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Open House
Leveraging Digital Tools to Increase Access to Historic House Museums
Rachel Ballou
A Capstone in the Field of Museum Studies
for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies
Harvard University
Extension School
May 2020
i
Table of Contents
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... iii
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
Americans with Disabilities Act Overview ................................................................................. 2
Historic House Museum Accessibility Requirements .................................................................. 3
Chronicle of Historic House Museums in America ................................................................... 6
History and Trends of Historic House Museums ........................................................................ 7
Historic House Museum Setting .................................................................................................. 8
Technology as a Solution ...................................................................................................... 9
Museums and Technology .......................................................................................................... 11
Digital Tours for Historic House Museums .............................................................................. 14
Digital Tours Overview ............................................................................................................. 16
Digital Tour Examples .............................................................................................................. 17
Maria Mitchell House: Website Video Tours ................................................................... 17
Historic Beverly: YouTube and Zoom Opportunities ..................................................... 20
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace: Google Arts & Culture Tour ...................................... 24
Eustis Estate: WordPress Website Tour ........................................................................... 26
Virtual Reality Overview ........................................................................................................... 32
Virtual Reality Headsets ............................................................................................................ 34
Virtual Reality Examples ........................................................................................................... 35
New York Transit Museum: 360 Degree Images on Google Maps ................................ 36
Tenement Museum: Website Accessibility Page and Google Expeditions .................... 37
Ford’s Theater: TimeLooper App ..................................................................................... 39
Caution Items & Challenges ...................................................................................................... 41
Pace of Technology Advancement ............................................................................................. 41
Staff Recourses .......................................................................................................................... 43
Digital Data Ownership ............................................................................................................ 44
Getting Started – Choosing a Digital Tour Option .................................................................. 46
Cost Considerations .................................................................................................................. 46
Technology Needed for Implementation ................................................................................... 47
Development of a Digital Tour Script ....................................................................................... 49
Implementation and Continued Support ................................................................................... 49
ii
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 50
Appendix A: Quick Start Guide ................................................................................................ 53
Work Cited .................................................................................................................................. 70
iii
List of Figures
Fig 1. Maria Mitchell House tour showing front door access, "Maria Mitchell House," ............. 18
Fig. 2. Maria Mitchell House website homepage, “Mitchell House,” .......................................... 19
Fig. 3. Historic Beverly YouTube Channel, “Historic Beverly Home,” ...................................... 21
Fig. 4. Historic Beverly Facebook post advertising a free Spotlight Talk, ................................... 23
Fig. 5. Landing page for the virtual tour of the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace House on the
Google Arts & Culture website, “Virtual Tour of Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National
Historic Site,” .................................................................................................................... 25
Fig. 6. Eustis Estate website homepage, “Welcome to the Eustis Estate,” ................................... 27
Fig. 7. The Library location webpage on the digital tour showing vertically scrollable content,
“The Library,” ................................................................................................................... 28
Fig. 8. Bed chamber location webpage showing the “Where Am I” button and additional
zooming functionality for the fireplace, “Bed Chamber,” ................................................ 30
Fig. 9. Mount Vernon Digital Tour showing directional wayfinding prompts and the contracted
company’s logo, “Virtual Tour,” ...................................................................................... 31
Fig. 10. New York Transit Museum on Google Maps showing high-definition images uploaded
by the museum staff, “New York Transit Museum,” ....................................................... 37
Fig. 11. Tenement Museum accessibility page, “Accessibility at the Museum,” ......................... 39
Fig. 12. Tenement Museum’s original virtual tour webpage showing Flash plug-in and other
discontinued web applications are required, “Baldizzi Apartment,” ................................ 42
1
Introduction
Historic house museums have a problem with physical accessibility. The steep staircases,
sloping floorboards, and narrow door frames, which are educational testaments to building
practices and aesthetics of past eras, make access to the sites difficult or impossible for visitors
with a mobility disability. Historic house museums should be able to offer their educational
opportunities to everyone, regardless of whether they can physically enter the building. By
leveraging various digital and virtual reality tools, now widely available and easy to use, historic
house museums can promote inclusion and expand interaction for those who are unable to
physically access the site.
Historic House Museums (HHMs) provide the public with a unique learning opportunity.
Many HHMs are staged to resemble a bygone era and to teach the public, through a total
immersion of the senses, what it was like to live in the house during a specific time or by
presenting a particular narrative. The subjects of these historic houses are as diverse as the
American experience. People of all ages and education-levels can visit a HHM to learn about the
people who once lived there. These visits can communicate a point of view different from one’s
own, which in turn can promote a greater understanding of what it truly means to be an
American citizen today. A recent survey by the Institute of Museum and Library Services found
that “children who visited a museum during kindergarten had higher achievement scores in
reading, mathematics, and science in third grade than children who did not” (“Mission”), making
visits to HHMs important supplements to the classroom setting. A person with a mobility
constraint should not be precluded from interacting with, and learning from, historic house
museums now that the ability to digitally image these spaces, and provide remote access and
online programming, has become so readily available.
2
A 2018 study calculating the number of museums in the United States found that there
are over fifteen thousand history museums, historical societies, and historic preservation sites
operating for the public (Frehill). Another recent survey found that less than three percent of
HHMs have front door access for people with a physical disability, and even fewer provide equal
access to other floors (“Physical Access Projects”). In roughly calculating the numbers from
those studies together, the results illustrate how those with a mobility disability are only able to
access a mere few hundred historic sites in the United States due to structural accessibility issues.
Those people who are not able to enter a historic house museum are then limited in their ability
to appreciate the educational and cultural offerings that the sites provide to the general public.
Americans with Disabilities Act Overview
Since the dawn of human civilization, the world has generally been built for the able-
bodied. For centuries, city streets were paved with uneven cobblestones, churches and altars
were usually located up a set of stairs, and houses were built in a standardized way considering
only the average person’s abilities. In America, the twentieth century brought acknowledgement
to the fact that people with a mobility disability were being kept out of both public facilities and
privately-owned businesses due to the inability to enter the buildings where the services were
being offered. One of the first major steps toward non-discrimination in building access occurred
in 1961 with the publication of the legislative standards entitled “Specifications for Making
Buildings and Facilities Accessible to, and Usable by the Physically Handicapped.” This was
followed by the passing of the Architectural Barriers Act in 1968, the Rehabilitation Act in 1973,
and finally the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 (Jester 13). The ADA continues
to be the definitive ruling in regard to enforcing non-discrimination on the basis of disability.
3
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed on January 26, 1990 by the 101st
Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990. The law sates:
The Americans with Disabilities Act gives civil rights protections to individuals with
disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex,
national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with
disabilities in employment, transportation, State and local government services,
telecommunications, and in the goods and services provided by businesses. (Americans
with Disabilities Act, Small Towns 1)
The ADA is split into two titles: Title II applies to all State and local government services, and
Title III applies to all public facilities. Both titles reiterate the same general intention of non-
discrimination, stating, “a public accommodation shall take those steps that may be necessary to
ensure that no individual with a disability is excluded, denied services, segregated or otherwise
treated differently than other individuals because of the absence of auxiliary aids and services”
(Americans with Disabilities Act Title III 48). The ADA legislation is not a building code, rather,
a piece of civil rights legislation. Included with the ADA rulings are design guidelines, known as
the “Americans with Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines” (ADAAG), and the “2010 ADA
Standards for Accessible Design.” These documents offer suggestions and case studies for
institutions looking to become ADA-compliant.
Historic House Museum Accessibility Requirements
With the passing of the ADA laws, historic house museums found themselves in a quandary.
Due to the inherent nature of being a historic building, many house museums were in violation of
4
the new building accessibility requirements. In 1991, the National Park Service acknowledged
these limitations in a published brief, stating:
Without being too critical of the past, access into historic buildings is often difficult
because earlier design and construction techniques did not usually consider people's
varying abilities to the extent they do today. Thus, many buildings were designed with
monumental entrance steps; some commercial row buildings have raised English
basements with stairs both up and down from grade; and some entrances are directly off
the sidewalk with no room for lifts or ramps. (Park 6)
Historic house museums were then left to decide what was more important to their organization
– ADA-compliant access into the space through new construction and building augmentation, or
preserving the space as-is in order to keep the historic artifact intact.
Privately operated historic house museums must comply with the rulings legislated in
Title III of the ADA legislation. Additionally, HHM organizations that receive funding from
State or local government must comply with Title II of the ADA legislation. When considering
the application of these laws to historic buildings, Title II further explains:
When programs, services, or activities are located in facilities that existed prior to
January 26, 1992, the effective date of Title II of the ADA, towns must make sure that
they are also available to persons with disabilities, unless to do so would fundamentally
alter a program, service, or activity or result in undue financial or administrative
burdens… Towns must provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services where they are
necessary to achieve an equal opportunity to participate in, and enjoy the benefits of, a
service, program, or activity conducted by or for the town. (Americans with Disabilities
Act, Small Towns 5)
5
Many HHMs fall into the category of not being able to make ADA-compliant structural changes
to the building due to financial and administrative burdens. Further, the need to fundamentally
alter the building structure to become compliant would go against the sole mission many small
HHMs have of preserving the building in its original state for educational purposes. The burden
to become ADA-compliant is simply untenable for many HHMs. The ADA agency
acknowledges this issue for HHMs in an article posted on its website, entitled “Common
Problems,” which details the following allowed exceptions and expectations:
Historically significant facilities are those facilities or properties that are listed or eligible
for listing in the National Register of Historic Places or properties designated as historic
under State or local law. Structural changes to these facilities that would threaten or
destroy the historical significance of the property or would fundamentally change the
program being offered at the historic facility need not be undertaken. Nevertheless, a city
must consider alternatives to structural changes in these instances - including using
audio-visual materials to depict the inaccessible portions of the facility and other
innovative solutions. (The ADA and City Governments 6)
The ADA is unwavering in its assertion that the educational services that a museum provides
should be available and accessible to everyone. It is the responsibility of the organization’s staff
to provide an alternative opportunity for people who cannot enter the building to be able to
interact with the organization’s educational offerings. In supporting the case for digital solutions
for HHMs, it is paramount to note that the ADA explicitly mentions the use of audio-visual tools
as an appropriate alternative to physical access. The ADA encourages further exploration of
innovative technology solutions to help augment the experience for those who cannot enter a
building due to mobility restrictions.
