The virtual museum will capture the story of Bournemouth’s development in a project that will help celebrate the town’s bicentenary in 2010. A collaboration between Bournemouth University and Bournemouth Borough Council, the project will feature maps, photographs, other images and learning packages.
Funded by an award of £440,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the online museum will bring together the past and the present through its community archive. Residents will be able to contribute their own photographs, memories and stories.
Best selling author, and former Bournemouth resident, Bill Bryson is backing the project and says,
“The project is a once in a life-time opportunity for the people of Bournemouth to participate in the creation of the town’s first centralised online history of Bournemouth”.
By the end of the two year project, visitors to the website will see how their streets have changed over the last two hundred years by clicking through layers of historical maps. They will also be able to call up a timeline, showing associated images and select strands of information about Bournemouth’s people and its buildings, its development as a health and seaside resort, and many other defining aspects of the town’s story.
Other strands of the project include the conservation of the early Victorian Day Collection of glass negatives, showing a now largely unrecognisable Bournemouth. The collection will be placed online with other historic images as a lasting record, accessible to all.
In addition to the website, a primary schools programme, featuring the creation of “Bournemouth in a Box”, will be made available. Teachers will also be able to access a blog and postcard-making facility, as an interactive way of introducing learners to local and family history.
If you have any ideas that you would like to contribute or if you would like to volunteer to help, please apply for the 'Streets of Bournemouth' opportunity on thehub or contact us at streetsofbournemouth@bournemouth.ac.uk
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