For better or worse, we take our phones with us wherever we go. What if, instead of a constant distraction, they were little librarians benevolently providing us with bits of history as we went about our daily lives? Imagine walking through Loose Park and your phone notifying you that local historian Bill Worley can tell you the story of how the park came to be. This is David Trowbridge’s vision for his app, Clio.
Clio is a mobile and web application available now at theclio.com. Trowbridge developed Clio with the help of his students when teaching at a university in West Virginia. The app is a map overlay that lets you locate nearby spots of historical significance. Clicking or tapping on a spot opens an entry with, at the very least, a short introduction to the spot’s history. Trowbridge, a history professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, has authored countless entries for statues, fountains and other historical landmarks, but anyone can create, edit and submit a Clio entry for approval. Many museums, universities and historical organizations, specifically, have put a great deal of effort into creating and maintaining entries for their own locations. “Clio is a pedagogical tool masquerading as a travel app,” says Trowbridge. “It is a way for people to discuss history, art and culture.”
Trowbridge grew up in Emporia, Kansas, but left for educational and professional reasons. When the opportunity to teach at UMKC came about, Trowbridge was happy to move closer to home and bring the Clio app with him. He continues to work on it here, involving his students and local organizations.
Clio has now grown into something much larger. From its humble start with a few hundred entries, the app now boasts more than 40,000 entries from across the globe. Each entry can include images, audio and links to further reading. These entries can be linked together to create walking tours that will narrate a stroll through some of Kansas City’s most historic locations, like its fountains and important landmarks in KC’s women’s and jazz history.
Trowbridge is on a quest to use smartphones to make us smarter. “These devices are used to divide us,” he says. “They enrage us to generate clicks. They confirm to us that our views are the right views.” Throwbridge wants to teach us that history is a process, not just content to be consumed, and Clio employs some clever features to do just that.
Within the app, you can enable “geo-fencing.” This allows Clio to message you when you are near an existing entry, often leading to the discovery of historic locations near the places you already visit. Trowbridge wants to nurture curiosity through Clio as your city and its context unfold before you. “Curiosity is the key to humility and intelligence,” he says. “Ask questions. Seek answers. Understand that many of the answers you find are lacking sources and perspectives, then seek those out for a more full picture.”
There is something delightful about the stories coming directly to you. We all have a curiosity about the things we see everyday—buildings and monuments that catch our eye. We lack the time to go to the libraries and dig up the history. Clio seeks to bring the historical context to the places where you already go.
“I want residents to use Clio,” Trowbridge says. “I want to inspire people to become excited about this city, about this culture. I want to interpret our neighborhoods with the voices of the people who live in them.” A great example of this is the entry for the Anita B. Gorman Conservation Discovery Center, which includes audio of Trowbridge in conversation with Gorman herself, capturing the voice of Kansas City Park history digitally.
Clio is a non-profit passion project fueled by grants, rotating interns and Trowbridge’s own devotion. Download Clio for free now in most app stores by searching for “Clio history.”