6
Chronicle of Historic House Museums in America
Historic house museums provide the public with an important understanding of the past,
which can help a community understand how best to navigate its future. The United States of
America is a nation founded on the expression of freedom and inclusion, along with the resulting
complexities and contradictions that many people fought against to live their own American
dream. Many a challenging or interesting life has been lived on the continent both pre and post
the country’s rebellious founding in 1776. People across all religious, gender, socioeconomic,
and racial identifications have worked to improve the human experience for the next generation.
These stories, and the right to publicly memorialize them, are the backbone of American history.
There are thousands of historic sites and house museums located across the country that hold
vigil and retell these narratives to the new American public so that these lessons will not be
forgotten.
Americans care about preserving relics from the Nation’s history. A 2018 survey by the
Institute of Museum and Library Services found that there are 1,776 history museums, and
14,783 historical societies and historic preservation sites in America (Frehill). In comparison, the
ubiquitous food chains Starbucks and McDonalds maintain approximately 11,000 and 14,000
locations, respectively, in the United States (C. Ingraham). The pedagogical offerings of historic
house museums might provide more lasting nourishment than coffee or hamburgers, but
Americans are not visiting these historic sites with the same frequency. Many historic houses
across the country are facing a challenging if not dismal future within the context of
sustainability and relevancy. Without visitors, historic house museums are just empty residences
that are expensive to maintain for a ghost public.
7
History and Trends of Historic House Museums
The reasons behind preserving a house and creating a historic house museum are as diverse as
the American populous. There are no formal rules as to what, how, or why a home is preserved
as a house museum. The inclination to preserve American home dwellings started with the
protection of early colonial settlements and Revolutionary War sites, and continued to grow, so
that “by the early 20th century, houses were being saved for their architectural interest, their
famous former residents, or simply because it felt wrong to allow them to be demolished. The
nation’s bicentennial in 1976 launched a new outbreak of interest in local history; again, the
default move was museum creation” (Graham). Many historic house museums experienced all-
time highs in visitation numbers in 1976:
That year, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello welcomed a record 671,000 visitors; in 2011,
attendance at the Charlottesville-area estate was 440,000. Stratford Hall, Gen. Robert E.
Lee’s birthplace on Virginia’s Northern Neck peninsula, was toured by nearly 80,000
people in 1976... In 1991, Stratford’s attendance was 51,000. [In 2011], it was 27,000.
(du Lac)
The current numbers of people traveling to historic sites are still below the highs seen in 1976,
but there is cause to be optimistic. The most recent report from the American Association for
State and Local History (AASLH), which documents visitation trends to historic places, reveals
that history organizations have been experiencing an increase of visitors over the past six years.
Specifically looking at historic houses, visitation, “has risen since 2013 by about 8.8 percent, a
trend consistent across most budget levels” (AASLH 5). These numbers point to an upward trend
of Americans recognizing and appreciating their local history sites, which should be encouraged
by HHM organizations as much as possible.
8
Even with the recent uptick of visitors to history sites, many historic house museums find
themselves in a limited position in terms of resources and budgets. Decades of low revenues
have caused stressed operations at these institutions, which has produced the bleak situation
many historic house museums find themselves in today:
Most local house museums confront enormous challenges that threaten their
sustainability. Few have professional staff, and most of the volunteers who govern and
operate them are at or over retirement age, with no new leadership in sight. Only a small
fraction have annual visitation of more than 1,000; for many, holiday tours or tours by
appointment are their only public programming. At least 80 percent are faced with $1
million or more in preservation and deferred maintenance needs, yet their operating
budgets are typically $100,000 or less. (Godfrey 2)
Historic house museums are scrappy institutions, many of which try their best to promote their
mission and provide public education within constrained means and resources. Considering how
to open the structures to people with limited mobility may feel stressful or impossible for many
small HHMs. It is difficult to adapt to the changes in public engagement preferences, or to
create new programming to align with open accessibility, when there is no money in the
operating budget for new supplies, and when most staff are donating their time.
Historic House Museum Setting
When a segment of the visitor population is physically restricted from entering a historic house
museum, the organization’s ability to connect with its full community of interested patrons is
arrested. In her guide, “Programming for People with Special Needs,” public historian Katie
Stringer explores a common situation where special education teachers and individuals with a
9
mobility disability have chosen not to visit a historic site due to feeling intimidated by the
environment. Stringer observes that these people “may not have felt welcome because the
fragility of artifacts or structures or physical barriers or may have felt uneasy about disturbing
other visitors or staff” (13). To Stringer’s point, entering into a HHM often feels precarious.
Many house museums are comprised of multiple levels, where access is only through stairs and
raised door frames. The rooms are often cordoned off with velvet ropes, requiring visitors to peer
awkwardly into preciously staged hushed rooms. These historic homes can feel claustrophobic to
even the most able-bodied of visitors, let alone someone who needs to use an assistive mobility
device like a cane, walker, or wheelchair.
Conscious of these barriers, a group with a person who has a mobility disability may
choose not to visit historic houses on their site-seeing excursions, or school trips, so as to not
preclude groupmates from being able to participate in the activity. This then further limits public
visitation and engagement to the HHM. Enabling access for one person with a disability could
result in two or more new visitors to the site. HHMs should be striving to make all perspective
visitors feel welcome.
Technology as a Solution
The Boscobel House and Gardens, located in Garrison, New York, provides an all too common
scenario when looking at the need to implement digital access solutions in order to be more
inclusive of the visitor community. The guided tour of the Boscobel property starts with the
outside gardens, which everyone can traverse via a smooth, paved path. The garden walkway
leads to the front porch of the historic Boscobel house, where visitors are invited up the stairs
and inside the multi-leveled residence to explore the interior with a dedicated guide.
10
A person using a wheelchair for mobility is able to join the tour for the outside garden
introduction, but then excluded from the rest of the house tour experience because there is no
ramp or lift to bypass the stairs that lead to the narrow front door. The tour inside of the house
lasts about an hour, and for this time, the wheelchair user must wait outside for the rest of their
party. While waiting outside, the wheelchair user generally misses out on most of the historical
and educational content that the property has to offer visitors. Boscobel does make the effort to
ensure all of its supplemental public programs are available for individuals with disabilities, and
there is a visitor center on the property that has accessible facilities (“Accessibility Info”). As
stewards of the historic structure, built long before ADA legislation dictated building access
requirements, the Boscobel organization is not required to provide equal physical access to the
historic building. It could be demonstrated that to do so would cause a financial burden or
threaten the integrity of the historic structure.
Should the organization want to explore the access options for augmenting the multi-level
house with ramps or elevators, this would inevitably be a difficult project to undertake, requiring
extensive, and inherently expensive, alterations to the historic property. Boscobel has recently
begun a formal study on the feasibility of adding wheelchair access to the historic house
structure, funded through a grant, and plans to have this study completed within a year
(“Accessibility Info”). However, there is now another option for providing access to the interior
of the building to people who cannot physically enter the property; one that does not require any
structural changes to the house.
Using current technology is one way to solve this access problem. Perhaps the wheelchair
user could be directed to the ADA-compliant visitor center building, which could show a
recorded video of a docent-led tour, along with supplementary exhibits located in the space. Or,
11
the wheelchair user could be provided with an iPad or virtual reality headset, where they could
explore a digital tour of the property. Alternatively, at the most basic of levels, someone on the
in-house tour could use the iPhone Facetime app to call the cell phone of the wheelchair user,
and with this readily available camera technology, they could be virtually included on the tour.
By leaving the wheelchair user outside with no access to worthwhile information on the
property, or a supplemental way to experience and learn about the interior of the building, the
institution inadvertently creates a barrier to knowledge for a segment of the visiting public.
Museums and Technology
Museums of all kinds now embrace and promote the use of technology both in their
physical spaces and online. These institutions cannot not remain stagnant in their programming
and exhibit design, with a new generation of “digital natives” demanding more virtual access and
interactive experiences. The first generation of “digital natives” was born in 1985 or later and are
generally regarded as “millennials” who choose to “develop their own creative content and
distribute it online through social networks” (Godfry). Museums have been forced to evolve
from the dusty “cabinet of curiosities” experience they were founded on in order to stay
profitable and relevant for a new public. This shift has also required much evaluation in terms of
balance, so that museums are able to successfully meet public demands while still staying true to
the educational mission. As museum consultant Rainy Tisdale observed:
In the digital age, Americans long for authenticity. A survey of 5,000 visitors to living
history sites conducted in 2008…determined “respondents felt that their lives had
become so crazy, so complicated, so unreal that they were seeking something real and
authentic in their lives” by visiting these museums…a hundred years ago objects were
12
our raison d‘etre. Museums were in the acquisition-and-classification business. In the
twenty-first century, however, museums are in the serving our audience business. (19)
People visit museums in person for that unique feeling of authenticity of place, and when
appropriately scaled integration of digital tools is introduced, it does not detract from that
visceral experience. Technology can be utilized for a variety of different supplemental tools. It is
now commonplace to find informational videos playing on a loop in a museum space, or touch
screen tablets providing further information on collection items, along with interactive digital
games being promoted in an exhibition hall. Most museums have also enhanced their websites to
become engaging online spaces to learn more about the institution. These modernized museum
websites provide further learning opportunities through online collection searches, digital tours,
and the ability to directly interact with staff. Cultural content has become more malleable
through digitization, so that the public can shape and personalize their interaction with the topics
most interesting to them.
