* ALPLM press release…
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) and Google Public Sector today announced plans to digitally transform the visitor experience at the presidential museum, based in Springfield, Ill. The collaboration will use artificial intelligence, extended reality (XR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies hosted on Google Cloud to create accessible, engaging, and interactive experiences for visitors.
ALPLM, which opened to the public in 2005, welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. With this partnership, the museum will use XR to provide additional layers of information about museum exhibits, let visitors choose which topics to explore further, and provide information in languages and formats accessible to more people.
The museum will also explore the possibilities of features like interactive audio-visual guides and video content around displayed artifacts. Google Cloud’s Immersive Stream for XR could also enable an immersive, gamified, and photorealistic experience for the museum’s visitors.
To create more inclusive experiences for museum visitors and digital audiences, ALPLM and Google Public Sector will also create assisted visual guides for people with disabilities and multilingual content for non-English speaking guests. A navigation guide, mapped in AR, could bring historical characters to life, and enable a more accessible user-journey.
Christina Shutt, executive director, ALPLM, said, “The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum pioneered the use of new technology and storytelling tools to bring history to life. We have helped more than five million people connect with Lincoln’s legacy. With Google’s help, we will again bring cutting-edge technology to the museum to share the Lincoln story with more people in more ways.”
Brent Mitchell, managing director, Google Public Sector, U.S. State and Local Government said, “We are proud to partner with ALPLM and help with its mission of bringing American history to life for millions of visitors. Technology has the power to tell stories in fresh, immersive ways, and we look forward to co-creating new digital experiences with ALPLM.”
The first phase of this collaboration will include the implementation of a pilot project, exploring possibilities to build digital experiences for ALPLM. The following phases will involve delivery of advanced experiences like 3D avatars, experiential history lessons and virtual tours, available on ALPLM’s digital platforms.
The Google Cloud Platform’s IaaS and PaaS layers will be the foundation for building and delivering these experiences, giving ALPLM scalability, flexibility and cost benefits. Google Cloud partner Thoughtworks will work with Google Professional Services to deliver this transformation for ALPLM.
* Meanwhile, here’s another Lincoln-related press release…
Like most middle-class women of her time, Mary Lincoln relied on hired help to manage her household. These women worked and sometimes lived in her house, cleaning, cooking, and caring for the children alongside her.
Who were these women? What were their duties? What was their experience like within the household? What were the Lincolns experiences living and working intimately with a cross-section of society that they might never have encountered otherwise?
Anne E. Moseley, the University of Illinois at Springfield’s Sangamon Experience Director and Curator, will examine the nature of domestic service in the Lincoln household in Springfield, Illinois, to attempt to answer these questions by drawing on letters, reminiscences, and county records. In doing so, this program aspires not only to establish a social and cultural context for the Lincolns’ experience but to flesh out the experiences of working-class women who are often on the margins or outright invisible to history.
Viewers can watch and participate in this free, live, online program on this topic entitled ‘Maid of All Work’ on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 at 7 pm on the Looking for Lincoln YouTube and Facebook video channels. Questions can be submitted by viewers during the event. Reservations are not required, and there is no cost to view the program.
“Mr. Lincoln gave [me] an extra dollar each week on condition that she would brave whatever storms might arise, and suffer whatever might arise, and suffer whatever might befall her, without complaint.” -Miss. Mary Johnson
- Homebody - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 10:48 am:
== Like most middle-class women of her time, Mary Lincoln relied on hired help to manage her household. ==
I really want to know what definition of “middle class” they are using.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 10:49 am:
Anyone who has visited Lincoln’s home in Springfield should notice there are heating stoves in Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln’s separate bedrooms but none in the servant’s bedroom at the rear of the house. Illinois winters weren’t any warmer then than they are now, and insulation was unheard of in those days.
Years ago I did some research on the Lincolns and found Mary went through a string of Irish maids. She was demanding and mercurial. Apparently her husband recognized that by slipping Miss Johnson and extra buck.
- DuPage Saint - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 11:02 am:
I would think that the Lincoln’s especially for their time and place were definitely upperclass At least by western standards. And I also have read that Mary Lincoln was not the easiest person to work for. And a YouTube for Lincoln, cool
- Rabid - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 11:09 am:
Will there be ads from google?
- Lurker - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 11:37 am:
Does this (hopefully) mean they will finally retire that Tim Russert exhibit? We loved you Tim but it’s been 15 years
- Annonin' - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 11:55 am:
The Google project with ALPLM sounds great. Thinking AI dinner with Abe. The other needs a decoder ring to grasp. Ours still in the shop for adjustments needed to EasternBLockHead mumbo jumbo in ‘22 campaign season
- Candy Dogood - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 12:05 pm:
===Like most middle-class women of her time, Mary Lincoln relied on hired help to manage her household.===
I know this isn’t the intent of the Lincoln Museum, but for a lot of households with any kind of wealth in the United States the help wasn’t hired.
And the help that was hired wasn’t exactly well paid.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 12:21 pm:
Good on the Google ALPLM, I can’t wait to see it in play, it’s important and taking the experiences “next level”
- Beaverbrook - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 1:30 pm:
Good to hear of the Google partnership. The current exhibits are a bit stale. It would be fun to see new AI exhibits of Abe and contemporaries of his time. How about adding recent governors of Illinois to the exhibit? Blago 3D would be a draw. It will also be interesting to see what Google does with the Thompson Building in Chicago.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 1:33 pm:
Beaverbrook,
Were you thinking maybe of a hologram of Pat Quinn in an epic battle with Squeezy?
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 3:38 pm:
Good move.
Use the most modern technology to assist with history.
How it should be.
- Amalia - Monday, Feb 27, 23 @ 7:01 pm:
“….like most middle class women of her time…” I’m truly mystified by this. they need to post source/s. it feeds into the myth that all white women, north or south, unless poor, were well off and employing or enslaving people who did the work for them. In the south, there were plenty of not well off white folks who did not employ people. they were hired hands themselves. their descendants are weirdly antagonistic towards Black people when they should be antagonistic towards the rich white folks who owned slaves. And in the north I know from much of my family history, not well off, but certainly middle class, it was family that did the work, including on the farm. Source of information to back this opinion please.