Beginning Friday, the historians at Mackinac State Historic Parks will be using a very new technology to teach us about the past. They'll be using Twitter to relay observations of Mackinac Island that were made 128 years ago, by a 10-year-old boy.
The observations were recorded in the diary of Harold Dunbar Corbusier. He followed his father to Mackinac Island in 1883.
"He was the son of Ft. Mackinac's post surgeon, Dr. William H. Corbusier," said Steve Brisson, chief curator for Mackinac State Historic Parks.
"And he was at Ft. Mackinac as a 10-year-old in 1883, for a two year period after that, and then he returned again, his father was reassigned to Ft. Mackinac, in 1892."
Brisson said Dr. Corbusier and his wife both kept diaries, and the doctor encouraged his son to do the same.
"Harold's father encouraged him to keep a diary chronicling his life and his daily events, and it was sort of an assignment of his father to do this," Brisson said. "And he indeed did do it. He kept a diary. It's the diary, in the beginning of course, of a 10-year-old boy. So it's not necessarily the most introspective type of diary you're ever going to find. He's basically recording the daily events of Mackinac Island in the Victorian Period as seen through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy."
With the exception of the active military base, Brisson said the Mackinac Island of 1883 was very similar to the Mackinac Island of today.
"Mackinac Island had, by the 1880s, come into its own as a major Victorian summer resort," he said. "People were beginning to flock here. It had been declared a national park in 1875. So many people, as the same as today, were coming to Mackinac Island to enjoy the summer climate and the wonderful amenities that Mackinac Island has always offered."
Harold and his family lived in the military garrison's officers quarters. From there, Brisson said Harold had a front-row view of life on the Island.
The entries are not always that exciting, but they do paint a vivid picture of Victorian island life.
"He's recording exactly what he saw," Brisson said. "Often comments on the weather: it's cold, there's ice in the harbor, there's a boat stuck in the ice, it's a cloudy day today he might say. And then what they did. It's a perhaps a springlike day. We went to the literary club this evening. Men are cutting ice on the lake today. Just what he saw going around."
Harold's diaries were first published in 1994. Brisson's wife, a former park employee who now serves as a museum consultant, was involved in that effort at the time.
Brisson said she also came up with the idea of putting the entries on Twitter.
"She's just very into Twitter," he said. "And during her time here, she had worked with the diary and the publication of it, and developing curriculum activities for local school groups based on the diary. And now, it just struck her recently that boy, Harold's entries would really work well on Twitter."
Brisson said historians love using new technology to help people connect with the past, and publishing Harold's diaries on Twitter is a great example of that in action.
"It's just another example of trying to use whatever we can in the present to excite people about the past," he said, "and... forge a connection between now and those who have gone before us."
On The Web
The Diary of Harold Dunbar Corbusier: http://twitter.com/boyatftmackinac