How to use this website
This website is both an online companion to the physical "Omaha in the Anthropocene" exhibit on display at The Durham Museum until January 2019, as well as a platform to store, present, and explore the expanded project. The site currently features work from three semester of research (Fall 2017-2018) and the site will be continually updated with material from future classes. You can explore student research in a number of ways. "Browse Exhibits" categorizes the research by semester. Using this tab, you can browse the "object map" which shows locations in Omaha associated with each object. Choosing exhibits is the best way to explore the complete project, including information about The Durham Museum partnership, student lectures, information about the student researchers, and introduction to the idea of the Anthropocene concept itself. It also links to The Durham artifacts directly.
"Browse Collections" breaks down student research by larger categories including "Taming the Landscape," "Conquering Time and Space," "Consumer Revolutions," and "Living in a World of Our Own Making." These broad categories take you through the Anthropocene in a roughly chronological order, but more importantly, they establish thematic links between objects of widely varying origins.
The "Timeline" feature places the project objects along a timeline. This is helpful because although the collections are roughly chronological, many objects (such as the single-wheel hoe) do not easily fit into a single time period. The single-wheel hoe, for instance, was likely produced in the early 20th century, but students linked it to agricultural transitions that span centuries. Likewise, "lithic tools" represent a transition from hunting/foraging/gathering to settled agriculture that spanned millennia (and in some places never took place). The timeline features places these objects on a timeline, but also includes a time bar that shows the duration of this transition.
The "credits" page acknowledges the many organizations that contributed time, funding, and resources to this project.
The final two pages link the viewer back to Creighton University's History Department webpage and the Environmental Science program. "Omaha in the Anthropocene" is cross-listed to both and the students received substantial support from associated faculty. Students come from both programs (and many others as well, see the student researchers pages via exhibits for more information).