American Centuries
1999 - ongoing, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
Originally created in 1999, the website has been redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up. With thousands of primary sources that are interpreted, zoomable, transcribed and searchable, the site is used by the public, educators and historians alike. In addition to the Online Collection there are dozens of lessons, many interactive activities and several online exhibits.
A major grant from IMLS (the Institute of Museum and Library Services) made possible the full-scale reimagining and rebuilding. Rethinking the user interface, feature set and underlying code has not only put this popular website on a stable, modern footing but has also provided museum staff with a user-friendly and flexible content management environment.
The most fundamental change to the website is the simplified and expanded search feature. Now visitors can easily search across all content types on the site — with any seach returning primary resources, lessons, activities, essays and exhibits alike. Similary, all content types can be networked and linked to any other related content type, making the entire site fully integrated and all content simple to locate.
The website presents dozens of "Dress Up" activities that let the visitor interactively learn about the unfamiliar clothing that Americans have worn throughout our nation's history. Dress Up is one of the most popular features on the website. This feature, originally created using Adobe Flash, was rebuilt in 2020 with modern open-source technologies.
