During the Spring 2023 academic semester, Dr. Scot French, worked with graduate students at the University of Central Florida to explore the history of the Robert Hungerford Normal and Industrial School. A crucial education institution in Eatonville and one of many centers of learning and activism founded by graduates of Tuskegee University.
From the syllabus: HIS 6165 – Digital Tools for Historians (Spring 2023)
This hands-on seminar will introduce students to the field of Digital History highlighting the broadly collaborative work of leading scholar-practitioners, examining some of the tools/methodologies/practices that are transforming our discipline, and facilitating individual and group projects that take advantage of emerging technologies.
The course is built around two questions:
How might the tools/methodologies/practices currently associated with DH advance our individual and collective research agendas as students and faculty members working in the Digital Age?
Can we design and successfully implement individual and/or group projects that will showcase specific technologies while encouraging critical reflection on historical practice?
This semester, students will collaborate with scholars, archivists, and community partners on the development of a digital storymap and related data visualizations that tell the story of the Robert L. Hungerford Normal and Industrial School site and its 124-year relationship to the historic Black township of Eatonville, Florida. The remaining 100-acre tract of former Hungerford School property is the subject of ongoing preservation struggle as local residents fight to block its sale and commercial development Links to an external site. by the Orange County School Board. Our task will be to fully document the history and legal ownership of the site, from its origins as “branch” of Booker T. Washington’s famed Tuskegee Institute in 1899 through its transfer to county control in 1951 and more recent debates over its future development as a mixed-use commercial property. Students will mine a cache of archival sources — historic newspaper, deeds, court records, oral and written histories, etc. — to extract information/data for visual analysis and display.
