Message-id: <b50fefaf-7cbe-6c77-b7d8-c9f426a5963d@wisc.edu> Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2022 19:40:16 -0600 Subject: Re: Using Facebook to do a local history project From: sara m steele <smsteele@wisc.edu>
Oh, I like the involvement! Good thinking Russ, and thanks for sharing
Is there a list somewhere of the Historical Societies that have a
Facebook Page or regularly use Instagram or YouU Tube?
I've been posting some Power Point *picture stories* exported as video
clips on our CGAHS Facebook page, but hadn't.thought of it as a tool of
involvement, other than asking for help in identifying some of the
people in the pictures which come from our image collection. I started
doing them because I like to connect photos together and think they look
much better on a monitor than in print.
I'm beginning to explore building some electronic scrapbooks made up of
newspaper clippings, photos and scans of maps, deeds, and other papers
that fit together in a history of some local event, place, or person
over time. However, I will probably export those as PDF's rather than
video clips.
Power Point is very easy to use. One can add a little text to bridge
from one item to another.
Social media reaches folks who won't take time to come to a museum or
special exhibit as well as those keenly interested in history. It also
can reach former residents and others all over the country (and world).
Sara from CGAHS
On 1/26/2022 3:39 PM, JANET IRENE SEYMOUR wrote:
>
> *Sent:*Tuesday, January 25, 2022 8:59 AM
> SEYMOUR <janet.seymour@wisconsinhistory.org>
> *Subject:* Using Facebook to do a local history project
> The Sterling Laketown and Eureka Historical Society, located in NW
> Wisconsin, NW Polk County along the scenic and wild St Croix River,
> kicked off a project to do a history of a small local town that has
> mostly disappeared.
> It begins with a Facebook page
> https://www.facebook.com/History-of-Atlas-Wisconsin-111739398049434/
> We have many clippings and other information and photos from the area,
> but want to involve the local folks with an Atlas background and
> possibly recruit them as members and volunteers in our local history
> society.
> What we did is on January,3, 2022, is create a Facebook page, send
> invites to the folks already on our history society Facebook pages and
> then start putting the photos and stories on the page.
> In 20 days we have done about 3 posts per day, now gotten 200 page
> followers, average 700 views per day and have gotten the names of nearly
> 100 folks with ties and information about Atlas, with offers to help.
> With Covid still serious here, we are waiting until March (or Covid
> waning) to kick of a series of informal Atlas programs at the museum
> where we gather the folks to tell us more (resulting in videos). We
> also plan to do a few Atlas walks (1/4 mile) with folks explaining what
> is there.
> If all goes as planned, we will get a new part of our membership from
> the Atlas area, some volunteers and a theme for the spring and summer as
> we explore what is left of the tiny town. We even may sponsor a kids
> fishing contest of the dam millpond!
> The key is providing an intense saturation of the Facebook page with
> posts, photos, and then get folks commenting on them sharing and giving
> us new information. So far we have had about 10 stories come in and 30
> new photos.
> And of course all of this will go into a book to sell for the local
> historical society, as one can download the posts and photos that are on
> the Facebook page and turn them into a document, then edit them.
>
> Russ Hanson
> Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society
> Museum in uptown Cushing, WI Polk County on top of the hill where the
> settler's gathered to defend themselves from the 1870s Indian uprising
> (a false alarm!).
>