The Jacob Jr. Ford Mansion, Virtual Tour:
Creating the virtual tour for the Jacob Ford Jr. mansion this summer has been an educating experience. When I first began my work on the project, I focused solely on collecting information about the house and the family. But as I did my work, I learned that a lot more needed to go into it than just a couple blurbs about important pieces of events. Creating a visual, yet historical experience, is more than just research. History is a topic that relies heavily on the order of things or the chronological order. But when making a house tour, that wasn't a method I could really use, as every room and every piece had a common and frequent purpose to both the ford family and the command in chief of the Continental army, George Washington.
The first step then, became deciding on how to order the rooms for the tour. As General George Washington's stay at the Ford mansion from the winter of 1779 to June of 1780 is such an essential part of the house's history, it only made sense to create the tour based off what was most important to his everyday activity during his stay in Morristown. After establishing the rooms most frequented by the general and his staff, I shifted my attention to Mrs. Theodosia Ford and her four children, and how they lived during the time of Washington's occupancy.
After establishing the order of the tour, the challenge became how to give the viewer the most realistic experience: how to make it feel like you are really in the house. The answer was designing the tour from the point of view of the person rather than just taking any picture of the room. This meant finding all the angles they would see from the doorway, including 360 shots and whole views of the rooms. These shots became even more important when I began to shift my focus to the important pieces within the house.
Every room in the Ford mansion contains important historical pieces, many from before or during Washington's stay, granting them great historical value. The most important pieces in each room get their own spotlight, which contains information on the creation, design, and purpose. But the important part of this was not just relaying the information, though that of course was important too. As this is a virtual tour, it became key to show the viewer not only the pieces or the room, but rather showing the pieces in the context of the room, i.e. its location in comparison to rest of the room or other items. Without this, it would be extremely difficult to get a feel for the room, and more importantly, for how the room looked during the winter of 1779-1780.
When creating this, there was one other key element: tying in the Ford family with Washington. Although the encampment of 1779-1780 is a main piece in the house's history, it is important to remember that this was only a few short months in its history, and that this building was used as a home for the Ford family for many years both before and after Washington's occupancy. As a result, I included information on the purpose of each room, specifying for both Washington during his stay and the Ford family, before, during, and after the winter of 1779-1780.
Creating the tour was a unique experience, and I hope that those who view it enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
The Wick House Restoration:
Although I was busy with the virtual tour of the Ford mansion for much of the summer, I had the ability to help with the restoration and inventory of the Wick House. The sheer number of objects from the farm house means that it requires a lot of time, but progress has been steady. Unlike earlier in the summer when we focused on cleaning the items, we have no begun taking pictures and cataloguing the items for inventory. Of course, we still continue to clean away the dust, mold, and rust, but I leave this project just as it's moving into the thick of it.
The restoration of the chimney is almost complete, which means that soon a crew will be coming in to clean the house itself. Once this is done, all the items can be moved back. However, their is still a lot to be done until then. From furniture, to textiles, to kitchen supplies, it is all being taken care of to ensure both longevity for the items and the best possible experience for those who chose to visit. Most of our attention has been on the items under the Living History title, meaning that they are used during tours to demonstrate what life was like and how the items were used during the mid-18th century.
In the next few months, the employees of the cultural resources division, and maybe some interns like myself, will be focusing on getting this project finished by the fall. Although I will not have the opportunity to be on the finishing end of the Wick House Restoration, I am glad to have been a part of it. It opened my eyes to a side of history that people often forget about: preservation and restoration. I know that the finished project will be amazing!
This blog entry by intern Allison Alecci, Boston College.
