New England site uses AR to preserve history this Juneteenth
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Memorial Park in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where visitors can soon access an augmented reality exhibit. Photo: Steph Solis/Axios
An augmented reality-based website will help visitors peel back the layers of a historic — and nearly forgotten — burial ground in Portsmouth.
- It's one of several ways the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire is commemorating Juneteenth.
The big picture: The African Burial Ground's AR project is the latest effort in New England to use emerging technology to bolster historic preservation and storytelling.
- The Museum of African American History launched an exhibit in February featuring an AI-powered hologram of abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
- The stories of Holocaust survivors will be retold long after they're gone thanks to holographic video displays in the upcoming Holocaust Museum Boston.
State of play: The AR platform will be unveiled Thursday at Memorial Park to celebrate its tenth anniversary, says Janice Hastings, who oversees special projects for the trail.
- Visitors, who will get a link to the platform on-site, will see pages pop up on their phone as they walk from one bronze statue to the next, telling the history of abolitionism and the African Burial Ground in Portsmouth.
- At the center of this story is a piece of history nearly lost. More than 200 enslaved people's graves lay below the cement roads and were overlooked until city workers came across five coffins in 2003.
- (That discovery, and the efforts of local advocates such as Valerie Cunningham, ultimately led to the park's creation.)
How it works: The AR platform tells stories ranging from the 1779 petition to abolish slavery in New Hampshire to efforts to preserve the African Burial Ground's legacy in the last two decades.
What they're saying: Telling this history in a state known as majority-white keeps alive the often-forgotten stories of New Hampshire's communities of freed Blacks and their contributions, says JerriAnne Boggis, the trail's executive director.
- "It's not just Black history. The history that we look at, the history that we share, is part of the American culture," Boggis tells Axios.
This year, the organization is focusing on "reclaiming the past" and "reshaping the future" as it celebrates Juneteenth.
- The organization last week hosted discussions featuring Black descendants of founding fathers.
- It also unveiled a headstone honoring Dinah Chase Whipple, who founded the first school in New Hampshire for Black children and married Prince Whipple, a Revolutionary War veteran.
Friction point: That programming is harder at a time when the Trump administration is cracking down on anything labeled as diversity, equity and inclusion.
- New Hampshire passed a law barring the teaching of "divisive concepts," limiting lessons on race and gender. A federal judge struck down the law in May.
- Schools that once sent students on tours have shied away from the trail's programming, Boggis says.
Yes, but: Boggis says the trail is intent on preserving history and sparking dialogue.
- "You have to know your full story to understand where you are, where you've been and where you want to go."