Technology companies have entered the arts and culture field in recent years, providing
low-cost and scalable platforms to host online content for museum organizations. Many of these
companies have the potential to eliminate the restrictive need for organizational staff to know
how to write code or to employ outside consultants in order to build or implement a suitable
digital offering. Website companies like Squarespace and WordPress allow people without a
computer-science background the ability to create engaging websites for the institutions they
work for. Museum collections are now regularly posted online using licensed software products
like TMS Collections, or for free through big technology company initiatives like Google’s Arts
& Culture non-profit division. Modern online museum offerings invite ordinary people to
become their own archivists, curators, historians, and designers (Filene 7). Museums once feared
13
that by hosting their content online, potential visitors would be encouraged to stay home. But, as
newspaper reporter Kristen Tillotson found, the opposite is true. Tillotson interviewed numerous
museum professionals for her investigation on “how museums learned to stop worrying and love
the digital world,” and found that those people who interacted with the museum online are then
“more deeply engaged and more inclined to explore in person.” Digital technologies have
become a tool to use in tandem with the physical space and collection. By being active learners
in a digital environment, instead of only looking at an object on a shelf, museum visitors are
granted the opportunity to make the content accessible to their individual needs and desires.
Looking specifically at digital and virtual reality tours, many institutions across the
museum industry have adopted this technology to expand their reach and impact. The
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has a section of its website dedicated to
“Museum Virtual Tours,” hosting dozens of photo-realistic journeys through exhibits both past
and present for widespread free public consumption and engagement (“Museum Virtual Tours”).
The Louvre Museum in France recently introduced a remarkable Virtual Reality (VR) tour,
entitled “Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass” as a supplement to seeing the “Mona Lisa” painting in
person. The VR tour allows viewers to virtually fly over the crush of visitors usually found in the
exhibit hall, and into the landscape of the painting for a closer look, and a deeper understanding,
of the subject (Carvajal). Additionally, the “Beyond the Glass” tour is available as an app for
purchase on personal Vive VR headsets for at-home exploration.
When reviewing current digital tour options, some of the most successful and engaging
experiences break away from the limits that are imposed on the in-person visitor. A digital tour
does not need to follow the conventional footpath through the museum space. Instead, it can
uniquely orient the viewer as an active participant in the scene. For those wondering what it
14
might feel like to be a musician on stage at Carnegie Hall, a virtual experience can be found on
Carnegie Hall’s Google Arts & Culture webpage, where a camera situates online visitors in the
middle of the Philadelphia Orchestra as they warm up and play a live performance (“Carnegie
Hall”). Or, if someone wants to feel like they are in a salon-style setting discussing the nuances
of fine art, they can tune in every Friday evening on the Frick Museum’s YouTube page to join a
live “Cocktails with a Curator” conversation where art from the museum’s collection is analyzed
by the knowledgeable staff (“Cocktails with a Curator”). By utilizing digital tools, these
institutions, among countless others, can offer their value to a global audience who may never be
able to experience the setting in-person. This is especially true for people who may be
permanently homebound or who live with a physical disability or chronic illness. By providing
digital tours to the public, museums gain a multi-pronged tool for enhancing public participation
through increased accessibility, new visitor engagement, and flexible programming.
Digital Tours for Historic House Museums
Bringing technology into the historic house museum field is a critical component to
keeping these organizations sustainable and accessible for future generations. Due to the
circumstances of limited funds and resources under which many HHMs operate, it is common
for house museums to open for only a limited time each week, or only during warm months in
seasonal locations. But online, a house museum can be open twenty-four hours a day, seven days
a week, and there are no geographical boundaries for those looking to engage with the
institution.
In December of 2019, the National Endowment for the Arts published a report looking at
patterns of arts participation in the United States. The report confirms that the average American
15
uses electronic media to consume artistic or arts-related content (74 percent, or 175 million
adults), more than experiencing an artistic, creative, or cultural activity in person (54 percent, or
133 million adults) (U.S. Patterns 3). In addition, the report found that only “28 percent of adults
attended a historic park or monument or toured a building or neighborhood for its historic or
design value” and that “about one‐third of adults used a[n] [electronic] device to get information
about history (36 percent)” (30, 54). With more people engaging with arts and culture and
history online than in person, HHMs must meet the needs of the technology-users in order to stay
relevant and accessible.
Even among those who choose to visit historic sites in person, new options and
technologies are catalyzing a shift in preferences. While some visitors still want a traditional
lecture-style guided tour, many, it seems, do not:
The 2010 Connecticut Cultural Consumers study, showed that overall “only forty-five
percent of respondents indicated that they enjoy a guided tour experience.” These were
members and frequent visitors of twenty-four Connecticut museums and historic sites.
Even with the 60+ group it didn’t go higher than 55% of visitors enjoying the guided
tour. (Olsen)
Rather than being ‘talked at,’ modern audiences want to be part of the conversation. Digital tours
allow audiences to break away from the “one size fits all” lecture tour by giving them the
opportunity to explore the museum on their own pace and in ways specific to their interests and
abilities. For people with a physical handicap who were once only able to gaze upon the outside
of a historic house structure, digital tours provide a way inside the building that was previously
impossible; and to see inside the building is often what is most important. As two chief officers
of the National Trust for Historic Preservation so aptly illustrated in a joint report, “one of the
16
strengths of historic sites and house museums is that visitors have the opportunity to experience
place, which has the potential to convey history and story more powerfully than documents or
other artifacts alone can do. The place is not one element, but is a combination of landscape,
buildings, and objects woven together” (Malone-France 22). Digital tours are able to seamlessly
connect all of the elements that make a house museum valuable for public education and present
them in a format that is specific to an individual’s needs. These virtual tours may never, and
some may argue, should never, replace the in-person experience of visiting the historic property.
But the value they provide to those looking for a more personalized experience, and especially
for those previously unable to enter into the site, is massive.
Digital Tours Overview
A digital tour is an exploration of a place that is done through a technology device. A technology
device could be a smart phone, computer, tablet, gaming system, or any other gadget able to
process and display graphic content. Also commonly known as a “virtual tour,” a digital tour is
generally understood to be “a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence
of videos or still images. It may also use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music,
narration, and text” (“Virtual Tour”). There are many different mediums and applications of
digital tours, and the term is as broad as it is vague. With the advent of the Google Maps web
service, which became available to the public in 2005, anyone in the world can engage in a
digital tour of real-world places through Google’s 360-degree interactive panoramic views of
streets and places. A digital tour may use real images like Google Maps or utilize digital drawing
tools to create a sketched likeness of a place that could be explored through a game or a website.
A digital tour may be constructed to match the walking experience of a place, where users follow
17
a set path through a virtualized space to experience the setting just as an in-person visitor would.
Or, a digital tour might be designed to surface information about a site that feels totally unique to
the online experience and does not at all resemble the traditional, guided walk through the
physical space. For the purposes of this research and proposal, a digital tour is a means to
explore the physical contents of a place with the aid of a technology device.
Digital Tour Examples
Digital tour examples in museums and historic houses range from the most basic of offerings
using free technology that people carry with them every day, to complex projects where third-
party companies are contracted to build the experience. Digital information posted online for
public consumption is now common-place and expected of museums. Social media allows both
the institution and the visitor to post images of, and feedback about, the museum for the world to
view. This online information is vital for those with a mobility disability who may want to first
check to see if the site is accessible for them, and if not, the digital information may be the only
path for engagement with the site. What follows are examples of how historic house museums
can, and are, using digital tours to broaden their accessibility and public engagement
opportunities. These examples are ordered in degree of complexity and intended as a guide for
HHMs to use when considering what sort of digital tour is right for them.
Maria Mitchell House: Website Video Tours
The Maria Mitchell House, located on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, is a classic
example of a small house museum. Built in 1790, the house is open to visitors seasonally, from
mid-June through to the end of September. The house employs only a few full-time staff
18
members and operates house tours in the summer with a staff of volunteers and college interns
(Bernatzky). Tours of the house focus on the remembrance of Maria Mitchell, the first
recognized female astrologer in America, who lived in the house for a time. The house is only
accessible through a set of stairs into the narrow front door (see fig. 1), and the tour then winds
through three separate floors, ending in a vertical climb into the attic of the property. For
someone in a wheelchair or who has difficulty climbing stairs, physical access inside the house is
impossible.
Fig 1. Maria Mitchell House tour showing front door access, "Maria Mitchell House," YouTube,
youtube.com/watch?v=PHGID_t0MvU&feature=emb_title, Accessed 25 April 2020.
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Due to operating under limited financial resources, the website for the Maria Mitchell
House is rather basic, mostly highlighting important event and visitor information. But the
website does host four informative videos, where Deputy Director and Curator Jascin Leonardo
Finger is filmed discussing the history of the house, and its residents, in various locations around
the property (see fig. 1, fig. 2). The videos are embedded in the museum website and are hosted
and linked to from the Maria Mitchell Association page on YouTube. Hosting content on
YouTube is a free and easy web service to engage with when considering where video content
should be posted for public engagement.
Fig. 2. Maria Mitchell House website homepage, “Mitchell House,” Maria Mitchell Association,
mariamitchell.org/visit/mitchell-house, Accessed 25 April 2020.
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These videos were produced for free in partnership with the local television station,
NCTV, who provided the camera equipment and the assistance with filming and editing the
videos (Leonardo Finger). By leveraging the community-connection with the local television
organization, the Maria Mitchell House staff were able to create well-produced, informative
videos, which highlight the organization’s mission in preserving and educating the public on
Maria Mitchell’s legacy. It is unfortunate that a wheelchair user will not be able to enter inside
the Mitchell house, but through the online videos, they are still able to learn from the property.
Historic Beverly: YouTube and Zoom Opportunities
The Historic Beverly (HB) organization oversees the operations of three historic house museums
located in Beverly, Massachusetts (“Historic Beverly – Home”). These house museums include
the Balch House, the John Cabot House, and the Hale Farm. None of the interior properties are
accessible for someone who uses a wheelchair or who is unable to climb stairs (Battis). The HB
organization has unique connections with people who live all over the world. The Associate
Director for Collections at Historic Beverly, Abby Battis, explained that many of the descendants
of the families who once owned the properties want to keep a connection with the houses,
resulting in over sixty percent of HB’s members living outside of the New England area.
