Ed Beason

Dr. Taylor-Poleskey’s Maymester 2018 experience provided students with a foundation for working with digital tools in a historic environment. Specifically, the course was geared the course to give students an idea of the work that goes into creating a 3D virtual reality tour of a historic community. Though our group did not have time to complete the entire project, the goal was to ultimately create a virtual tour of Old Salem, North Carolina. Old Salem in what is now Winston-Salem, NC was a Moravian settlement governed by the Moravian Church from 1766 until the mid-1850s when the town voted to incorporate a secular government separate from the church. In creating a virtual tour of the old town, complex issues like race, slavery, and religion had to be considered and incorporated into the final product in a thoughtful and historically accurate manner. John Sensebach’s A Separate Canaan and Leland Ferguson’s God’s Fields served as a great introduction and laid a great foundation for the Moravians and their views on a variety of topics, including race, slavery, and religion. Sensebach discussed how Moravians in Salem slowly segregated themselves from Africans and African-Americans in their church and in town cemetery. Ferguson’s God’s Fields really focused on archeology at Salem. In particular, Ferguson examined St. Philip Church and the mostly African-American Happy Hill community just outside Salem. These works were very relevant to the research related to the virtual reality project. In fact, the Sensbach and Ferguson books should be standard reading for any student embarking on research at Old Salem and Moravians in the United States. Most students at either the master’s or Ph.D. level should find both books very readable. Both books only took me approximately three-four days for completion so there should be no worry about a graduate student completing them.

One of the central goals of the maymester course was to construct a digital representation of the Christian Davey house. Before leaving MTSU campus for Old Salem, Dr. Taylor-Poleskey invited Dr. Kathryn Sikes, MTSU’s resident archaeologist, to provide the class with basic information on the field and practice of archaeology. I had taken Dr. Sykes’s Intro to Archaeology course the previous semester but the lecture on archaeology provided valuable information related to the subject the Old Salem project. For example, Dr. Sikes explained how archaeologists locate postholes, builder trenches, and other features in the soil related when working with old buildings. She also explained how archaeology is more than the retrieval of artifacts. Sykes explained, for example, that provenience, or the location of an artifact in relation to the soil and other artifacts, can be almost as central to understanding an artifact as the artifact itself. The location of the artifact can explain how the artifact was used and what that usage might say about the way that person (or persons) lived. Since one of the major parts of the 3D project was to create a rendering of what the Christian David house might have looked like, the archaeological information was very helpful. In fact, the focus on archaeology might even be increased for the next session. The information from Dr. Sikes really helped contextualize the Ferguson reading. I felt like I had a better grasp on the Salem 3D project because I had taken Dr. Sykes’s archaeology class. M.O. Hartley, who completed several archaeological digs in and around the Salem area, provided our group with some of his reports. Because of the lecture and the information I had already had with Dr. Sykes’s class, I felt like I understood the archaeology report better and, therefore, had a better grasp on the overall project. 

 The first couple of days after we arrived in Salem were set aside for the group to familiarize itself with the process of photogrammetry and the creation of 3D models. Our group set about photographing assigned houses and other buildings. The purpose of this work was to produce 3-D models of the existing structures in Old Salem. We worked with AutoDesk Recap to stitch the photographs together to make the 3-D models from photographs. Dr. Taylor-Poleskey had provided the class with an introduction to photogrammetry and AutoDesk Recap prior to our departure from MTSU. That made the work of photogrammetry much smoother once we arrived in Salem. We had hoped that two professors from the Aerospace Department could accompany our group to Old Salem in order to get drone footage of the tops of the buildings. It was disappointing that they were unable to make the trip because the FAA declined to allow drones in Old Salem for fear of interference with the airport. My partner and I had issues with producing a full-fledged 3-D model of one of the houses because we were unable to get photographs from the air. If the Aerospace Department professionals had been able to accompany the group to Salem and snap pictures from the air it would have been a fantastic addition to the project. Even so, our group was able to gain enough information about the Christian Davey house through archaeological reports and the archaeology of the area to produce a 3-D model of it. Rick Lewis and the animation team at MTSU assisted my partner and I with creating a roof for the buildings that did not render correctly and also created the digital model of the Christian Davy house.  

The group also toured the Museum of Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). MESDA had several rooms set up representing different styles and time periods. All the rooms included authentic pieces representing particular styles and time periods. By being in the room it almost felt like stepping back in time. Our group also visited the Moravian Archives in Old Salem, the Moravian cemetery, the Innovation Quarter, and really made the most of the experience. The entire experience was fantastic! I can now confidently speak to other campus professionals about aspects of creating digital 3D models and using technology to create virtual 3D tours. As always, the best part of any project is the connections made with people. I really felt like I made connections with Martha Hartley, our guide while we were there, M.O. Hartley, archaeologist from Salem, Dr. Taylor-Poleskey, my partner Colbi Hogan, Daniel Ackerman at MESDA and too many numerous others to list. Daniel Ackerman provided a great tour of the MESDA collection and had a keen insight on almost all the historical pieces within the MESDA collection. The Innovation Quarter professionals also provided great information related to photogrammetry and laser scanning the façade of buildings. They also said laser and LIDAR scanning has been used to determine the migration patterns of Monarch butterflies. If another maymester is held in Old Salem, perhaps the Innovation Quarter could be utilized more. This experience was fantastic all the way around form the digital humanities experience to the immersion in the local history of Old Salem.