Sharing Stories

The History Project

By Cutright Elizabeth on Apr 21, 2016 in News

The History Project aims to enable seniors and their families to build digital, interactive time capsules to not only preserve the past but also put it into context for future generations.

The History Project (THP) co-founder Niles Lichtenstein, always imagined the steady presence of his father accompanying him on his first day at college. Yet when the day came and Lichtenstein crossed the threshold at Harvard Yard, he was alone; his father had passed away before high school graduation.

Lichtenstein says in a THP video, “Although I felt his spirit with me, it was his words of wisdom and past experiences that I wanted. At that moment, I began to imagine a world where even if he wasn’t there, I could have access to his college experience in the History Project.”

“I would find rich traces of who he was and the life he led things that would help me understand who I was and who I was to become.”

And so began a personal project of archiving the souvenirs and memories of father to create a history able to encapsulate the man and preserve his contributions and connections. Out of this singular effort, the History Project was born.

With the goal of simplifying the archival process, THP provides a framework able to collect and upload all manner of memorabilia and mementos, from music to photos to oral histories. Additionally, THP invites collaboration. Friends and family are encouraged to contribute their own thoughts and content. Through this intergenerational cooperation, an interwoven record of relationships and experiences is created, revealing a rich tapestry of the hopes, fears, and experience.

THP’s lofty goals have sparked interest and over $2 million in funding from venture capitalists, pushing the platform from visualization to realization. As part of the rollout, senior living communities in Oregon and California have begun pilot projects to study how exploring the past through personal reflection and storytelling can help seniors emotionally connect with friends and family.

“From a well-being perspective, it’s about engagement and how we can use these sorts of solutions in order to give people that very natural [tendancy] to talk about their personal lives,” Davis Park, director at Carlsbad By The Sea Retirement Community told Senior Housing News. “We think that kind of engagement is a contribution to the overall effort to get people to increase their socialization.”

Mary’s Wood (Oregon Continuing Care Retirement Community) CTO Rob May agrees, explaining the pilot project can “be perceived as a benefit, by people living here and people looking to live in a senior living community. It makes the community richer.”

For Lichtenstein, THP highlights the way technology can provide social and emotional resonance.

“In an age where more and more technology is coming into play in the lives of seniors, a lot of it is very functional, but there’s also something to be said about the psycho-social and emotional side,” Lichtenstein tells Senior Housing News.

“That’s a lot of what our focus has been—what are those psychosocial benefits of life story reflection and legacy preservation? How does it also create intergenerational conversation and engagement? How do we make technology feel not like distance or alienation but enablement and empowerment?”

“History is a tool,” Lichtenstein declares in that same THP promotional video. “A tool that makes us wiser, makes families stronger, makes organizations smarter, and makes societies better. Whether it’s connecting with your grandma to record a recipe for generations to come, building a history of life with a significant other or child, or building a story of an organization on an anniversary.”

In a world where every moment is recorded and shared instantaneously, it’s easy to end up with fragmented histories that are complicated and overwhelming. Additionally, while the content we share online reflects our current experiences, it only scratches the surface of who we are and what defines our lives and our relationships. The goal of THP is to take all these disparate elements and weave them into a “meaningful narrative told through the project’s timeline where the story can be explored and shared.”

“The History Project is your living time capsule for memories that matter most. What started out as grandma’s soup recipe turned into something more special. It’s not only what she cooked, but how she cooked. It is her story. A story that transcends generations.”