Liberty Hall 360: Bringing the 18th Century to the 21st through Virtual Reality

In April 1774, Sarah Livingston, daughter of William Livingston, first elected governor of New Jersey, married John Jay (future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) at Liberty Hall, the Livingston home which still stands at Kean University. In November 2019, Kean University will premiere “Liberty Hall 360: A Revolutionary Wedding,” a virtual reality reenactment of the wedding that not only allows one to witness the event, but also to take part in it. Our interactive poster highlights the contributions of Kean History Honors students who researched and wrote the script, played historic roles in the film itself, and are building a supplementary web-based primary source research and teaching “Annotation” component. Collectively, this innovative and interactive experience showcases Liberty Hall in the 18th century and offers insight into American minds on the eve of the American Revolution. “Liberty Hall 360” offers an accurate recreation of the Livingston-Jay wedding, while also exploring 18th-century social and gender dynamics in pre-revolutionary America, and demonstrating the widening political divides that would erupt into war. Presenting this event in a 360-degree film makes serious historical research accessible to a broader public by showcasing it through 21st-century technology. In this way, Kean University students have attempted to not only make history available to the public, but also to create a way to actively involve them in it.