Because of this reach, and the physical limitations of the site, the staff at Historic Beverly have
found creative ways to welcome and educate the public who are unable to physically access the
properties. The organization operates a YouTube page with dozens of short “Spotlight Talk”
videos posted for free public viewing (see fig. 3). These videos highlight particular collection
items or topics of interest, providing the ability for the general online community to learn more
about the organization’s history and assets (“Historic Beverly”). In addition to the “Spotlight
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Talks,” the HB YouTube channel hosts discussions with local community members who
examine topics related to Beverly’s history, along with conversations with descendants of the
families who once owned the HB properties.
Fig. 3. Historic Beverly YouTube Channel, “Historic Beverly Home,” YouTube,
youtube.com/user/beverlyhistorical/featured, Accessed 25 April 2020.
When the recent COVID-19 pandemic forced the physical closure of the HB properties,
the staff saw a noticeable uptick in the engagement with their online content (Battis). In
response to this, the HB staff accelerated implementation of a project already in process in order
to keep their members engaged. HB members are now granted access to a private YouTube
channel as part of their membership benefits, where they can view premium, extended programs
recorded on-site (Battis). Battis further noted that membership numbers increased with the
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COVID-19 closures, making this private channel a nice gift to the patrons who were showing
their support for the institution during the trying time. These two YouTube options allow HB to
continue to promote and serve their mission seamlessly even when the HHMs are physically
closed to the public.
In addition to the YouTube channels, HB also offers remote audiences a chance to
participate in live tours of the properties and live “Spotlight Talks” using the Zoom online
conferencing application. Zoom programs are frequently promoted on HB’s Facebook page (see
fig 4.) and included in printed advertising materials and email campaigns. These Zoom tours are
often recorded and then posted to the YouTube channel after the live meeting to keep the content
on the YouTube page fresh. In the normal course of business, HB staff offer Zoom tours of most
of the special programs on-site, offering the general public continued remote access to this
content. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Zoom tours cost $10 for non-members to join (free
for members), and HB was seeing online attendance ranging in the single digits for each program
(Battis). During the COVID-19 shutdown, Historic Beverly was able to easily and flexibly pivot
its operations to be online-only using YouTube, Zoom, and other digital workflows that were
previously established.
In order to keep the public actively engaged when the buildings were closed, the HB staff
decided to offer the shorter “Spotlight Talks” for free, and promoted them heavily through
Facebook posts (Battis, see fig. 4). These free Zoom programs are currently attracting dozens of
online participants per live viewing, a sharp uptick from pre-COVID-19 engagement numbers
(Battis). HB is also offering longer Zoom programs, for which they charge the regular admission
fee ($10 for non-members). In addition, Battis reported that during COVID-19 their YouTube
channel activity statistics went “off the chart” and geolocation data showed people from around
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the world engaging with the content. By having these services in place prior to the pandemic, the
Zoom tours and YouTube page allowed an access gateway for people who are unable to access
the site, while also providing revenue for the organization via fees for premium online
programming. This demonstrates how by providing digital access to meet one need - like
bridging physical accessibility shortcomings - the organization will gain a valuable and flexible
tool to address further situations where digital contact may be the only way the public can access
the site.
Fig. 4. Historic Beverly Facebook post advertising a free Spotlight Talk, “Historic Beverly
Posts,” Facebook, facebook.com/beverlyhistory/, Accessed 25 April 2020.
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Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace: Google Arts & Culture Tour
The Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace museum, located in downtown New York City, is a
reconstructed historic house property built to replicate the look of the house as it was in 1865.
The museum stands on the same property lot as the original house in which Theodore Roosevelt
was born. According to the museum’s website, the original building was demolished in 1916 to
make way for new building construction, only to be purchased back by the Roosevelt family
three years later, at which point it was reconstructed to look like the original. The museum
website further details how the building was turned into a privately-run museum in 1923 and
incorporated into administration by the National Park Service in 1962 (“The Brownstone”). The
building is wheelchair accessible, offering a lift from street level to the visitor center, and an
additional elevator in the building to help visitors reach other floors. For those unable to visit the
site in person, the museum’s website offers a great digital tour that conveys a similar experience
as that of visiting in-person. Further, the digital tour allows viewers to get closer to the collection
items than they would when on-site, and explore rooms that are cordoned off from physical
access.
The virtual tour of the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace museum was produced in
partnership with Google Arts & Culture. The tour is promoted on the home page of the museum
website, which then links to the Google Arts & Culture page where the tour is hosted. Once
redirected to the Google Arts & Culture page, using a computer, smartphone, or tablet, an online
visitor is guided by intuitive directional arrows and text on the screen through the Birthplace
museum much as the in-person visitor would experience the classic lecture tour (see fig. 5). The
tour starts in the “Lions Room” and then, by touching the arrows on the left and right of the
screen, the online visitor can virtually travel through the other public rooms on the property.
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Each room is accompanied by informative text on the screen that describes what the visitor is
looking at (“Virtual Tour of Theodore”). If a visitor wants to take a closer look at an object, or
move to a different position or view in the room, they simply touch the spot with either their
computer mouse, or press their finger on the touch-screen device. The rendering of the room
allows a 360-degree dynamic viewing of the space. The high-resolution imaging of the museum
was provided for free by Google Arts & Culture, and the hosting of the content on the Arts &
Culture institute’s website is also provided for no cost. Google takes no ownership of the asset
data or copyright to the materials; they simply provide a hosting platform to display the content.
By using the free services provided by Google, the Birthplace Museum was able to create an
engaging digital tour without the costs associated with purchasing a technology application or
contracting with a technology services company.
Fig. 5. Landing page for the virtual tour of the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace House on the
Google Arts & Culture website, “Virtual Tour of Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National
Historic Site,” Google Arts & Culture, artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/TQICHkCrGvMhLQ,
Accessed 20 April 2020.
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Organizations looking to implement a digital tour within limited means are encouraged to
evaluate a partnership with Google Arts & Culture, like the Birthplace Museum did. To partner
with Google Arts & Culture, HHMs must have one hundred and fifty assets (images of collection
items) that are copyright cleared, and one “story” that can be narrated on the website (Kyung
Kim). According to Arts & Culture project manager Yoon Kyung Kim, upon request, Google
staff will assist with imaging any of the assets a site wants to post on its Google page, along with
bringing the Google Maps high-tech 360-degree camera on-site to digitally capture the space for
a virtual reality tour offering. Google offers these services at no charge, making this option the
most approachable for budget-constrained organizations.
Eustis Estate: WordPress Website Tour
The Eustis Estate in Milton, Massachusetts, is a newly established historic house museum whose
staff recognized the need for a strong online digital collection and website experience when the
museum first opened to the public in 2018. The Eustis Estate was built in 1878 by renowned
Boston architect William Ralph Emerson, and was privately preserved over the years. It was
recently incorporated into the Historic New England heritage organization, which opened the
Estate to the public to showcase a rare surviving example of late nineteenth-century architecture
and design (“Eustis Estate Museum”). By navigating to the simple URL “eustis.estate” from any
web browser, online visitors are directed to a list of topics and locations on the property that they
can explore virtually (see fig. 6).
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Fig. 6. Eustis Estate website homepage, “Welcome to the Eustis Estate,” Historic New England,
eustis.estate/, Accessed 20 April 2020.
When clicking through these topics and locations, the online visitor is presented with an
easy-to-understand, vertically-scrollable website experience. Each topic or location page
contains high-resolution photos of the house museum as it currently looks, along with
informative text, associated historical floorplans and pictures, videos, and further “deep dives”
into promoted subject matter (see fig. 7). This digital tour was originally built as a tool for the in-
person visitation experience, with tablets and large touchscreen computers installed in each room
of the property so that visitors could learn more than just what can be written on a basic wall
label (Gittleman). The Eustis Estate is ADA-accessible, and visitors can tour the house on their
own, without a required lecture tour. The staff found that the public were comfortable using the
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tablet kiosks to explore the digital information in each room, and some visitors chose to sit on the
lower floors and explore the entire property digitally (Gittleman). Soon after the property opened
to the public, the museum staff noticed how effectively the digital information was transmitted,
so the virtual tour was released online for the greater public to enjoy for free.
Fig. 7. The Library location webpage on the digital tour showing vertically scrollable content,
“The Library,” Historic New England, eustis.estate/location/library/, Accessed 25 April 2020.
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The Eustis Estate’s digital offering provides an example of a property tour that does not
simulate the walking experience of a classic lecture tour. Instead of using arrows to virtually
walk through the property like the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace Museum, each location and
topic page on the Eustis Estate tour must be individually selected from the menu. Once in each
subject page, online visitors can easily navigate back to the main menu using bold and clear
guiding text on the screen. There is also a “Where Am I” button on each subject page, which
when clicked, provides a floorplan map of the property which highlights the room you are
virtually exploring (see fig. 8).
The museum website, along with the digital tour, was developed using the website
creation product WordPress. The Eustis Estate hired a local web design agency, Create +
Conquer, to design the website experience, and to create different “modules” which act as easy
templates that can be used when posting new content to the museum website (Gittleman).
According to Peter Gittleman, team leader of visitor experience at Historic New England, it took
only four months for the design company to build out the framework and modules, which were
then turned over to the museum staff for the specific content uploads. The eleven modules built
for the website allow museum staff to add new content to the digital tour pages easily, without
need for further contracting of the web design agency. Now that the website is live, it takes only
minutes to add new content for public access. By utilizing an easy-to-use website creation
platform and contracting design templates that can be reused without further consultation help,
the Eustis Estate has demonstrated a successful method for creating an engaging and flexible
digital tour offering.
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Fig. 8. Bed chamber location webpage showing the “Where Am I” button and additional
zooming functionality for the fireplace, “Bed Chamber,” Historic New England,
eustis.estate/location/bed-chamber/, Accessed 20 April 2020.
