When the hull of a ship believed to be from the 1700's or 1800's washed up on shore on Ponte Vedra Beach Easter weekend, one of the first groups to be called in to help preserve it was the University of South Florida Libraries Digital Heritage and Humanities Collections.
"This was part of a collaborative that we've been developing with the Division of Historical Resources out of Tallahassee," said director Lori Collins. "It's part of our state cultural resource group that protects and preserves these kinds of things."
But while other groups tried to save the actual ship, the DHHC preserved it virtually.
University Beat has previously profiled Collins and the DHHC for its work using 3-D scanning and other technology to capture historical sites, as well as a Land O' Lakes sinkhole.
"It's kind of interesting to look at (a site) through the digital lens because I think that we are able to see things that we can't perceive when we're in front of an object," Collins said. "And that to me is probably the most exciting because we're making discoveries, but they're digital discoveries."
(video courtesy WJCT, produced by Carlos Bovier)
