This project is significant because it is following an important development in the ophthalmological field. Marvin L. Sears during research discovered a reaction in the eye that could help with glaucoma and reduction of pressure in the eye. This led to the development of Timolol, a drug which is designed to reduce eye pressure. For this project I will be using slides of my grandfather’s research, along with his comments. I will also be speaking with current eye surgeons in order to discuss how that development has affected the field of ophthalmology and how it may still affect the field. I also have found interviews from the NIH on the internet. For this project I will be using the story mapping software from arcmaps, which will be used to display the slides and information in an informative way. I will need to be able to digitize my grandfather’s slides, and a scanner for larger photos. I have acquired the slides and am in the process of going through them. The challenge will be communicating with my grandfather about the slides I selected and finding further documentation then what he has.
Author: hbsear20
Immigration of great-grandparents from Germany prior to World WarI. World War I front lines. Letters. Paper company. Sponsored many others. Generosity. Charles Bloch. Grandma daughter has documents.
Grandfather Marvin Sears, opthamologist, eye pressure medicine. Wild. Yale library.
I am currently exploring a few ideas, that are mostly related to family history. These types of projects interest me because I am close to them and the resources are easily accessible. One is related to my families past and participation in wars, and the other is related to my grandfather and the research he did. I would like to do these projects because they also let me get to know more about my family. These two would probably end up in a website format.
My family does have some historical item related to the wars, however I do not know if it will be enough to make a full project out of. The wars focused on would be World War I and II. Letters and stories, and audio is all that I would be able to provide at this moment.
My grandfather is a well known ophthalmologist who did a lot of research and has many slides that I think would be interesting to convert into digital. I don’t know how to do that but I think it would be interesting. While the group that may be interested in this sort of project might be small (maybe ophthalmologists), I think it would be an interesting idea.
I was intrigued by the documentary, and how its goal was achieved, of presenting the footage very differently. It literally and figuratively added color to the videos, and with the added audio of the veterans it was a very interesting take. The documentary went from start to end and carried the attitude of the war with it as well. This was a very interesting and powerful way to display the war. The beginning really showed the excitement and enthusiasm about the war and all the men and boys wanting to join up, even if they were not old enough. The mentality kind of followed through the beginning, and good attitude about the war even as they began to talk about the front lines, however as it got more brutal the audio and video reflected the attitude change. While some of it was a little too gory for me but seeing the true carnage in color added an extra impact that couldn’t have been seen before. The casualties and wounds could still be seen in the black and white versions; however, the real color version makes it more real. There were also many parts about the war that I had not known about, or even considered. Specifically, the technologies that they were lacking, and they type of warfare that was occurring, which also gives an alternative perspective on the type of warfare that occurs today with the new weapons and different intelligence. I also was able to learn about my own great grandfather’s war job, after I got back talked to my dad about the documentary. This showed me that these types of documentaries can not only put on a good show, but also get people talking, which keeps stories from being lost with certain generations.
Having the discussion with Dr John van Wyhe, after being able to explore his website was very interesting. I had never thought about how hard it would be to acquire all of the material to upload them to the website for the collection. It was interesting to learn more about how the items were collected from different sources. Another topic that Dr. van Wyhe discussed, was the impact the wide spread accessibility of Darwin’s documents has had on different communities. This kind of digital history can make research on topics with historical ties much more extensive and all inclusive. This also gives historians the ability to explore historical figures that have large amounts of documentation or records created by the historical figure, that could have been kept. In addition, having all of these documents in one place makes it much easier than the many individuals continuously looking for information and trying to find who might have certain documents they are looking for. Putting this kind of collection in a digital format in one location is something that should be looked into for many major topics, not just people, as a way to explore them further, especially historically. Having the opportunity to speak with the man who was able to make this kind of project happen was very interesting, as well as learning about all the animals he has been able to jump on his bike. The discussion of a current day attempt at this project was also intriguing, because of the change in willingness to provide the documents for certain groups or organizations. Would a potential option would be to consider a compromise with a website that contains links to where the information can be found on sites that don’t want to give permissions?