WHEATON, Md. – Montgomery Parks is celebrating the debut of a new interactive digital history experience at Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park. The family friendly event will include refreshments and a brief speaking program, after which the public is invited to experience the innovative augmented reality (AR) technology and tour the historic site.
What:
Oakley Cabin Augmented Reality Experience Debuts
When:
Saturday, June 8, 2024 (rain or shine)
11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Where:
Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park
3610 Brookeville Road
Olney, MD 20832
ADA accessible parking only at this site
Parking:
19801 Georgia Avenue
Olney, MD 20823
A shuttle will transport visitors to event site
Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park is a living history museum on Brookeville Road in Olney that interprets the story of those who lived in this rural roadside community in the 19th and 20th centuries. The cabin is one of three originally built to house enslaved laborers on the surrounding Oakley Farm. After emancipation, it became the center of a community of free Black families who worked mostly as farm laborers, laundresses, and tradespeople.
The augmented reality experience debuting at Oakley Cabin offers visitors an innovative look at that history. Using a mobile device, visitors can scan QR codes that provide audio tours with details of the community’s history while interacting with three-dimensional models and objects on their devices.
“Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park is the perfect historic site to launch this digital heritage program,” said Cassandra Michaud, Montgomery Parks’ cultural resources stewardship supervisor. “The addition of the technology will really allow our guests to envision what the site looked like when it was a thriving community in the late 1800s and 1900s.”
The AR component will complement live interpretive programming already taking place at Oakley Cabin. Docent-led tours offer the public and school groups a look at the culture and traditions of the Oakley community, which heavily influenced its surrounding communities. Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park is open the second and fourth Saturdays of the month from April through October.
“It is incredible to see augmented reality (AR) technologies become a part of the community space,” said TEBS Department Director and Montgomery County CIO Gail M. Roper. “I saw it impact other cities and I knew that Montgomery County would be a great place to host AR historical experiences.”
The AR experiences were developed by Montgomery Parks in collaboration with the Montgomery County Department of Technology and Enterprise Business Solution’s (TEBS) XR Montgomery team and the University of Maryland Historic Preservation Program, part of the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
About Montgomery Parks
Montgomery Parks manages more than 37,000 acres of parkland, consisting of 419 parks. Montgomery Parks is focused on promoting physical activity, social connectivity, and environmental stewardship, especially in diverse and urbanizing areas, with an emphasis on teens, working-age adults, and seniors. Montgomery Parks is a department of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), a bi-county agency established in 1927 to steward public land. M-NCPPC has been nationally recognized for its high-quality parks and recreation services and is regarded as a national model by other parks systems. MontgomeryParks.org
Accessibility
Montgomery Parks, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, encourages and supports the participation of individuals with disabilities. Please contact the Program Access Office at 301-495-2581 (Voice/TTY), MD Relay 7-1-1 or 800-552-7724 or ProgramAccess@MontgomeryParks.org to request a disability modification. Visit Montgomery Parks Accessibility for more information. ###