Mount Vernon Tour: Contracted Design Company Services
The virtual tour of George Washington’s Mount Vernon historic property provides an example
of a digital tour that was created as a fully paid service through a digital design company. The
tour was created in 2014 by the company HULLFILM, and continues to be a top-ten page in
terms of popularity on the museum’s website, according to Vice President of Media &
Communications, Matt Briney. This tour example looks and feels like a classic online computer
game, where players can choose their own adventure in exploring the property. The virtual tour
offers 360-degree panoramic views of the estate and is piloted by clicking navigation arrows on
the screen so that the viewer can virtually walk through each location on the property (see fig. 9).
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The tour uses high-resolution photographs and accompanying informative text to describe to the
online viewer what they are looking at.
Fig. 9. Mount Vernon Digital Tour showing directional wayfinding prompts and the contracted
company’s logo, “Virtual Tour,” George Washington’s Mount Vernon,
virtualtour.mountvernon.org, Accessed 20 April 2020.
Originally built for teachers who could not bring their classrooms to Mount Vernon for
an in-person visit, the digital tour now sees regular use through the pre-ticket purchase path, and
the museum can directly attribute revenue to people who explore the virtual tour before their
visit (Briney). This digital tour creation approach of hiring a third-party company to create and
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maintain the online tour, is a great option for organizations with the financial wherewithal to pay
for implementation services and the ongoing support contract. The support contract with the
developer ensures that the site continues to be usable and is regularly patched with security and
software updates. This option is appropriate for organizations who may not have the expertise to
build the tour content in-house, and want an engaging digital tour built for them without much
heavy lifting required from the HHM staff.
Virtual Reality Overview
Virtual Reality (VR) takes the digital tour concept one step further. Whereas the terms “digital
tour” and “virtual tour” do not have a concrete definition, the Merriam-Webster dictionary does
provide a definition for Virtual Reality, explaining it as “an artificial environment which is
experienced through sensory stimuli (such as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in
which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment” (“Virtual Reality”).
VR is usually experienced through a head-mounted display, where the user’s natural line of sight
is covered and directed to a screen, whose images react dynamically to movements from the
user. When VR experiences were first developed and introduced to the public, they were
complicated and expensive technology to build and maintain. Now, VR experiences are freely
and readily available through the devices most people already own. Virtual Reality hit the
popular culture zeitgeist in a palpable way in 2016, with many people calling it “The Year of
VR” (Coates). That was the year that the VR company Oculus released its first easy to use
commercial “Rift CV1” VR headset to the public (N. Ingraham), and popular augmented reality
games like Pokémon Go swept the nation (Coates). Since this time, the development of
affordable VR headsets for public use, in conjunction with the substantial development of
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engaging VR experiences for both the classroom and leisure, has led to VR experiences
becoming more commonplace and approachable.
Virtual Reality experiences are growing in popularity and are being implemented in a
broad range of industries, as journalist Patricia Marx discovered in researching the topic. Marx
explores how VR is now in the sports locker room to help football quarterbacks find open
receivers, in medical schools to educate students on how to interact with patients, and used by
prospective enrollees to tour college campuses, among countless other examples. There are now
many technology companies creating content specifically for VR experiences at history and
culture sites. Companies like HistoryView (“About”) and Google Expeditions (“Expeditions”)
generate virtual reality educational experiences that are being used in classroom settings to allow
students an opportunity for enhanced learning experiences through digital access.
For people with a mobility disability, VR has opened a world that was once literally
inaccessible. Virtual reality provides a physically risk-free experience to those who otherwise
may have these encounters cut off to them. Through VR, a person in a wheelchair can learn how
to surf, climb a mountain, become an astronaut, and if they so desire, tour a previously
inaccessible historic house museum:
By creating environments that simulate a person’s physical presence in worlds real or
imagined, VR can help learners with disabilities expand their knowledge, skills, and
attitudes in ways that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, enabling them to engage in
learning activities relatively free from the limitations imposed by their disability, and in
complete safety. (Chandrashekar)
Moreover, many landmarks have VR tours available online, which can be helpful when planning
a trip for someone with a physical disability.
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Virtual Reality Headsets
Today, a multitude of VR headset manufacturers offer headsets at various price points and for
different needs. The Oculus technology company (owned by Facebook Technologies) is at the
forefront of the industry, offering three different headset models to fit the needs of the end-user
(Smith). The Oculus Go model is the most basic and affordable product from Oculus, offering an
all-in-one headset, without hand controls, that does not need a phone or computer to run the
content which is viewed directly on the headset. The Oculus Quest model provides a step up
from the Go, intended for more advanced gaming capabilities, and includes two hand controllers
and better technical specifications. The most advanced of the Oculus offerings is the Rift S
model, which must be connected to a computer for high-performance gaming. These Oculus
headset options are comparable to other VR headset company offerings, with the HTC VIVE
company one popular direct competitor of the Oculus’ “Quest” product with its “Cosmos”
headsets (“VIVE”). For museums looking to purchase a high-tech VR headset, the Oculus Go is
the suggested model due to the general ease of use and understandability by the end-user, the
comparably low cost, and the uncomplicated technology support for staff.
One of the most affordable and approachable VR headset options is offered through
Google, called “Google Cardboard.” Google Cardboard offers individuals and organizations who
are not interested in investing in expensive VR headset technology a way to engage with
immersive VR experiences for just a few dollars. The Google Cardboard website offers different
versions of basic VR viewers, with prices ranging from $6 to $30 (“Get Your Cardboard”). This
is a much-discounted price for a VR experience, as compared to the hundreds of dollars required
for an Oculus or VIVE headset. The Google Cardboard devices offer only the most basic of VR
functionality. A separate smart phone device is required, which is inserted into the Cardboard
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viewer to run the content. The Google Cardboard devices are great for situations where people
are engaging with VR tours on the Google Arts & Culture website, but may not work well with
other custom-developed VR experiences that require further digital interaction from the viewer.
Virtual Reality Examples
The introduction of virtual reality headsets into the historic house museum space is still in the
early emerging trend phase, due to the restrictive cost of the headset technology and the staff
operations required for support. As previously mentioned, HHMs are often operating under very
limited budgets, and through the volunteer efforts of a graying staff who may not be comfortable
supporting advanced technology devises. Presently, the ability to create a free basic VR tour of
the property is available through partnerships with big technology companies like Google. But
the hardware and expertise needed to support this offering has left many organizations
intimidated.
When approaching a VR integration project at a HHM, the organization should consider
how many headsets are needed, where they will be safely stored, how they will be cleaned after
use, and who on the staff will be tasked with troubleshooting support and technology
maintenance. With the advent of the more affordable Google Cardboard products, HHMs are
released from some of the cost burden of bringing immersive VR experiences to site, so that
more sites can choose to implement this technology once operational procedures are established
for use and support of the VR tour. By implementing a virtual reality alternative to the physical
house tour, HHMs can become a more inclusive space for the general public who visit the site,
allowing those unable to enter the building to virtually walk through the historic narrative and
appreciate the organization’s educational mission. The following examples provide HHM
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organizations with options to review when considering what type of VR tour is right for their
organization. These VR instances are ordered in degree of complexity, and are scalable
depending on the organization’s resources, like the digital tour examples previously described.
New York Transit Museum: 360 Degree Images on Google Maps
The New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, New York, welcomes people with a wide range of
abilities to visit the site. The museum recognizes that many people with cognitive disabilities
enjoy trains, which prompted the creation of various special programs and tours that are tailored
for specific abilities. Though not technically a HHM, the Transit Museum is an example of a
“specialty” museum that is located in an alternative space (a discontinued subway station) where
the in-person experience is vital to interacting with the visceral educational content.
The museum website “accessibility” page has specific information for those who have
mobility or disability concerns. On this website page, the organization notes that “some of the
vintage cars on our platform level are not accessible by wheelchair” and directs the online user to
visit a linked Google Maps page where all of the trains can be virtually toured (“Accessibility”).
The high-resolution pictures were uploaded to Google Maps by the Transit Museum staff, and if
someone has a VR headset (or a Cardboard device) to view the images, they can feel like they
are inside the train just like the in-person visitor would (see fig. 10). This linking to the Google
Maps 360-degree images on the Transit Museum accessibility page is a great example of using
free technology to create alternative visual access to the site.
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Fig. 10. New York Transit Museum on Google Maps showing high-definition images uploaded
by the museum staff, “New York Transit Museum,” Google Maps,
https://goo.gl/maps/iu1o8PdxF6sDFT1S9, Accessed 25 April 2020.
Tenement Museum: Website Accessibility Page and Google Expeditions
The Tenement Museum presents tours of historically restored apartments in the Lower East Side
neighborhood in New York City, and encourages public exploration of topics that relate to
immigration. Much of the museum space in the historic buildings is not accessible to someone in
a wheelchair or unable to climb stairs. The renovated ground-floor visitor center is ADA-
accessible, as is one of the apartment tours via a connected wheelchair lift. Through the website,
special private tours can be organized for people with physical or mental handicaps, and the
website further offers comprehensive details on what tours are available for people with certain
needs, and what information should be considered for someone visiting with a handicap
(“Accessibility at the Museum”). The “Accessibility” website lists the precise number of steps
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required to reach each point of the property and features a video showing how the wheelchair lift
operates and what the general experience for a wheelchair user will be like once on-site (see fig.
11).
Close consideration of accessibility for each room and program at the museum is a top
priority, according to Ellysheva Bunge-Zeira, the Education and Accessibility Specialist at the
museum. For visitors with a physical handicap, in addition to the thoughtful “Accessibility”
webpage, the Tenement Museum also offers a VR tour developed in partnership with Google
Expeditions. According to Bunge-Zeira, the Tenement Museum partnered with Google
Expeditions to create a comprehensive VR tour of the property that teachers can use in their
classrooms when teaching topics related to immigration. This VR experience was created for free
through the partnership with Google Expeditions, requiring only staff time and access to the
collection. Now, the VR experience is also available for broader public engagement through the
Google Expeditions app, which can be downloaded on a VR headset or smartphone device. The
Expeditions tour transports viewers through different rooms at the Tenement Museum, in a film-
like interactive experience, instead of just looking at a static picture like with the Google Arts &
Culture digital tour previously described. The Expeditions tour explains much of the same
information that is shared on an in-person tour, with voice-over narration and live people filmed
moving around each location. The Expeditions VR tour is not available for general public use
when visiting the site, but the museum does keep one VR Oculus Go headset in the
administrative office in case a wheelchair user visits the museum and is not able to join a tour
(Bunge-Zeira). This partnership with Google Expeditions and the resulting VR tour allows the
viewer to experience the history lessons that the Tenement Museum stands to convey by
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providing an experience similar to attending an in-person tour, and requires minimal capital and
maintenance expense.
