The McCord On-line
A Museum for the 21st Century

Montreal, Thursday, May 15, 2003 — Since its first foray into the World Wide Web in 1997, the McCord Museum has led the way in marrying traditional museum resources with cutting-edge new media technologies. Five years later the Museum's Web site (www.mccord-museum.qc.ca) encompasses three virtual exhibitions and a vast searchable database of information on artifacts from the Museum collections. Now, with the click of the mouse, people across the globe can visit a new facet of the McCord Museum and view more of its collections at one time than was ever previously possible. Two recent initiatives confirm the McCord's role as a leader in the creation of on-line Canadian history learning resources, one that is committed to reaching an ever-wider audience of schoolchildren, educators and regular history enthusiasts.

In addition to basic information about the Museum, its location and its current programming, visitors to the McCord's Web site can take a trip through time via three exhibitions accessible exclusively on-line:

• The Magic Lantern takes you across Canada on the CPR and down the St. Lawrence Seaway, courtesy of a vast collection of early 20th-century lantern slides once used for teaching at McGill University;
  
• Urban Life Through Two Lenses reveals a century's worth of changes by juxtaposing historic and contemporary photographs of Montreal and pairing them with games, trivia and image manipulation tools. Urban Life was recognized at the 2002 Digital Marketing Awards as a site that "truly explore[s] the medium to deliver a unique experience or perspective";
  
• The Victoria Bridge — The Eight Wonder of the Modern World uses artifacts such as photographs and archival documents to recount a bold 19th-century enterprise, one that symbolized the spirit of an era and shaped the lives of a generation.

The new Web initiatives bring another level of interactivity and accessibility to the site. Grouped under EduWeb, these learning tools continue the McCord's tradition of excellence in regards to Web design and content:

• was specially designed to encourage the creative use of museum collections and Web resources with high school history students and their teachers;
  
• Keys to History, developed in partnership with the New Brunswick Museum and the Musée acadien of the Université de Moncton, appeals to the history buff in all of us through a series of fascinating Thematic Tours created by historians and museum curators.

Dr Nicole Vallières, the Museum's Director of Collection and Information Management, spearheaded the McCord's Web presence. She and her team of researchers, photographers, programmers and designers have succeeded in adding a new dimension to this institution. As she points out, collaboration is the key to such an enterprise: "We couldn't possibly accomplish so much without a solid partnership with the community. Universities, schools and museums all benefit by working together on these projects — and the end result is much stronger." We invite you to take a look!   

Source and information:

Nike Langevin
(514) 398-7100, ext. 251