History of Laurel Railroad Depot

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History of the Laurel Railroad Depot

Multimedia project simulating a museum exhibit with print, animation, and web features
School Project at UMUC, GRCO 354 Digital Media, Spring 2016

Illustration of the station from the track-facing view created in Adobe Illustrator

Every town has at least one little-known or hidden historical gem. One such building in Laurel, Maryland is the railroad depot. As one of the few Victorian-era stations still in use, this building and the rich history surrounding it led to its establishment as a state historic landmark.

Part 1: Text and Image Collage

Part One: Introduction to the history displayed in text and image collage

The first segment of this project incorporated text and images in collage form to provide an introduction to the history of the railroad depot.

Due to a dearth of information from other sources, I took a trip to the Laurel Museum and met with the research specialist to access their vault. It provided me with a treasure trove of resources!

Part Two: Animation

This portion of the project used time-based media to present some of the information I found. I used Animate CC to create a short video showing how the trains changed over time. After selecting four trains I found in photographs, I used images of models of those trains for the basis of my animation.

Part Three: Website

In the third element of the project, I used Adobe Muse to build a website to display three areas of research.The first revisited the timeline and added interactivity by allowing users to click on a date and see the details in a pop-up modal box. The second was a gallery of artistic renderings of the station. The third explored a recent news story in which the future of the station was threatened.

Part Four: Information Cards for Print

Glossy printed information cards make up the final part of the museum exhibit project. Strategically placed throughout the museum, they would provide a tangible overview of the exhibit for visitors to take home.