Museums, libraries and communities · For town clerks, county officials and local history committees
A local history display that tells your town’s story in order
The town’s history is already on the walls, in framed photos with no captions. Put those photos, the dates behind them and the people in them on one touchscreen, so residents and visitors can follow how the place grew.
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What is a local history display?
A local history display tells the story of a town, city or county, usually in a public building such as a town hall, community center or library. HistoryShowcase lets you build it as collections of stories, each with a year, a summary and photos or scanned documents, shown on your own touchscreen and at a web address residents can open from home.
Updated
- Made for
- Town clerks, county officials and local history committees
- Where it goes
- Town hall lobby, Community center, Public library
- Layouts
- Timeline, Photo gallery, Portrait gallery
- Visitors can filter by
- Neighborhood, Year
- Cost
- Free to use. No payment details required.
The photos are on the wall. The story isn’t.
Walk down the hallway of most town halls and you’ll find the history: framed aerial photos, a portrait of the first mayor, a parade on Main Street that nobody can date. Each frame meant something to whoever hung it. Most have no caption now, and the people who knew what they showed are getting hard to find.
A local history display puts dates and words back with the pictures. Each photo or event becomes a story with a year, a summary and a longer write-up for anyone who wants more, arranged on a timeline and by place. The frames can stay where they are; the touchscreen explains them.
How does a local history display compare with framed photos on a hallway wall?
| What matters | Framed hallway photos | HistoryShowcase |
|---|---|---|
| Context | A small brass plate, if any | A summary and a longer write-up for each photo |
| How many fit | As many frames as the wall allows | Every photo you scan, sorted into collections |
| Order of events | Whatever order they were hung | A timeline visitors can filter by year |
| Fixing a wrong caption | Reprint the label or live with it | Edit the story and the fix goes live |
| Presence in the building | Large prints people notice walking by | One screen; the frames can stay up too |
What to put on a local history display
Founding and settlement
Who arrived first, when the town was laid out or incorporated, and the documents that record it.
Main Street over time
The same blocks photographed decades apart, with the businesses that came and went.
Public buildings
Courthouses, post offices, fire stations and schools, each dated and described.
Local leaders
Mayors, council members and county commissioners by era, as profiles with portraits.
Industries and work
The mill, the railroad, the farms or the plant that shaped how people made a living.
Centennials and celebrations
Parades, anniversaries and homecomings, with photos residents can find themselves in.
How to organize your town’s history
Lead with one timeline for the whole town, then add collections by place and by people so visitors can follow the thread they care about.
Your siteOur Town’s History
- The town’s storyTimeline
Settlement to today, one event per story.
- Streets and buildingsPhoto gallery
Photos of places, captioned with the year and the address.
- LeadersPortrait gallery
Mayors and officials by term, with a profile for each.
- Then and nowPhoto gallery
Old and recent photos taken from the same spot.
Visitors can narrow it by
- Neighborhood
- Year
How do you set up a local history display?
Inventory the walls and the vault
Photograph every framed item in the building and note what’s in storage. A back room often holds more than the hallway.
Build the timeline first
List the dated events in a spreadsheet and import them, then attach photos and write summaries as you confirm the details.
Pair the lobby screen
Pair the touchscreen from the editor with a pairing code, and save the start address in the kiosk browser’s start-page setting so it reopens after a restart.
Where should a local history display go?
- Town hall lobbyResidents waiting to pay a bill or attend a meeting have time to browse.
- Community centerA gathering place where longtime residents can point out what they remember.
- Public libraryNear the local history shelf, for people researching the town.
Local history display questions
Is HistoryShowcase only for schools?
It was built for schools, and setup asks for a school name and colors. A town or county enters its own name there and uses the same editor, layouts and touchscreen a school would.
What if nobody knows when a photo was taken?
Use your best estimate and say so in the summary, such as “about 1925, judging by the cars.” When a resident knows better, edit the story and the correction goes live.
Can residents see it outside the building?
Yes. The live site has its own web address, so you can link it from the town website and residents can browse from home.
Who should do the work?
Add a clerk, a librarian and a few local history volunteers by email as editors. Anyone who only needs to look can be a viewer, who can’t change anything.
Related ideas
Put your town’s story back in order
Free to use. No payment details required.
