US leather museum to unveil online exhibition
Peabody Leather Museum in Peabody, Massachusetts, US, is to launch an interactive map showing the history of leather in the city through Google Earth. Curated by museum curator, Merritt Kirkpatrick, the exhibition shows, the names, locations and other information about each shop, factory and manufacturer in Peabody’s historic leather tanning industry.
For the past few months, Ms Kirkpatrick and some students and professors at Salem State University have been working to create the interactive exhibit on Google Earth.
On the site, users can research where tanning-related businesses were in Peabody through the decades, the names of the businesses and what they did. Dots on a digital map of Peabody indicate the location of related businesses, and clicking them reveals more information. Eventually, site users will be able to upload other information on their own, including old pictures, family names and more.
The project is funded by a $3,500 grant from Mass Humanities. At its height, Peabody was a significant leather tanning area, with more than 150 businesses related to leather manufacturing, Ms Kirkpatrick said.
Most of the information came from old city directories, which listed the business names and addresses, Ms Kirkpatrick said. The students worked on finding and mapping Peabody’s leather sites from 1939 to 1989; Ms Kirkpatrick is now working to expand the mapping project from 1851 to 1999.
“This project makes it possible to share our collection and information with people all over the world,” Ms Kirkpatrick said.
