Timelines and information kiosks · For volunteers, office managers and organization historians
An interactive history display for any organization with a past worth telling
A fire company, a club, a congregation or a small business: if people keep asking how it all started, your history belongs on a screen they can tap, not one they have to wait for.
No account needed to start. Free to use. No payment details required.
What is an interactive history display?
An interactive history display is a touchscreen exhibit where visitors choose what to explore: people, places, events or records from an organization’s past. With HistoryShowcase, history is organized as a home screen of collections, each story has photos and a write-up, and visitors tap to browse, search by name or filter by year.
Updated
- Made for
- Volunteers, office managers and organization historians
- Where it goes
- Meeting hall, Open house or anniversary event, Your website
- Layouts
- Portrait gallery, Photo gallery, Timeline, Honors ledger
- Visitors can filter by
- Topic, Year
- Cost
- Free to use. No payment details required.
Slideshows make everyone watch the same thing
Plenty of organizations already show their history on a TV: a folder of scanned photos on a loop in the meeting hall. It is easy to set up and works fine as background. But the visitor who wants to see their grandfather’s crew has to stand through every other slide, and the captions rarely say more than a year.
An interactive history display hands over the choice. Visitors open the collection they care about, whether that’s members, buildings, equipment or a famous night, and read as much or as little as they like. Each story can carry the full account, so the details your longtime members carry in their heads finally get written down.
How does an interactive history display compare with a history slideshow on a TV?
| What matters | History slideshow on a TV | HistoryShowcase |
|---|---|---|
| Who picks what’s shown | The slideshow’s order and timer | The visitor, by tapping |
| Arriving mid-loop | Wait for your part to come around | Start anywhere |
| Depth | A caption per slide | A full write-up and photos per story |
| Unattended viewing | Plays with nobody touching it | Made for visitors who stop and tap |
| Finding a person | Watch until they appear | Search by name |
What makes a history display worth tapping
People
Founders, leaders and long-serving members, each with a portrait and a profile.
Places
Every building the group has used, with photos from then and now.
Objects
The equipment, banners and keepsakes people remember, photographed and explained.
Events
Founding day, the big anniversary, the night everyone still talks about, in a timeline.
Records
Officers, award winners or charter members listed in an honors ledger.
Scanned paperwork
Minutes, charters and newspaper clippings attached to the stories they belong to.
How to organize a history display
Give each kind of history its own collection, so visitors can pick a door instead of scrolling one long list.
Your siteOur History
- MembersPortrait gallery
Chiefs and long-serving volunteers, each with a profile.
- ApparatusPhoto gallery
Engines and equipment, captioned with the years in service.
- Big callsTimeline
The events members still talk about, in order.
- OfficersHonors ledger
Every chief and officer with their years of service.
Visitors can narrow it by
- Topic
- Year
How do you create an interactive history display?
Gather what you have
Scan the photo albums, charters and clippings, and add them to the media library in folders with captions.
Interview your longtime members
Write their memories into stories while they can still check the details for you.
Open it where people gather
Pair the touchscreen from the editor and set the browser’s start page so it opens your history after a restart.
Where should an interactive history display go?
- Meeting hallWhere members and guests wait before events start.
- Open house or anniversary eventVisitors tap through the history while they talk with members.
- Your websiteLink the live site so former members can browse from home.
Interactive history display questions
Can it play on its own like a slideshow?
It’s made for visitors to tap and explore, not to run as a timed loop. If you mainly want something that plays in the background with nobody touching it, a slideshow is the better fit.
How do we handle photos with no names?
Add them anyway. Put what you know in the caption and summary and ask visitors who recognize someone to tell a member, then update the story.
Can more than one volunteer work on it?
Yes. Add colleagues by email as owners, editors or viewers. Changes save automatically, and undo and change history are available.
Isn’t this a school product?
It was built for schools, which is why setup asks for a school name and colors. Your organization enters its own name there and gets the same editor, layouts and touchscreen.
Related ideas
Let visitors choose which part of your history to explore
Free to use. No payment details required.
