1,500 Views In Five Days: The Past Is Prologue Using New Media To Highlight Old Communications

July 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Ramsey, NJ – July 1, 2010 – A new project, http://www.ramseyhistory.org, hopes to tell the story of a town through old postcards, using a new medium: a weblog.

Last month a new web site launched depicting Ramsey’s iconic train station: built in 1868 it is the oldest passenger rail station in use in New Jersey. The next post featured an image of Ramsey’s Main Street from 1908 with the message “We have a sick cow…she is as good as dead” with a reference to the town’s first mayor Dr. John Finch.

“A post card with an image of the town over a hundred years ago along with a message referencing life at the time is a one of a kind artifact. I wanted to find a way to share my personal collection of such cards, and I believe this is the right approach” said the site’s developer Kennedy.

The project is the idea of 22 year resident, Daniel Kennedy. He is an information security consultant, helping companies secure critical infrastructure, but before was a web developer who built online brokerage web sites, thus the web was a natural medium for this project.

The goal is to publish two new postcards or documents each week out of a collection of about 150 images.  With 500 views in 24 hours of existence, the desire for people to see their local past seems ever present.

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http://www.RamseyHistory.org is designed to display a collection of historic post cards, epherma, and other antique artifacts related to the town of Ramsey, NJ. The posts (ideally) will display the item (usually a post card) and provide some historic context around the image drawing from some of the great books written over the years about the town.