WHEATON, Md. – Montgomery Parks is proud to announce that its Oakley Cabin Augmented Reality (AR) experience is being acknowledged for Excellence in Preservation Partnerships by the Maryland Historical Trust.
Montgomery Parks partnered with Montgomery County Technology and Enterprise Business Solutions (TEBS), and the University of Maryland Historic Preservation Program (UMD) to create the AR experience at Oakley Cabin.
Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park is a living history museum on Brookeville Road in Olney that interprets the stories of this rural roadside community in the 19th and 20th centuries. The cabin is one of three originally built during the 19th century and may have been home to enslaved laborers from the surrounding Oakley Farm. After Emancipation, it became the center of a community of free Black families who worked mostly as farm laborers, laundresses, and tradespeople.
The AR experience enables Oakley Cabin visitors to use a mobile device to scan QR codes that provide audio narratives with details about the community and virtual renderings of the Oakley Cabin interior and surrounding grounds. Visitors can also use their phones to interact with 3-D models and objects that would have historically been found at the site. The AR experience is available in seven languages and open year-round to visitors.
“The partnership between our three organizations harnesses technology to enrich the public’s understanding of history,” said Cassandra Michaud, Montgomery Parks cultural resources stewardship supervisor. “We plan to develop future projects that serve to document these critical histories and expand public access to cultural heritage.”
“The Oakley Cabin AR Experience is a culmination of years of cross-agency partnerships,” said Mitsuko R. Herrera, program director of XR Montgomery, Montgomery County’s extended reality program. “TEBS learned about Oakley Cabin through a 2020 multi-agency event sponsored by Montgomery Parks, and we’ve been engaged with UMD since 2018. When the right opportunity presented itself, we were able to leverage those relationships, and we envision building more experiences as funding and resources become available to expand economic heritage tourism projects and youth education engagement.”
Each partner involved in developing the AR experience played a unique role. Montgomery Parks stewards the historic site, contributing interpretations based on years of historical and archaeological research, Montgomery County TEBS oversaw the technology and integration of data into an AR format, as well as providing translation services, and the UMD Historic Preservation Program team brought the high level of documentation through laser scanning and 3-D modeling that is foundational to the project
“The Historic Preservation Program at the University of Maryland has been investing in state-of-the-art technologies to produce digital twins of historic sites for over a decade. This partnership provided an excellent opportunity to serve the community and demonstrate the capacity of these tools for documentation and interpretation, expanding access to deeper understandings of the histories that made our communities.” Stefan Woehlke, Assistant Clinical Professor at UMD.
“We’ve taken a historic site like Oakley Cabin and made it more accessible to people by using modern tools that help bring the past to life,” said County Executive Marc Elrich. “Oakley Cabin tells a story that needs to be remembered. It’s part of the history of African American life in Montgomery County, and we have a responsibility to make sure that history is preserved and shared. Using technology to expand access to these stories is one way we can reach more people. This project does exactly that, it blends education, equity, and technology in a way that reflects the values of our County. I applaud the efforts of TEBS, Montgomery Parks, and the University of Maryland to make this happen.”
The AR experience complements live interpretive programming already taking place at Oakley Cabin. Docent-led tours offer the public and school groups a look at the culture and traditions of the Oakley community, which heavily influenced its surrounding communities. Oakley Cabin is open the second and fourth Saturdays of the month from April through October.
About Montgomery Parks
Montgomery Parks manages more than 37,000 acres of parkland, consisting of 415 parks. Montgomery Parks is focused on promoting physical activity, social connectivity, and environmental stewardship, especially in diverse and urbanizing areas, with an emphasis on teens, working-age adults, and seniors. Montgomery Parks is a department of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), a bi-county agency established in 1927 to steward public land. M-NCPPC has been nationally recognized for its high-quality parks and recreation services and is regarded as a national model by other parks systems. MontgomeryParks.org
Accessibility
Montgomery Parks, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, encourages and supports the participation of individuals with disabilities. Please contact the Program Access Office at 301-495-2581 (Voice/TTY), MD Relay 7-1-1 or 800-552-7724 or ProgramAccess@MontgomeryParks.org to request a disability modification. Visit Montgomery Parks Accessibility for more information. ###