The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation has awarded a $125,000 grant to the Shelter Island Historical Society to create a new virtual reality experience.
The Historical Society will use the grant to install Digital Tapestry, a system created by RDLG Foundation. The History Center’s Digital Tapestry, targeted for release this spring, will focus on Shelter Island life during the American Revolution. The Historical Society described the project this way in a news release:
“Digital Tapestry is an innovative, interactive, virtual experience. Using period paintings, this exhibit will be narrated by Captain James Havens and his wife Elizabeth, who owned and lived in Havens House on Shelter Island throughout the Revolutionary War years. Havens House, now home to the Shelter Island Historical Society, was originally built in 1743. Captain Havens was a privateer and a Representative of Suffolk County in the New York Provincial Congress of 1776.”
“We are honored that the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation chose our organization to participate in educating the public about this historic time period using cutting-edge technology,” SIHS Executive Director Nanette Lawrensen said. “This experience is designed to connect the shared histories of Long Island towns and will link to historical societies exhibits enabling a reach to a broad audience.”
RDLG Foundation Executive Director Kathryn Curran said Long Island’s role in the American Revolution, and the history of slavery on Long Island “are the first thematic offerings of our Digital Tapestry program.”
” Linking sites all over Long Island that have a shared story will create a historic trail to other participating sites,” Curran said. “This thematic approach to sharing our history from site to site is limitless. We are delighted to offer this new program to our historic stewards.”
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation was established in 1987 to support the study of Long Island and New York State history and the region’s role in the American Experience.
