DIL’s Lebanese Migration Project Opens at Museum of History | Digital Innovation Lab | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Mapping Early NC Lebanese Households” is displayed on a 27″ Lenovo Tablet in the Museum.
Joe Hope shows team members the latest updates to the project.
Project Manager Stephanie Barnwell performs one final test on the tablet.
The project team takes a moment to celebrate before the exhibit opens. From left: Joe Hope, Michael Newton, Stephanie Barnwell, and Pam Lach.
DIL undergradate Anna Faison (left), who contributed to the data collection and researched and wrote the Baddour Household Spotlight, poses with Stephanie and Pam.
Akram Khater, Director of the Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies at N.C. State University, explores the project.
Members of the Baddour family search for their grandfather and father in the Goldsboro maps.
Dick and Philip Baddour find their father in the Goldsboro 1930 map.
The Baddours explore the maps.
Project Manager Stephanie Barnwell explains the project to exhibit-goers.
Members of the extended Baddour family explore the project.
Exhibit-goers explore the maps.
A grandson of Shickery Baddour finds his mother, then age four, in the 1930 map of Goldsboro.

The Digital Innovation Lab has created a new project which opens February 22 at the North Carolina Museum of History as part of the “Cedars in the Pines – The Lebanese in North Carolina: 130 Years of History” exhibit. Mapping Early NC Lebanese Households uses DH Press to visualize Lebanese households in select North Carolina cities from 1900 to 1930, allowing visitors to explore the geography of Lebanese communities and learn more about Lebanese immigrants, their families, and others — such as boarders — with whom they lived. Additional features — including Household Spotlights — delve deeper into the stories of particular families, providing narratives of their experiences as immigrants in North Carolina in the early twentieth century.

Mapping Early NC Lebanese Households was created in collaboration with the Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies at North Carolina State University and RENCI. It is both a website and an interactive digital component of the “Cedar in the Pines” exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of History. The exhibit will from from February 22, 2014 through August 31, 2014.

Special thanks to everyone who made this possible, especially:
Stephanie Barnwell, Project Manager
Joe Hope (RENCI), Web Developer
Michael Newton, DH Press Lead Developer
And all of our undergraduate and graduate practicum students who have contributed to the project over the years.

Check out the digital project | Learn more about the exhibit

Postscript: The project team was on hand for the Opening Reception on Friday, February 21. We had the opportunity to talk to members of the Lebanese-American community, guide them through the project, and help them find their ancestors among the many maps in our project. It was an incredible honor to be included in the evening, and we learned a lot about how to make the project even better.