WINSTON-SALEM, NC.- A new project unveiled today at Reynolda House Museum of American Art will allow people enjoying the trails, green space and lawns of Reynolda to see archival images of the historic estate and landscape.
Called "See Yesterday...Today," the project uses QR Codes placed on simple signs in eight locations across the estate. When the codes are scanned with a smartphone, a web page with archival information and an image about the location loads on the phone. The project coincides with the museum's exhibition on view through August 5, 2012, "A Genius for Place: American Landscapes of the Country Place Era," which celebrates the landscape design of estates built during the same time period as Reynolda.
"People throughout our community enjoy Reynolda as a green space," said Sarah Smith, director of marketing and communications. "We want to create a way that the people who walk, jog and bike here can connect to the history of this place, to meet them wherever they are experiencing Reynolda and inspire a meaningful interaction."
"See Yesterday...Today" invites outdoor visitors to see the Reynolda landscape as visitors to the Reynolda estate might have experienced it in the late 1910s and early 1920s, using archival photographs and images. Much of the material for the project is taken from Reynolda 1906-1924 a book published in 2011 by the museum's founding director and granddaughter of R.J. and Katharine Reynolds, Barbara Babcock Millhouse. Eight locations between the estate's front entrance and the boathouse at the foot of Sunset Hill, on the backside of the historic house, are marked with green signs labeled for the project.
Two additional signs are located in the front garden of the historic house, planted this spring as a Shakespeare Garden of Flowers and Verses. These two locations offer rare historic images of a Shakespearean pageant held in Winston-Salem in 1916 to mark the tercentenary of Shakespeare's death. Katharine Smith Reynolds selected verses to accompany flowers grown in Reynolda's greenhouses for the celebration.
There is no cost to participate in "See Yesterday...Today," which will be available through Aug. 5. The museum has created a how-to video for the project, available at
youtube.com/reynoldahouse