Memorial University students Ashton Stoodley and Merrin Winter spent some of their recent work terms immersed in First World War history, thanks to a unique partnership between The Commons and the Queen Elizabeth II Library’s Archives and Special Collections Division.
Engineering students have worked for The Commons for the last 15 years or so, but Mr. Stoodley’s and Ms. Winter’s projects mark a foray into new creative territories.
“Part of the students’ deliverables for the co-operative education placement is a project component,” said Ms. Meaghan Malone, manager of The Commons. “We were thinking about what we could do that would be interesting for the students to take on and leverage some of the newer technologies in the Makerspace to explore different partnerships within the library.”
She enlisted the help of David Mercer, a library assistant with the Archives and Special Collections Division. Mr. Mercer specializes in maps and mapping software such as ArcGIS and is an integral member of a library team that created a digital humanities project called Lasting Remembrance to commemorate the service of Newfoundlanders in the First World War, which will soon be available on the Libraries’ website.
“We have mapped the major engagements of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War, including maps of where many of the soldiers came from,” explained Mr. Mercer. “So, taking advantage of the newer technologies just seemed to be a natural extension of what we were already doing with Lasting Remembrance. We are always looking for different ways to make our archival collections more accessible and for different ways to engage with researchers and students.”
‘New thing every day’
After brainstorming with Ms. Winter and Mr. Stoodley, Ms. Malone says the conversation naturally focused on the battle of Beaumont-Hamel and how it might be possible to potentially create or produce recreations of the battlefield in different kinds of digital capacities.
“We decided that Merrin would take on a 3D printed rendering of the battlefield and Ashton would take on a virtual reality simulation of the battlefield,” said Ms. Malone.
Ms. Winter says the word resilience comes to mind most when thinking about the experience. It took more than 100 hours just to print the landscape.
“[Engineering is] not just machines, numbers and circuits. There’s so much more to it.”
“It was a new thing every day. I would ask myself, ‘Oh, what’s this? How does this work?’ And just having a problem and learning to fix it or find a different solution was cool,” she said.
Ms. Malone says that the typical projects the students work on are more linear and have a clearly defined beginning, middle and end. This process was different and everyone seemed to thrive.
“The number of times they had to pivot and change their approach and teach themselves a new technology and come up with a new course of action was impressive. They quickly became the experts.”
Both Ms. Winter and Mr. Stoodley weren’t sure where they were headed when they embarked on their projects.
But one thing is certain: they both feel they gained valuable skills to help them in their future jobs as engineers.
“I never would have thought I would ever look at maps, but this project has helped me understand that to a certain point, everything is engineering,” Mr. Stoodley said. “It’s not just machines, numbers and circuits. There’s so much more to it.”
“Just getting that extra experience of, not only learning about engineering, but to learn about history was really, really eye-opening,” said Ms. Winter. “People’s reactions when I’ve showed my project have been very, very heartfelt for me.”
‘Really important to remember’
Mr. Stoodley was also moved by his experience creating a virtual reality depiction of the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel.
Along with learning technology, the students also became acquainted with many of the First World War archival collections housed in the Queen Elizabeth II Library, with Mr. Mercer often curating historical content to enhance their understanding of the war and its impacts on the society and culture of the time.
“I think the mix is good as well, since 3D printing and virtual reality are relevant for the younger generations, and being able to intertwine that with something that happened over 100 years ago, it’s almost like reviving it, in a sense,” said Mr. Stoodley.
“It’s easy to just be, oh, this is my life now and this is how the world is,” added Ms. Winter. “But it’s really important to remember.”
The project brought new levels of collaboration within the Queen Elizabeth II Library, as well. Ms. Malone says the project was worthwhile to staff members because people can unintentionally find themselves working in silos, even within the same building.
“You’ve got your area, you’ve got your projects, you’ve got your day-to-day stuff. You have a tangential awareness of what the people around you are doing, but not in a deep, meaningful sense. So, being able to partner with each other and teach each other, I mean, we learned so much from David.”
For Mr. Mercer, working with Ms. Winter and Mr. Stoodley taught him a few things, too.
“Often we become too focused on how we approach a project . . . and when students with different experiences and from different disciplines work with us, it gives us a whole new way of looking at things and opens our eyes to how we can make improvements in how we direct projects in the future.”
On Tuesday, June 30, in the Bruneau Centre for Research and Innovation theatre (IIC-2001) Memorial University’s St. John’s campus will host a live stream of the unveiling of the Danger Tree replica at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in France. As part of the event, the Queen Elizabeth II Library will exhibit a selection of artifacts, resources from the Centre for Newfoundland Studies and Ms. Winter’s 3D-printed landscape. Light refreshments will be served. Everyone is welcome.
