Bringing the History of Traverse City’s Waterfront to Life
Project Overview
Beyond the Frame is a film series that explores the history of the Grand Traverse region in northern Michigan. Each film uses one historic photo as an entry point to tell a greater story.
The first installment of Beyond the Frame covers Traverse City’s famous waterfront as captured by local photographer Orson Peck in the early 1900s – a time when the United States was experiencing tremendous change socially, politically, and technologically.
Creative Brief
The Grand Traverse Heritage Council approached us with a unique vision: to go “beyond the frame” of a historical photograph to tell the story of an era. The challenge was to make a static image come alive with historical context, compelling storytelling, and educational value. Distilling such a transformative time in American history is no easy task. Thankfully, the details in Peck’s panoramic image revealed many layers for us to explore.
Our Approach
Using a combination of local history literature and photo archives from the Traverse Area District Library, we constructed a rich media experience that charted the growth of both Traverse City and the nation. We learned about local photographer Orson Peck and traced how photography evolved from an expensive professional pursuit to something more accessible during the early 1900s. We mapped Traverse City’s growth from an isolated logging town to earning a title as the “Queen City of the North”, and analyzed the evolving nature of transportation and it’s role on the developing region. Viewers are positioned as co-investigators to unearth photographic details and learn to see photographs as multilayered narratives that reveal more than meets the eye.
The full video:
