Digital Humanities Teaching Projects

  • The VRC is home to a collection of glass stereo photographs produced by the French photographic firm Lachenal and Favre, which depict architecture, landscapes, sculpture, and cultural views primarily in Europe. These images were likely viewed through a specialized stereoscope by students in the Williams classroom in the late 19th century. In ARTH 221 History of Photography taught by Catherine Howe, students digitally recreate the spectacle of viewing a glass stereo photograph through the 21st-century means of Photoshop and a pair of cardboard 3D glasses. Students in the course select a glass stereo from the collection, examine it on the light table in the VRC, and work with VRC staff to create a 3D anaglyph image in Photoshop. Students view their classmates' creations and share their process and experience at a special in-class screening.  In 2020, the project was retooled to accommodate remote teaching and learning. Students collaborated with VRC staff on Zoom, using the remote control feature, to view and create 3D images of their chosen stereo.

  •   Google Earth Project makes the geographic context of your course content tangible to your students, whether your focus is on one city or spans the globe. It creates a visual narrative, combining the awe-inspiring imagery of Google Earth with your custom images, text, and videos.  This user-friendly tool made its debut in Fall 2021.  In ARTH 106 An Invitation to World Architecture with Michelle Apotsos, Google Earth Project was used to accompany select lectures and orient students geographically as lectures traversed the globe.  In ARTH 407 Materials and Material Culture along the Eastern Silk Road with Carolyn Wargula, students created their own projects to research pairs of objects that were similar, yet geographically distanced, mapping a probable connection along established Silk Road routes.

  • The first interactive timeline was created by the VRC in the Fall of 2015 for ARTH 101 Art Through Time using TimelineJS. Students are able to access the timeline through the course’s front page on GLOW, the college’s course management software. After each class session, the timeline is updated with images of the works discussed. The details of the featured works are included in the timeline along with links to Artstor study groups, PowerPoint lectures, or course handouts. Students are able to zoom in and out as well as click-through the timeline. Course timelines create an interactive study tool for students that provide a dynamic and always-changing front page on GLOW. In 2019, the VRC created an interactive timeline for ARTH 103 By Land and Sea: Art, Culture, and Religion Along the Trade Routes of Asia with Murad Mumtaz. Professor Mumtaz’s timeline featured images of art forms including textiles, manuscripts, paintings, luxury items, sculpture, and architecture. Interactive timelines have been utilized in ARTH 102 History of Western Art II, ARTH 105 Arts of South Asia, ARTH 210 Intro to Latin American and Latinx Art, and ARTH 272 Arts of the Buddhist World

  • For six semesters students of ARTH 301 Methods of Art History have been contributing to the ARTH 301 Knowledge Base, an ever-expanding resource for and written by undergraduate art history majors at Williams College.  Students submit their final written projects to the Knowledge Base which was created in Omeka digital publishing software.  Depending upon the professor and the semester, the writings have taken a variety of forms, including modules for introductory art history courses, projects originating from the William College Museum of Art’s Pink Art exhibition, and self-critiques of previous papers written at Williams.  There are several ways to access the Knowledge Base including a tag cloud, browsing by course or image, or clicking the thumbnails of the most recent semester’s postings featured on the home page.  Throughout the course of their studies, students can access writings, bibliographies, and images contributed by their peers.  For reasons of copyright and privacy, the Knowledge Base is only accessible to student contributors and Art faculty and staff.