Recording History
Artifacts in a display case are liberated for discovery in this interactive station that illustrates the diverse writing systems for recording knowledge in the early Americas.
Artifacts of the Mayans whose surfaces are inscribed with recorded history are featured in this interactive installation within the Exploring the Early Americas exhibit at the Library of Congress. Visitors transcribe hieroglyphs, examine details, reveal curatorial insight and make comparisons with historical recording techniques on objects from other cultures. Integrating high-resolution images of artifacts with transcription and magnification tools as well as audio insights from the library’s curators, the installation allows visitors to explore artifacts in an unusually detailed manner. Sophisticated visualizations, such as the 3-D digital model of the Tortuguero Box, a seventeenth-century wooden artifact from the Mayan era, promote insight into an ancient writing system by allowing visitors to manipulate and translate each side of the box.