Fig. 11. Tenement Museum accessibility page, “Accessibility at the Museum,” Tenement
Museum, tenement.org/visit/accessibility, Accessed 25 April 2020.
Ford’s Theater: TimeLooper App
Ford’s Theater is a historic site museum located in Washington, D.C., where President Lincoln
was assassinated while watching a play in 1865. The Ford’s Theater staff have developed two
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different VR tours, which showcase great examples of both free and professionally-contracted
services for the creation of a VR experience. The most accessible VR tour that Ford’s Theater
offers is a Google Arts & Culture tour that is accessible directly from the main page of the
museum’s website. Much like the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace museum, this Google tour
virtually walks online viewers through the Ford’s Theater space, through static images and
accompanying text. The high-resolution imaging of the space was completed through partnership
with Google Arts & Culture, with no financial cost to the institution for the imaging and tour
creation services. This tour can be viewed without a VR headset, like what was described with
the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace tour. Or, anyone with a VR headset (both high-tech and the
low-tech Cardboard option) can turn this digital tour into a Virtual Reality experience by using
the Arts & Culture app on a smartphone or headset device. Google offers this free VR tour
creation service to any non-profit museum entity that meets minimum requirements for
partnership.
The Ford’s Theater museum also chose to contract with a technology company,
TimeLooper, to create a virtual excursion through the affiliated Peterson House museum space.
The Peterson House is the location where Abraham Lincoln was taken after he was shot in the
Ford’s Theater, and where he ultimately died. The Peterson House is operated as part of the
Ford’s Museum organization, and when the House was closed in 2017 for restoration and
renovation work, the staff recognized that this would cause a gap in the visitor experience at
Ford’s that could be addressed through digital alternatives (“TimeLooper”). The TimeLooper
tour is offered on-site at the museum and included in the cost of the tour. It can also be accessed
by the greater public through downloading the TimeLooper app onto a smartphone device and
searching for the tour through that app. The TimeLooper experience differs from the Google Arts
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& Culture tour in that it offers more advanced and engaging options for exploring the historical
narrative. The TimeLooper company creates immersive experiences of historic sites, complete
with digital characters moving around the screen, audio narration, and simulated first-person
interactions. When interacting with the app, the viewer is positioned in a computer-graphic
rendering of the historic space as it looked at the time of Lincoln’s death. The viewer can then
interact with digital characters to learn more about the house and assassination event, and is
generally able to get a sense of what life looked and felt like back in the nineteenth century. The
TimeLooper app is a great option when organizations want to advance the VR tour to be more
than just a quiet exploration of a photograph.
Caution Items & Challenges
Digital and virtual reality tours have a unique ability to allow people to feel like they are
interacting with or experiencing the real thing. The above examples illustrate that this can be a
powerful tool for museums, allowing them to offer their assets to an unrestricted audience in an
exceptionally visceral way. Still, there are sensitivity considerations, operational cautions, and
technology challenges that should be evaluated before implementing a digital solution on-site.
Pace of Technology Advancement
One caution item that implementers of digital technologies should consider early in the process is
how the tools will keep pace with the advancement of technology development. Engaging with
technology that feels old, clunky, or simply does not work and collects dust in an exhibition
space can be a trying and disheartening experience for museum visitors. Organizations looking to
implement a digital tour should consider partnering with the previously mentioned companies,
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like Google Arts & Culture or TimeLooper, who pledge to support technology through future
enhancements and updates. It would be a waste to dedicate recourses to a project that quickly
finds itself outdated or is met with non-interest from the public. Technological evolution is
inevitable, and so it is important to plan ahead for flexibility in the chosen technology product.
To highlight one common example, the original virtual tour created by the Tenement
Museum years ago, prior to its partnership with Google Expeditions, was coded using the Adobe
Flash software. This tour can still be found and accessed online by Googling “Tenement
Museum Virtual Tour,” but visitors to the page will find that the tour no longer functions. The
text and images on the webpage do not scale correctly to fit the page, and the discontinued
“Flash” website technology is required, which is no longer supported in any modern internet
browser (see fig. 12).
Fig. 12. Tenement Museum’s original virtual tour webpage showing Flash plug-in and other
discontinued web applications are required, “Baldizzi Apartment,” Tenement Museum,
tenement.org/Virtual-Tour/vt_baldizzi.html, Accessed 20 April 2020.
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Flash software was once a common tool for creating multimedia content online, so
organizations were correct to utilize it in prior website projects. In order to maintain seamless
functionality for the public, institutions utilizing Flash technology should then have closely
monitored the technology landscape and stayed abreast of tech news and enhancements so that
when it was clear that Flash would no longer be functional, they would have a chance to plan in
advance for new technology solutions. Organizations should have a documented technology
support plan, along with a team who is tasked with keeping software applications up to date and
secure through software patches and a planned update timeline. For some organizations, this may
be the responsibility of an in-house IT team; for others, maintaining a support contract with the
vendor who built the tour will prove to be a critical tool for application maintenance and ongoing
assistance. In general, organizations should look to the most scalable and flexible of technologies
when creating digital or virtual tour offerings, so that the hard work and resources that the
institution dedicates to the project can be enjoyed for years to come.
Staff Recourses
Just as technology lifespan is a critical component of efficient and effective digital management,
so, too, is the strategy for internal implementation and continued support. HHMs should evaluate
their staff resources to ensure that the workforce has the capabilities to successfully engage the
public with new technology offerings. Older volunteers may feel uncomfortable instructing on
technology use and may require significant support and instruction. Or, the staff may not
understand how to update and maintain new technology devices that are installed on-site. Staff
training is critical for successful deployment and maintenance of all technology offerings.
44
As Historic Beverly found when they began requiring docents to use the Zoom
technology to record tours, some staff members may need multiple training sessions and greater
administrative support, along with an unequivocal mandate that they are required to use the
technology, in order to feel comfortable and on-board with the new process (Battis). In addition
to training, organizations should have a plan outlining responsibility for key tasks such as
resetting technology devices at the end of the day, cleaning and repairing technology devices,
and keeping an orderly and comprehensive inventory of technology equipment. New technology
should never be dropped into a museum space without thorough staff training and a plan for
continued support.
Digital Data Ownership
The ownership of the data, along with who provides access to the digital experience, is also of
paramount importance when considering what tour is best for an organization. When HHMs
build their own digital tour through their website, as the Eustis Estate did, they unequivocally
own and manage all of the content. But they also must pay a monthly cost to the website host,
which for the Eustis Estate example is WordPress, in order to keep the website live and available
to the public online. Failure to pay a website provider will result in the website becoming
unavailable. Similar to this, organizations must stay vigilant when renewing their website
domain names with their service provider, else they could lose access to their website address,
which could be taken over by those opportunistic, unfortunate individuals who ‘poach’ popular
domain names and sell them back to organizations at an inflated price. Every organization with a
web presence should have a well-documented support and payment plan for hosting its virtual
assets to ensure they can retain proper ownership of the digital data.
45
Because the world wide web can often turn into the wild wild west of content
management and data security, smaller organizations should consider partnerships with larger
organizations who can help support online assets. When organizations partner with Google Arts
& Culture, Google does not take any ownership of the data, they simply host the content on its
public site. The assets posted on the Arts & Culture page are protected by the robust security
protocols that Google employs on all of its websites, as well as ensuring that the data will be
available for the public so long as the Google host provider is operational. Organizations who
want to remove their content from the Google page have the ability to easily do so with a click of
a button.
Should a museum want to contract the services of VR app development companies like
TimeLooper, the contract with the app company should be reviewed in relation to who ultimately
owns the produced content. With the TimeLooper app content that is developed for an
organization, that app data and experience is ultimately owned by the TimeLooper company and
must be accessed exclusively through the TimeLopper app. TimeLooper offers scalable prices
catering to diverse budgets, both for implementation and ongoing access, through a monthly
licensing fee (Yigiter). Organizations must continue to pay a fee to the company for their app
experience to be available to both the organization and the greater public. For a HHM hesitant to
incur additional fees after the project build-out is complete, advance financial planning must
consider all aspects of third-party partnerships and the ultimate ownership of the tour experience
and technology.
46
Getting Started – Choosing a Digital Tour Option
When a historic house museum has decided that they are ready to implement a digital
tour offering at its organization, the breadth of choices and considerations can be overwhelming.
But with some proper evaluation of resources, followed by thoughtful planning and careful
consideration of how the public will engage with the new offering, a HHM can introduce a
worthy and cost-efficient product. HHMs should review the various considerations presented in
this paper, along with the condensed “Quick Start Guide” (Appendix A), and further solicit
advice from peer institutions who have already implemented digital tours or other solutions, such
that management are comfortable with all factors of the project from the start. What follows are
highlights of major areas of consideration that will help determine what digital tour offering an
organization should choose to maximize the likelihood of successful implementation.
Cost Considerations
To ensure a successful project from the get-go, organizations should first evaluate what
technology option they can afford to support for the foreseeable future. They should ask
themselves the following basic questions, which will then influence the next round of decision
making when picking the appropriate medium of the tour:
Is there an in-house IT support group to build and maintain this project?
Are outside consultants or contract workers required?
Can the new technology integrate into the current website, or will a new website need to
be built in conjunction with this project?
Are additional technology hardware purchases required?
