History Associates Announces Release of New Historical Walking Tour App of D-Day Battlefield

    ROCKVILLE, MD, December 19, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- History Associates, the leading U.S. historical services firm, along with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), and app developer NeoTreks Inc., is pleased to announce the availability of a new mobile app guided tour of Pointe du Hoc, the historic World War II battle site in Normandy, France. The free app takes advantage of GPS technology for smartphones, so visitors can track their exact location in relation to historic events and access detailed information while touring the site.

"The Pointe du Hoc site on the cliffs of the English Channel is a very austere location, still bearing the scars of that fateful day in 1944, when U.S. Army Rangers scaled cliffs to defeat the Nazis on D-Day," said Dr. James Lide, vice president at History Associates and lead historian on the project. "The site lends itself well to a self-guided smartphone tour, which can bring historical events to life while leaving the battlefield essentially untouched." Although it is designed for a walking tour of the site, the detailed information on the app makes it an entertaining multimedia learning tool as well. Most of the content is contained within the downloaded app so that it can be reviewed without cell service.

The app provides a tour map with eleven "tour stops" and seven additional points of interest. At each stop, the app provides a summary of events, historical photos of the site, audio narration, videos, chronologies, biographies, facts, and more. "Historic tour apps are a tremendous way of making history more tangible," noted Dr. Lide. "Even if you aren't at the site, you can imagine standing next to the antiaircraft bunker that served as the ranger command post on D-Day, looking at pictures of the bunker during the battle and listening to a former Army Ranger describe what it felt like that day."

Working in close collaboration with ABMC and the technical app development team at NeoTreks, historians at History Associates first researched and organized the multimedia narrative for the tour and then formatted the material for integration into the NeoTreks app platform. The resulting app tells the rich story of the courage and sacrifice of the U.S. Army Rangers who fought that day. Many of whom gave their lives and are buried in the ABMC cemetery nearby.

Technology partner NeoTreks Inc. created the platform for the app, which can be used on the Apple iPhone(R) and on GPS-enabled Android(TM) phones. "We are excited to work with the ABMC and History Associates to develop this app, which so effectively teaches us the history of this important World War II event," commented Michael Bullock, president of NeoTreks.

The application is currently available for download free of charge from the iTunes store. A version for Android and a French-language version are also in development.

About the American Battle Monuments Commission
Established by Congress in 1923, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) commemorates the service, achievements, and sacrifice of U.S. armed forces. ABMC manages 24 overseas military cemeteries and 25 memorials, monuments, and markers. Nearly all the cemeteries and memorials specifically honor those who served in World War I or World War II. The sacrifice of more than 218,000 U.S. servicemen and women is memorialized at these locations. Nearly 125,000 American war dead are buried at ABMC cemeteries, with an additional 94,000 individuals commemorated on Tablets of the Missing. For more information on ABMC visit www.abmc.gov or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/abmcpage.

About NeoTreks Inc.
NeoTreks is a leading producer of outdoor recreation and tourism apps using geospatial technologies. Since 2008, they have produced historical apps on iPhone and Android platforms for clients such as the National Park Service, Greenland Bureau of Tourism, and the Civil War Trust. Many of their apps have been selected by Apple for special iTunes promotions, and their flagship app, AccuTerra, won Apple's Best iPhone 3.0 Beta App Award in 2009. For more information, visit http://neotreks.com.

About History Associates
For over thirty years the historians and archivists at History Associates have demonstrated that history is valuable in the market as well as the marketplace of ideas. They provide professional historical research, corporate histories, exhibit content, interpretive planning, archival services, records management, and collections management to clients throughout the United States and around the world. History Associates strives to be The Best Company in History, serving corporate, government, legal, and nonprofit clients from its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, with an office in Brea, California. For more information, call (301) 279-9697 or visit www.historyassociates.com.

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New Bust of Abraham Lincoln to be Unveiled at the New-York Historical Society: Life-Size Bronze Sculpture Considered a Milestone

    NEWTON, MA, March 29, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- What is being described as one of the finest sculpted renderings of Abraham Lincoln to date is about to be revealed to the public. On Wednesday, April 3, the New-York Historical Society will unveil a life-size bronze sculpture of the 16th president. The artist, Long Island, New York sculptor and expert on artistic anatomy Frank Porcu, will be present for the event, at which the bust will be unveiled by legendary singer Tony Bennett, a long-time Lincoln admirer; and introduced by distinguished Lincoln historian Harold Holzer.

The project, which has generated a great deal of interest among Lincoln scholars and museum curators alike, was commissioned by Shawn Thomas, a Long Island-based collector of Lincoln manuscripts and iconographic materials, and the host of the event. According to Mr. Thomas, of all the images of Lincoln he's examined, very few have conveyed "the essence of the man."

"Our hope is that this new rendering will do for Lincoln's image what Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln' has done to accurately convey Lincoln's strong character and profound intellect," Thomas said. "From the overwhelming praise we've received so far, we are greatly encouraged."

Mr. Porcu, who has taught at Columbia University and is presently on the faculty of the Graduate School of Figurative Art at the New York Academy of Art, believes his sculpture is "the most physiognomic representation of Lincoln to date." That's because, he explained, "not only is my method based on scientific anatomical law that defines the construction of all human faces, my approach is unprecedented in the history of the craft, as each piece of clay is planned in advance, applied, and never touched again."

Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New-York Historical Society, commented: "As an institution with a significant collection of Lincoln portraiture, we are pleased to be the venue for the unveiling of this latest example of the genre--particularly a work of art by a New York sculptor." She announced that the bust will be on view for two weeks following the unveiling, "so visitors to the Historical Society can be among the first members of the museum-going public to see it for themselves."

"I have seen many examples of Lincoln sculpture--made both from life and retrospectively--and to me, few convey both the lifelike realism and implied power and humanity of Frank Porcu's accomplished portrait. That a gifted young artist has devoted so much thought and skill to a Lincoln work is exciting news; that he has consummated it so successfully is cause for rejoicing. I've written much about the 'Lincoln Image' over the years. It's a major event to have a Lincoln image in bronze for the sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's greatest legal and oratorical triumphs: the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address. Porcu's "Thomas" Lincoln, for which we also thank his generous and determined patron Shawn Thomas, gives us a piercing new look at the Lincoln we know from these triumphant accomplishments."

--Harold Holzer, Lincoln historian and Roger Hertog Fellow at the New-York Historical Society

Abraham Lincoln, sculpted by Frank Porcu
Patron: Shawn Thomas
Introduced by Harold Holzer
Unveiled by Tony Bennett
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
6:30 PM cocktails, ceremony to follow
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West, New York, NY

For more information, please visit http://www.frankporcu.com/painting.html.

Media contact: Victor Gulotta
Gulotta Communications, Inc.
617-630-9286
victor(at)booktours(dot)com

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