Virtual Houston

Houston mayor Bill White recently announced the creation of the online Museum of Houston, a cooperative effort among the city’s leading educational institutions, cultural organizations, and public archives to create a digital storehouse of historic resources relating to Houston’s rich and colorful past. Houston Endowment Inc. has approved a $350,000 grant to Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (GHPA) to fund the first two years of the project, on which Rice University is collaborating.

Houston’s public and private archives contain a treasure trove of information, but concerns about safety and security often mean these materials are not available for widespread use. Recent innovations in digital technology, however, make historic resources accessible to the largest possible audience, while preserving and protecting irreplaceable documents and artifacts. By providing broad public access to digitized materials, the Museum of Houston will allow users to conduct individualized searches at their convenience without requiring extensive visits to several different locations.

“Houston has a rich, diverse history, and if we can harness new technology to expose more people to it, so much the better,” White says. “It took many people to build Houston into the great city it is. In that tradition, we have a great team building this virtual museum today and for the future.”

Fifteen institutions and organizations are cooperating in the first phase of the project. GHPA is administering the grant, and Rice’s Fondren Library is collaborating to provide technical expertise through arrangements made by Chuck Henry, vice provost and university librarian. The Herzstein Foundation is providing bridge funding to initiate the project, and JPMorgan Chase is offering office space for the project staff. As the project grows, many other groups will contribute resources to the museum.

“From its inception, Rice has been engaged with Houston, and the future of the university is intricately wound up with this great city,” says Rice president David Leebron. “Our ability to serve and learn from Houston extends well beyond the offering of formal educational programs. We have an inherent interest in helping preserve the colorful history of the nation’s fourth-largest city in a digital museum that can be accessed not just by university students and scholars doing research but also by schoolchildren and citizens who are curious about Houston and its origin.”

The Museum of Houston will offer something for everyone interested in Houston history: scholars, teachers, students, genealogists, and the general public. The site eventually will contain hundreds of thousands of digitized letters and documents, publications, maps, photographs, artwork, audio, and video. The site’s search engine will look for documents on a specific topic, place, or point in time. All documents, including handwritten manuscripts and letters, will be fully text-search capable.

The museum also will feature extensive virtual exhibits. The first exhibit, tracing the development and impact of the Port of Houston, currently is under development. The Port of Houston Authority is giving the museum access to its significant collection of historic documents, photographs, and publications for the inaugural exhibit.

The project staff, headed by Permita Derden, will work from the historic JP-Morgan Chase Building downtown. Phase one of the Museum of Houston provides a preview of the site’s capabilities. Initial features include a podcast of the mayor introducing the museum. The site also includes samples of the types of resources that will be accessible through the Museum of Houston. Targeted for release in spring 2007, phase two will focus on the Port of Houston virtual exhibit.

For a preview of the online museum’s capabilities, visit the preliminary website.