Built using the free app TheClio.com, this tour includes historic and modern photos, brief historic text, a text to voice audio app, and professionally filmed narration. The tour starts at the south end of town, at the Bishop Hill State Historic Museum, and then leads visitors on a walking tour meandering through the entire village. Focusing on the Colony period with interludes of recent history, the tour weaves stories of the towns founding with more current affairs. It also includes traditional Swedish music intertwined with humor and insight. The tour is both a way of immersing yourself in a delightful afternoon walk or an armchair tour of this beautiful historic village.
The Clio app uses your phone’s GPS coordinates to recognize where you are and then shows you the information about that specific historic site. With the walking tour app, a simple map gives you directions on where to go next. Clio was originally designed to be a multimedia platform, but most sites simply use photos and text. Bishop Hill is pushing the envelope by adding a series of YouTube videos so you can carry your own personal narrator in your pocket.
The Bishop Hill Heritage Association sponsored the creation of the tour with a grant from the Bill and Susan Sherrard Foundation. This project was also made possible in part by a grant from Illinois Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Illinois General Assembly. Fox Tales International and Twin City Productions are responsible for the research, script, filming and editing. Photos were contributed by the Bishop Hill Heritage Association, the Bishop Hill State Historic Site, Lou Lourdeau and Brian “Fox” Ellis.
