Interactive app makes history portable

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Screenshot via The Clio

A website and an interactive app named The Clio, created at Marshall University, allows users to add and edit historical information for locations in the community. It gives users a chance to better understand all the history that surrounds them.

Marshall University’s Department of History Director David Trowbridge worked with students and the John Deaver Drinko Library staff to develop the website and app—The Clio.

The Clio is an interactive app that allows users to add and edit historical information.

The app can guide users to a location and give specific directions, videos and sources to help them experience history.

The Clio began as a class project and is described as “a guide to the history around you.”

Developers want users to feel as if they were there, in the past, with this powerful tool.

With more than 5,000 entries nationwide, The Clio provides information about historical places across the country.

Trowbridge said the app connects people with the past.

“People are moved by history when they connect the past with a place,” Trowbridge said. “There is no substitute for being there.”

The app is connected with the Drinko Library as a primary source of info on historical areas.

The library is currently working to expand the app’s reach and informations sharing.

Monica Brooks, vice president for information technology, said they are promoting the app to help people in the community be aware of the available sources.

People are moved by history when they connect the past with a place.

— David Trowbridge, director of Marshall University's department of history

“We are promoting it in an effort to lead people back to the Marshall area and the Huntington community so that they are aware we have original material and primary sources in our collection,” Brooks said.

Developers have plans for The Clio’s growth. Internships will be available for students in art and art history who are interested in helping with the expansion of the app.

Hannah Harman can be contacted at [email protected].