47
If the technology will be offered in-house, are there adequate power supplies and
supporting furniture in these areas?
How will the technology be supported going forward?
By asking these questions at the start of the project, instead of learning them as the project moves
along, an organization should gain a clearer understanding of initial and ongoing costs related to
the digital tour offering. Organizations should also consider those smaller purchases that may be
associated with these projects, like cleaning supplies, charging cables, power strips, and
additional staff hours incurred during training sessions. The cost of the new project should align
with what the HHM can reasonably afford both now and in the foreseeable future.
When considering costs, HHMs should also evaluate what grant funding may be
available for digital development projects. There are many grant opportunities currently available
to non-profit organizations looking to add a digital component to their museum offerings,
especially when including the intention of improving accessibility at the site. Applying for grants
well in advance of the start of a digital project will ensure that the HHM has the proper funds
available to them to successfully start the project, and keep the implementation going within a
reasonable timeline. Organizations should approach the project with a solid understanding of
what they can afford to spend, working backwards from there to determine what option best fits
their needs and constraints.
Technology Needed for Implementation
While selecting or planning for a digital tour option, HHMs must evaluate what technology is
required to run or support the project. If the tour will be offered on an online-only basis, as with
uploading images to Google Maps or through the museum website, the organization should
48
consider if they require the purchase of a high-resolution camera to capture the digital images. If
a filmed tour requires new television screens or tablets in the museum space, consider what types
of devices will be purchased and if they require access to additional power outlets in the
designated locations. If VR headsets will be offered on-site, determine how many headsets are
needed and what brand will be purchased. Additionally with VR headsets, it is encouraged that
organizations purchase a cleaning and disinfecting headset cradle station to ensure the devices
are sanitized between uses. Extra power cords and other computer accessories, however minor,
should also be evaluated and included in the project plan at the onset of the implementation, so
that financial and operation planning accounts for all associated costs at the start of the project.
If an organization determines that it does not have any available funds or operational
resources to create a new digital offering, they should still consider what can be done using the
smartphone devices that most visitors have with them wherever they go. For example, if
someone in a wheelchair arrives at an inaccessible HHM with their family or friend, and is then
unable to join the group inside for a tour, a video conferencing app can incorporate the
wheelchair user into the tour in real-time. All smartphones can host an application that allows for
easy video conferencing. On an Apple iPhone, the “Facetime” application can be used to video
call other Apple phones, and through that connection, people can live videoconference to show
each other their surroundings. There are many other mobile device apps that can be used for this
same purpose, including Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, and WhatsApp, among others. Using a
video conferencing app between cell phones is one quick and easy way to incorporate someone
on a tour who may not be able to physically enter the building when the HHM has no other
alternative for access or supplementary information.
49
Development of a Digital Tour Script
Having selected the format and medium for the digital tour, organizations should next create a
script detailing how users will engage with the tour, and what information will be relayed
through the virtual technologies. To start, HHMs may want to approach the subject considering
what the experience is like for a current visitor who uses a wheelchair, and how that encounter
can be improved with the new offering. If the property is non-ADA accessible, the HHM may
want to create a virtual tour that follows the footpath of the live docent-led tour. Or, if the rooms
of the HHM are mostly cordoned off to the public, the virtual tour might offer expanded access
to collection items currently away from public view.
If the HHM features a layered history with multiple viewpoints, such as the divergent
experiences of servants and employers in a historic house, the HHM might consider
incorporating those voices into the digital tour script in a dynamic way. Important collection
items should be identified, and all associated copyrights cleared, if applicable. Mapping these
storylines at the onset of the project will give a clear understanding of how long the project
should take to implement, what additional technologies may be needed, and how to distribute the
final product to the public. The creation of a clear and concise script for how the digital tour will
be approached and developed, room by room, will lead to a smooth and uninterrupted creation of
the tour once that exciting phase of the project has been reached.
Implementation and Continued Support
A well-developed project can still fail if not implemented properly, or if there is no plan for
continued support. HHMs should not allow their hard work in developing the tour to be
undermined by poor introduction. When the tour is ready for public participation, it is important
50
that it undergo many rounds of testing with both internal staff members as well as a public “soft
launch.” Pre-launch testing, with a diverse selection representing potential visitors, can provide
valuable and fresh objective feedback on the tour and the ease of usability. The museum should
be ready to make changes to the tour according to this feedback, ensuring the product has the
highest chances of success when introduced to the greater public.
The project does not end once the tour solution is implemented. Staff should be consulted
to ensure they feel comfortable supporting the digital tour, and technology training for new staff
members should be part of any onboarding process. If the organization is maintaining the
technology on-site themselves, a technology plan should be developed to strategize for future
updates and the eventual software and security patches needed to keep the technology healthy
and usable. There should also be a policy for how new content can be added to the tour, so that
the digital offerings can remain fresh and dynamic for repeat visitors. A digital offering will only
be as successful as the plan and the people behind it.
Conclusion
Historic house museums are important tools for fostering civic engagement and
continuous informal learning. They educate the public by welcoming the community to learn
from a unique combination of objects, place, and narrative. Should someone want to travel to a
historic house museum for that special, authentic, visceral offering that HHMs provide, it is
important that the institution be ready to accept them. For people visiting a HHM with a mobility
impairment that makes physical entry into the house difficult, an effective institution’s staff
should be able to offer an alternative option to experience the sense of place, and to convey the
lessons the organization stands to tell. Digital tours present historic house museums with both the
51
ability and some obligation to provide their educational offerings to a broader population.
Further, by providing an alternative entry into engaging with the museum through online content,
those who are altogether unable to visit the site can still connect with the organization, increase
engagement, and provide revenue through online ticketed events.
Historic house museums may exhibit ways of life and artifacts from past eras, but the
public who visit them are very much of the modern age. HHM organizations are encouraged to
find the right balance of promoting historical authenticity and scholarship while utilizing digital
tools that are relevant and approachable to their public. The physical structure of the house
should no longer be an absolute barrier to the knowledge inside. HHMs have an obligation to
promote their mission and convey their narratives to all visitors, regardless of mobility ability.
By embarking on a digital tour solution that is in accordance with the resources the HHM has
available, the organization can become an inclusive and sustainable public service.
The organizational and monetary resources required to embark on new digital projects at
historic house museums are not insignificant and represent an understandable barrier to
implementation. But, as demonstrated by the Historic Beverly organization during the COVID-
19 pandemic, once an organization achieves digital and online functionality, they can apply these
capabilities flexibly to enhance resilience in the face of a cataclysmic event forcing the closure of
the HHM. A historic house museum can serve its mission uninterrupted, and in perpetuity,
through modern online digital tours.
This document and the following “Quick Start Guide” (Appendix A) are intended to offer
a comprehensive overview of functioning, additive digital solutions available to historic house
museums facing a broad range of budgetary and operational realities. The “Quick Start Guide”
condenses the information detailed in this document to provide HHMs with instruction on how to
52
choose and implement a successful digital tour. Organizations should review these materials to
determine best fit. Every HHM organization, large or small, technologically advanced or averse,
has the opportunity to leverage digital tools to expand access, generate new channels of
engagement, and further their mission of education. The important public history education that
historic house museums provide must be made available to everyone, regardless of the need to
use an assisted mobility device. By implementing a digital tour option, historic house museums
can ensure that a physical handicap will no longer prevent access the valuable public service they
provide.
“Open House”Leveraging Digital Tours to Increase Access to Historic House Museums
A Quick Start Guide
Rachel BallouSpring 2020
Appendix A
2
Con
tent
s
Introduction 3
Historic House Museum Statistics Highlights 4
Digital Tours Overview 5
Virtual Reality Overview 6
Choosing A Digital Tour 7
Evaluate Your Resources 7
Create A Realistic Timeline 8
Small Scale Option 9
Medium Scale Option 10
Large Scale Option 11
Getting Started Worksheet
Cost Considerations 12
Digital Tour Script 13
Technology Needed For Implementation 14
Staff Training 15
Other Advantages of Digital Tours 16
3
Intr
oduc
tion Historic house museums have a problem with physical accessibility. The steep staircases, sloping
floorboards, and narrow door frames, which are educational testaments to building practices and aesthetics of past eras, make access to the sites difficult or impossible for visitors with a mobility disability.
Historic house museums (HHMs) are important tools for fostering civic engagement. They educate the public by welcoming the community to learn from what has been left behind.
Historic house museums should be able to offer their educational opportunities to everyone, regardless of whether they can physically enter the building.
By leveraging various digital and virtual reality tools, now widely available to the public and easy to use, historic houses can further expand interaction for those who are unable to access the site.
This quick start guide details the options and organizational choices that HHMs should consider when approaching the implementation of a digital tour at their organization.
4
Intr
oduc
tion
His
tori
c H
ouse
Mus
eum
Sta
tistic
s Hig
hlig
hts
On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a comprehensive civil rights law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability.
Per the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design: “If alterations to a qualified historic building or facility to achieve program accessibility would threaten or destroy the historic significance of the building or facility, fundamentally alter the program, or result in undue financial or administrative burdens, the Department of Justice ADA regulations allow alternative methods to be used to achieve program accessibility. In the case of historic preservation programs, such as an historic house museum, alternative methods include using audio-visual materials to depict portions of the house that cannot otherwise be made accessible.”
Less than three percent of historic house museums have front door access for people with a physical disability, and even fewer provide access to other floors (“Physical Access Projects”).
As of 2018, there are 1,776 history museums, and 14,783 historical societies and historic preservation sites in the United States (Frehill).
5
Dig
ital T
ours
Ove
rvie
wA digital tour is an excursion of a place that is done through a technology device.
A technology device could be a smart phone, computer, tablet, gaming system, or any other gadget that is able to process and display graphic content.
Also commonly known as a “virtual tour,” it is generally understood to be “a simulation of an existing location, usually composed of a sequence of videos or still images. It may also use other multimedia elements such as sound effects, music, narration, and text” (“Virtual Tour ”).
Digital tour examples in museums and historic houses range from the most basic of offerings using free technology that people carry with them every day, to complex projects where third-party companies are contracted to build the experience.
