Tories, Timid, or True Blue?

FAIN: HD-50270-07

Old North Church (Boston, MA 02113-1123)
Laura Northridge (Project Director: April 2007 to December 2008)

An on-line and on-site program at Old North Church, using primary documents to portray the diversity within the congregation in 1775 and the choices people faced on the eve of the American Revolution.

The Old North Foundation, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Techology's HyperStudio Laboratory for Digital Humanities, proposes using the NEH-funded Berliner sehen project as a model from which to create an on-line and on-site educational program at the Old North, entitled "Tories, Timid, or True Blue." This innovative program will give the public access to our archival collection via carefully selected digitized documents embedded in interactive modules that teach students and visitors how historical information is gathered, organized, and interpreted. Rather than focusing on the historical narrative of the Old North with which students, educators, and visitors are already familiar, these modules will raise provocative questions about what history is, how and why we construct it the way we do, and how our understanding of it can change. Furthermore, the program will prepare students and visitors to approach more critically and reflectively other museums, historic sites, and even their everyday environments.