A crucial part of New York Historical Society’s mission is to make our exhibitions come alive for all of our visitors. The New York and the Nation app offers visitors an enjoyable, accessible, and cutting-edge way to learn about the major themes of our new series of permanent installations in the Robert H. and Clarice Smith New York Gallery of American history entitled New York and the Nation. The app provides additional interpretation as well as aids for those with disabilities.
At the heart of the app is a series of 16 videos that will help contextualize each exhibit area. The videos feature New York Historical staff including President and CEO Louise Mirrer and Valerie Paley, Historian for Special Projects who organized the Smith Gallery installations. Also featured in the videos are Harvard economics professor Niall Ferguson, Ken Jackson past N-YHS President and editor of the Encyclopedia of New York and artist Fred Wilson. Additional media components include a series of letters and documents from the federal period read by actors portraying several key founding fathers including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris. The app will also include audio descriptions and high resolution images for each of the more than 150 objects on display.
Taking advantage of Apple’s progressive “VoiceOver” technology, visually impaired visitors have full access to everything the New-York Historical Society has to offer.