Humanities in Public is an initiative by Digital Fabulists, described as “the first step towards nurturing a community of researchers who are skilled communicators using cutting-edge tools to blow stuff up (metaphorically, of course).” We kicked off last week, with a session looking at a few basic tools for producing maps, timelines, digital narratives, presentations, and more.

One of these was Timeline JS, a tool I had seen before but never tried. This time around I just happened to have some (slightly scrappy) data handy so decided to throw the two together. The result is a partial timeline showing some key events in the history of museum computing from early experiments in the mid-1950s to the emergence of the web in the 1990s.

[Disclaimer: this was more a Timeline JS experiment than an effort to produce a comprehensive, accurate timeline of museum computing history so there are some fuzzy facts and numerous glaring omissions.]

After a slight problem with date formats caused by some careless pasting from an Excel spreadsheet I quickly got the hang of the requirements and what you see above only took a couple of hours to put together, with most of that time spent sourcing images, checking usage rights and related tasks.

Now I have seen the data presented this way there’s more I would like to do. But it’s a quick means to a slick-looking end, based on a process as easy as filling out a spreadsheet.

 

*Timeline updated on 23 October 2015 to correct the name of the Swinburne College of Technology.

Sources

Much of the timeline data came from Jones-Garmil, Katherine. “Museums in the Information Age.” In Hands On: Hypermedia & Interactivity in Museums: Selected Papers from the Third International Conference on Hypermedia and Interactivity in Museums (ICHIM 95 / MCN 95), edited by David Bearman, 2:1–12. Archives & Museum Informatics, 1995. http://www.archimuse.com/publishing/ichim95_vol2/jones-garmil.pdf.

Other sources included:

Olcina, Paulette. “The Unesco-ICOM Centre: Documentation in the Service of the Museologist.” Museum International 23, no. 1 (January 12, 1971): 59–62. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0033.1971.tb01752.x.

Gardin, J. C. “Methods for the Descriptive Analysis of Archaeological Material.” American Antiquity 32, no. 1 (January 1, 1967): 13–30. doi:10.2307/278775.

Sher, Jakob A. “The Use of Computers in Museums: Present Situation and Problems.” Museum International 30, no. 3–4 (January 12, 1978): 132–38. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02128.x.

Castillo-Tejero, Noemí. “Keeping a Record of the Cultural Heritage in the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.” Museum International 30, no. 3–4 (January 12, 1978): 179–84. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02134.x.

Bergengren, Göran. “Automatic Data Processing in the Registration of Museum Collections in Sweden.” Museum International 23, no. 1 (January 12, 1971): 53–58. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0033.1971.tb01751.x.

Porter, M. F. “Establishing a Museum Documentation System in the United Kingdom.” Museum International 30, no. 3–4 (January 12, 1978): 169–78. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02133.x.

Olcina, Paulette. “Perspectives.” Museum International 30, no. 3–4 (January 12, 1978): 218–20. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0033.1978.tb02140.x.

Hart, Tim, and Martin Hallett. “Australian Museums and the Technology Revolution.” In Understanding Museums: Australian Museums and Museology, edited by Des Griffin and Leon Paroissien. National Museum of Australia, 2011. http://nma.gov.au/research/understanding-museums/THart_MHallett_2011.html.