New Topic - Delaware County Historical Tours

My new topic is going to be driving tours of historical Delaware county. I know this may seem a little on the boring side, but not to me. I love history, even local history. This website topic could appeal to local people who want to get a better idea of the history where they live, or it may appeal to people interesting in local history.

This idea came to me because I knew of two interesting sites in Delaware county: the Brandywine Battlefield (Revolutionary War) and an old Swedish cabin in Drexel Hill that was build in 1638. After looking into it further though, I found there are many more historical sites than I imagined. In fact, there are 83 entries on the National Register of Historic Places. Of course some of these are private homes that people wouldn't visit but there are some historic homes that are open to the public and have living history exhibits. These include the William Brinton House, the Colonial Pennsylvania Plantation, The Grange Estate, the Thomas Massey House, the Minshall House, The Morton House, etc. I also found an interesting article about the Underground Railroad in Delaware County. I'm not sure if there are any sites that people can visit, but I'm going to find out.

As far as the website goes, I envision a general overview of Delaware County and its history, some custom made tours, and some other resources for Delaware County, such as other places to visit and places to eat. I'm not sure how the tours should be layed out. That is the next phase of research.

I'm Changing Topics

After much thought, I've decided to take my website in a different direction. From the start I had two ideas, and based on most of the comments to my original post I decided to go with the Americana music idea. However, as much as I liked it, I just simply do not feel comfortable with it. I think if I was taking this class a year from now, when I had more time to get develop a greater understanding of the genre and the scene in Philly, I would be more confident.

Potential Roadblock

Ok, I've hit a small roadblock in my Americana idea: I'm not sure where I can fit any original content into it. I don't have any actual firsthand knowledge of music where I could critique the music, and I don't know any of these bands personally. I had thought about adding a few sections including: an overview of the genre, the music acts in the Philly area, tour information, and venue information. I'm not sure where I could add any original content. The only idea I had, which was suggested in the comments of my last post, is perhaps interviews with some of the bands but I'm not sure if I could even pull that off.

Change in Plans?

After my last post I was quite certain my website topic would be historical tours (possibly of Delaware County). However, after reading all the comments it looks like the country music/americana topic has the most support. This would definitely be more fun, and I may be able to pull it off!

The main reason I had against this topic was that I didn't think I have anything interesting to add that hasn't been done much better by websites currently on the web. There seems to be two ways to approach this topic: a review of americana acts as away introduce people to the genre, or a site about Philadephia-based acts that details who they are, their influences, and the local venues where they play.

I think it's this latter approach where I could create something original and interesting. There are three main groups that I know of, which could be a good starting point:
Wissahickon Chicken Shack - the first Philly group I heard
Mason Porter - a bluegrassy group out of West Chester
Hoots & Hellmouth - a group I discovered tonight who are actually on Drexel's student-run Mad Dragon records label

My only disadvantage is that I only discovered the Americana genre as a whole within the last two years and the Philly scene within the last two or three months, so I'm only familar with a few groups and have not seen any live shows. I plan on fixing this by going to as many shows as possible - Wissahickon Chicken Shack and Mason Porter are playing in Manayunk at the end of April, so I'm gonna check them out.

Final Website Ideas

Well, I've been thinking about potential website topics for a few days now and i'm still having trouble even coming up with a good idea. I haven't had an actual hobby since I stopped collecting baseball cards back in middle school. I do have some passions though:

Country music: but not mainstream/top 40. I love traditional country, as well as Americana. This type of country music is mostly independent or offered through small record labels. I've also recently discovered that there are a few good Philadelphia-area based Americana acts that are putting out good music. This might not be a bad idea for a website.

Grilling/Barbequing : I try to grill or barbeque as much as I can, especially when the weather gets nice. I'm not sure whether this would be a good topic for me though, because I don't have enough knowledge to create an effective website.

History: My undergraduate degree was in History. The majority of the books I read in my spare time are history books. I also try to get to as many historical sites as I can when I go to different cities. The one idea that came to my mind was a site for historical tours. Since I live in Delaware County, a historical tours of Delco might be interesting because of the Brandywine Battlefield. Plus, there are many other historical houses throughout the county.

I'll have to think on this a little longer, though since I've been typing the historical tours of delaware county actually seems like the best idea so far.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Bryan. I am currently a student in the MS in Library Science program. I've been working on my degree for the last three years (I took a brief hiatus to get married). I work here at Drexel in the Office of the University Registrar where I manage the course offerings and classroom scheduling for Drexel's Main Campus. I honestly do not know what my careers plans are at this point. I love my job here at Drexel, but i'm alsointerested in archives. I'm looking forward to taking the Archives courses offered here in the iSchool.



Here are some of my favorite websites:

the9513.com - a great country music website
Sports Illustrated - where I get all my sports news
Drexel Registrar's Webpage - where I work