web site and read about the canals in Beaver County and see pictorial examples in New Brighton or other river towns. This project can also be an inter-generational forum for history makers, senior citizens and children to share lifetime experiences and interests. I hope to offer historical research and essay contests between school districts where the winners and runners-up get their documents published on the web. There is already a student contest on-line concerning the death train of President Garfield which killed six local residents.
If anything, this project will eventually make available to anyone with access to a computer a large volume of local information which is often hard to locate. Since starting the project six months ago, we have had 16,859 people from outside the school access these resources. We have had people doing research from as far away as Japan and England. I recently had a former Beaver County resident living in California E-Mail me historical information about Freedom and Rochester which I will put on the web. Local school children are already doing research at this web site.
If you have any articles or pictures that would add to this on-line collection, please contact me: Charles Townsend, Box 352 Moore Road, Darlington, PA 16115. Home Phone: 846-3487; EMail: townsendc@basd.kl2.pa.us. You can have your cake and eat it too, I will scan in your articles and pictures, and the originals stay with you. And what you share will help future generations of historians gain insight from the past. I would like to also hear from anyone who is interested in helping with this project. Computer expertise is not necessary. For example, I hope to put on-line the location of all historical resources in Beaver County - - what is located in libraries and museums - - so that people doing research would be able, over the Internet, to find where needed documents are located. I need help cataloging these locations. Also, if you have had interesting experiences or have historical knowledge, please contact me so that we can interview you.
It might be of interest to note that I am currently putting on-line back issues of Milestones. By the time you read this, I hope to have 1975 through 1980 Internet available.
This project can be seen by accessing www.bchistory.org