6
Vir
tual
Rea
lity
Ove
rvie
wVirtual Reality (VR) takes the digital tour concept one step further.
Virtual Reality is an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli (such as sights and sounds) provided by a computer and in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment (“Virtual Reality”).
VR is usually experienced through a head-mounted display, where the user’s natural line of sight is covered and directed to a screen, whose images react dynamically to movements from the user.
For people who have a mobility disability, VR has opened up a world that was once totally restrictive. Virtual reality provides a physically risk-free experience to those who otherwise may have these encounters cut off to them
Cho
osin
g A
Dig
ital T
our
What Option Is Right For Your Historic House Museum?
Start With an Assessment of Your HHM to Determine Your Needs and Recourses
What Does a Digital Tour Mean To You? What is the Scale of the Project?
- Is your HHM accessible to someone with a mobility disability? - What rooms of the HHM are most important for public access?- What areas would you want to highlight in a digital tour?
Evaluate Space:
Evaluate Resources:- Do you have the staffing resources to start a new project?- Could you hire or contract with someone to help implement this project?- How many hours a week, or total, could your staff dedicate to this project?- Are staff comfortable supporting technology and/or the museum website?- Are there available funds, or grant opportunities, that your HHM can utilize to pay
for the development of a digital tour?- Can you afford additional hardware to show and support the digital tour on site?
Evaluate Options:- Ask visitors to use their personal mobile devices?- Record a video of the HHM spaces and post online? Youtube?- Partner with an institution who provides free resources for digitization projects?- Add a digital tour component to the museum website?- Build a custom digital tour or application in-house?- Hire a resource who can build a digital tour or virtual reality experience for you?
7
Cre
ate
a R
ealis
tic T
imel
ine
Discovery Phase = Determine what type of tour you want to implement, and what resources can be dedicated to the project, highlight collection items, choose project lead.
Build Phase = Record video, update website, code the app or digital tour, create tour script, collaborate with consultants.
Implementation Phase = Purchase additional hardware, train staff, test digital tour and tweak as needed.
Public Launch = Incorporate new hardware into space, promotion campaign, flexible to public feedback.
8
Smal
l Sca
le O
ptio
nsEx
ampl
es o
f tou
rs th
at a
re lo
w-r
esou
rce
inte
nsiv
e
Website Video Tours – Record and Post on YouTube and Museum Website
Videos can be recorded with a video camera or a smartphone device, or by partnering with a local television broadcast station who may offer their video production services. These videos can then be posted on YouTube for public access, and on the museum website.
This option may be all that is available for a small HHM that is completely inaccessible to someone using a mobility device. Visitors could watch the videos from home, or from a personal smartphone device when at the museum.
Accessible Visitor Center – Video & Live Tour Viewing Area
If there is an ADA-accessible space at the museum, that area should be outfitted with a video screen that can show a recorded tour of the historic space.
This area can also be used for people who are not able to access the historic space, where they can sit and be included in a live video conference tour if the space. Someone attending the live tour could use a video conferring app on their phone, like FaceTime, to virtually include the other person on the tour.
Google Maps – Upload High Resolution Images
Managers of museum organizations can upload images to Google Maps for free, so that online viewers can interact with the space remotely. If an organization can capture 360-degree views of the historic spaces, and upload those to Google Maps, people can use a VR devices to experience an immersive tour. See these linked instructions for how to add photos to your business on Google Maps: Add Photos to Google 9
10
Med
ium
Sca
le O
ptio
nsEx
ampl
es o
f opt
ions
that
requ
ire so
me
staf
f tim
e, b
ut a
re lo
w c
ost
tech
nolo
gy so
lutio
ns
Live Zoom Tours – Invite Online Viewers to Live Events
HHM Organizations can offer ticketed programming for online events and tours by utilizing video conferencing systems like Zoom. People who want to watch a live tour of the HHM, or watch an in depth discussion of featured collection items with staff, can purchase a ticket to the event on the museum website, and then be provided with a link to the virtual meeting.
Google Arts & Culture Partnership - Create an Online Digital Collection and Virtualized Museum Space
Google Arts & Culture is a non-profit segment of the Google Corporation. They provide non-profit museum organizations with their digital imaging and hosting services for free, making this option the most approachable for organizations looking to implement a digital tour that will be accessible online.
To partner with Arts & Culture, museums are only required to have 150 assets (images of collection items) that are copyright cleared, and one “story” that can be narrated on the website.
The Arts & Culture organization will come to site to assist with imaging any of the assets, along with bringing the Google Maps high-tech 360-degree camera to site to digitally capture the space for a virtual reality tour offering. Sign-up here: Partnership Form
The HHM should still considered staff rescores for this partnership, as the project will require dedicated staff time to review and upload assets, along with customizing the design of the dedicated Arts & Culture webpage.
11
Larg
e Sc
ale
Opt
ions
Exam
ples
of p
roje
cts t
hat r
equi
re si
gnifi
cant
staf
f tim
e or
reso
urce
s
Digital Tour Via Website – Use website creation tools like WordPress or Squarespace, to create templates and modules that can be easily recycled for new content pages.
The website does not need to mimic a walking tour. Scrollable pages of engaging information, which should include text, videos, historical photos, and deep dives into particularly interesting collection items, can be just as engaging as filmed walking tours. See eustis.estate website example.
Contracted VR Design Services – Hire a Digital Design Company To Work With Your Organization To Create a Virtual Reality Experience
This may be the most expensive option when considering creating a new digital tour, depending on the scale of the project. But it can also result in the most engaging of products. Organizations should review current VR options to determine what they want to implement. Staff collaboration time and continued support contracts with the vendor should be considered.
VR Educational Classroom Experiences – Partner with companies like TimeLooper or Google Expeditions to build an immersive VR App
Depending on the company, this option may be a free service (Google Expeditions) or a paid service with a private company. The development of this option will require much staff participation and collaboration with the contracted company. A review of who owns the VR experience once it is created, should be considered before entering into the partnership.
12
Get
ting
Star
ted
Cost ConsiderationsTo ensure a successful project from the get-go, organizations should first evaluate what technology option they can
afford to support for the foreseeable future.
Organizations should also consider the smaller purchases that may be associated with these projects, such as cleaning supplies, charging cables, power strips, and additional staff hours incurred during training sessions.
By asking these questions at the start of the project, instead of learning them as the project moves along, an organization should have a clearer understanding what costs will incur related to the implementation.
Is there an in-house IT support group to build and/or maintain this project?
Are outside consultants or contract workers required?
Can the new technology integrate into the current website, or will a new website need to be built in conjunction with this project?
Additional technology hardware purchases required?
If the technology will be offered in-house, are there adequate power supplies and supporting furniture in these areas?
How will the technology be supported going forward?
13
Get
ting
Star
tedDevelop A Digital Tour Script
Once the type and medium of the digital tour is selected, the organization should then create a script that will detail the usability and information that will be relayed through the virtual technologies.
Mapping these storylines at the onset of the project will give a clear understanding of how long the project should take to implement, what additional technologies may be needed, and how to distribute the final product to the public.
The creation of a clear and concise script for how the digital tour will be approached and developed, room by room, will lead to a smooth and uninterrupted creation of the tour once that exciting phase of the project has been reached.
If the property is non-ADA accessible, the HHM may want to create a virtual tour that follows the footpath of the live docent-led tour.
If the rooms of the HHM are mostly cordoned off to the public, the virtual tour may be able to assist with further inspection of collection items that are far away from the viewer in real life.
If the HHM has a layered history where it is important to hear different viewpoints, like when considering the experience of a servant versus an employer living in the house, those voices could be incorporated into the digital tour script in a dynamic way.
Important collection items should be identified and all associated copyrights cleared, if applicable.
14
Get
ting
Star
ted
Technology Needed For ImplementationOnce a tour option has been selected, or during the consideration process, HHMs should
evaluate what technology is needed to run or support the project.
If the tour will be offered via uploading images online, the organization should consider if they require the purchase of a high-resolution camera to capture the digital images.
If there will be new television screens or tablets introduced into the museum space, consider what types of devices will be purchased and if additional power outlets need to be installed in the current locations.
If VR headsets will be offered on-site, determine how many headsets are needed and what brand will be purchased. Additionally with VR headsets, it is encouraged that organizations purchase a cleaning and disinfecting headset cradle station to ensure the devices are sanitized between uses.
Extra power cords and other computer accessories, however minor, should also be evaluated and included in the project plan at the onset of the implementation, so that the associated costs are accounted for at the start of the project.
There should be a policy for how new content can be added to the tour, so that the digital offerings can remain fresh and dynamic for repeat visitors.
Get
ting
Star
ted
Staff Training & Continued Support
A well-developed project can still fail if not implemented properly with the staff, or if there is no plan for continued support. HHMs should not allow their hard work in developing the tour to be undermined by poor introduction. A
digital offering will only be as successful as the plan and the people behind it.
When the tour is ready for public participation, it is important that it undergo many rounds of testing with both internal staff members and a public “soft launch.”
The museum should be ready to make changes to the tour according to feedback from staff and the initial launch to the public.
Thorough staff training is essential. Everyone should feel knowledgeable supporting the new technology. Identify the segment of your staff that is less comfortable with technology and offer additional training sessions.
Once the tour is live, the project doesn’t end there. Staff should be consulted to ensure they feel comfortable supporting the technology, and additional training for new staff members should be part of any onboarding process.
If the organization is maintaining the technology onsite themselves, a technology plan should be developed to strategize for future updates and the eventual software and security patches needed to keep the technology healthy and usable.
15
The Future Is Digital!
People who can not travel to the site can engage with the organization
Promote interest on a global level
Public can get closer to digital objects, and interact more with a digitized space, than they could in the real world
Keep history education relevant and engaging
Providing alternate access to the site for one visitor, may well result in two or more new visitors to the site
Encourages all perspective visitors to feel welcome
Oth
er A
dvan
tage
s Of D
igita
l Tou
rs
16
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