Discovery • Research • Interpretation

From Artifact to Experience

A new approach to historical interpretation, combining artifacts, research, and AI-assisted visualization to help modern audiences engage with the past as lived experience.

A set of 19th-century samplers discovered at auction led to the reconstruction of a 200-year family history. Through research, collaboration with historians and textile experts, and careful interpretation, these artifacts became the foundation for a broader exploration of how AI-assisted visualization can reconnect historical objects, spaces, and people with lived experience.

This project uses AI not to invent images, but to test and refine scenes against real historical evidence.

In this way, AI becomes a tool for historical interpretation rather than illustration.

The Discovery

In 2020, while searching for a gift, a collection of early American samplers were spotted at an auction in Oakland, California. What first stood out as Philadelphia and Maine needleworks quickly revealed something more: multiple samplers stitched by members of the same extended family.

Genealogical research connected these pieces to the Prescott family of Dresden, Maine, and, through the Canby family, to the family of Betsy Ross, linking the samplers to documented individuals, places, and a broader early American context.

The samplers were ultimately returned to the Pownalborough Court House, where they had been stitched, completing a journey of nearly two centuries.

What began as a search for an object became a reconstruction of real lives, places, and relationships.

Beckie Prescott’s sampler, stitched in 1835 at age eight, became the starting point for reconstructing the lives of the Prescott family. (click images to expand)

The Challenge

Early attempts at illustration quickly revealed a problem: small inaccuracies broke the connection to the reconstruction.

“The likeness was wrong.”
“The buttons belonged on the back of the dress.”
“The courthouse windows were wrong.”

Each correction led to deeper research. Clothing, architecture, materials, and even family background had to align with historical evidence. Accuracy was not optional, it was essential to maintaining trust with the viewer.

Clothing presented a particular challenge. Many surviving garments are too fragile to be worn, leaving questions of fit, movement, and how fabric would have draped on a living person.

AI made it possible to explore these details, allowing garments to be seen in motion and at scale, revealing structure, stitching, and proportion in ways not practical through traditional illustration alone.

Character studies were developed to maintain visual consistency, inspired by techniques used in traditional animation.

The Process

Each scene begins with a historically grounded moment, reduced to its essentials: the people present, the setting, the objects, the light, and the emotional tone.

These scenes are guided by documented evidence, including surviving artifacts, historical clothing, architectural details, and contemporary accounts.

Visual tools, including AI, are used within these constraints to iteratively test variations, refine details, and evaluate historical plausibility under human direction.

The goal is informed reconstruction grounded in evidence.

Interior room at the Old Pownalborough Court House

The Pownalborough Court House, where the Prescott girls grew up, was treated as a source, not just a backdrop. Surviving room views helped guide layout, window placement, and the feeling of lived space.
View the Historic Reimagining of the kitchen

Beckie Prescott: From Evidence to Image

Each illustration was constructed through a chain of reference, tested, corrected, and refined.

These reference materials guide interpretation rather than serve as direct reproductions.

Portrait of Rebecca Johnson Prescott used as reference

Portrait of Beckie’s mother, Rebecca Johnson Prescott. Her mother's features helped guide Beckie’s appearance.

1830s dress from the University of Rhode Island collection used for Beckie

A documented 1830s dress from the University of Rhode Island collection provided period-correct structure and detail.

Beckie’s character study brought together family resemblance and period clothing research.

Final image of Beckie making her sampler

Museum interiors were used as historically grounded settings for the final compositions.

Beckie making her sampler in the Pownalborough Court House

Beckie Prescott at work on her sampler, bringing together family, place, and the object she created in 1835.

Louisa Prescott

Louisa is the middle of the three Prescott Girls. Genealogical research found that later in life she married William Jackson Canby, grandson of Betsy Ross.

William grew up hearing the stories of his grandmother and in the 1870's he presented his findings to the Historical Society of Philadelphia. These became the basis of the Betsy Ross legend we know today.

Photo of Caroline 'Louisa' Prescott used as reference

Photo of Louisa Prescott. This image was re-aged using AI to create a version of her in 1834.

1830s dress from the University of Rhode Island collection used for Louisa

A documented 1830s dress from the University of Rhode Island collection provided period-correct structure and detail.

Louisa's character based on her photo and descriptions from family diaries written by her younger sister Sallie.

Louisa’s scenes explore how historical visualization can extend beyond objects into memory, emotion, and personal experience.

Sallie Prescott

As with Beckie, Sallie’s appearance and clothing were guided by her surviving portrait, photographs, and documented period garments, adapted to reflect her age and role within the family.

Sallie’s scenes shift the focus from object to lived experience, showing how the same methods extend beyond artifacts into daily life.

Portrait of the actual Sallie Prescott.

1830s dress from the University of Rhode Island collection used for Sallie

A third documented dress reference from the University of Rhode Island helped define Sallie’s clothing.

Sallie’s character study at age five, based on her portrait and period clothing references.

Final illustration of Sallie with a fish by the river

Final illustration of Sallie on the banks of the Sandy River, based on her portrait and vintage costume study into a finished narrative scene.

The Prescott sisters walking along the Sandy River toward home

The Prescott sisters along the Sandy River, a shared moment shaped by place, memory, and the lives they built together.

Reconstructing a Historical Figure

This approach extends beyond individual figures to more complex reconstructions involving multiple sources.

Not all references came from a single source. In some cases, multiple pieces, a portrait, surviving furniture, and architectural spaces, were brought together to reconstruct a moment grounded in real objects and environments.

A surviving portrait of Uncle Thomas (circa 1850) provided the foundation for his appearance.

A character study translated the portrait into a form consistent with the attire worn in 1834.

A documented period chair from the courthouse museum collection informed posture, scale, and detail.

The setting was drawn from the interior space of the Pownalborough Court House museum where the family lived, guiding light, proportion, and layout.

Uncle Thomas seated in chair within historical setting

Uncle Thomas Johnson seated within a reconstructed interior, bringing together portrait, object, and place into a lived historical moment.

From Object to Experience

This method also applies to objects, connecting preserved artifacts to the lived experiences they once supported.

Not every object tells its story on its own. Some require interpretation, connecting a surviving artifact to how it might have been used in daily life.

A sled preserves its form, but not the moment. AI makes it possible to explore that missing human connection, helping visualize how such objects may have been used nearly two centuries ago.

19th century sled from museum collection

A surviving 19th-century sled, preserved as an object.

The sled placed into a lived moment, transforming a preserved object into human experience.

Historic hearth with suspended kettle at the Pownalborough Court House

A surviving hearth preserves the structure of daily work, but not the human action that once gave it meaning.

Historically informed interpretation of a woman lifting a kettle at the hearth

A historically informed interpretation restores that missing action, showing how a preserved object may have functioned in lived experience.

Historic wall or wood panel with a child’s drawing scratched into the surface

A child’s drawing survives as evidence of presence, but not the moment in which it was made.

Historically informed interpretation of a young girl drawing on a wooden wall

Interpretation makes that moment visible again, linking a surviving mark to childhood behavior, gesture, and everyday life.

Visualizing a Question

Historical objects do not always tell us how they were used together. They leave behind clues, not complete scenes.

Collection of children’s objects including tea set, Noah’s Ark, and slate

Surviving objects: a tea set, slate, small chairs, and a Noah’s Ark toy. Each carries meaning, but not a complete story.

Children interacting with toys and learning objects

These same objects placed into a shared moment, restoring the human experience behind them.

The Prescott family gathered in the museum kitchen in a historically informed interpretation of daily life

In the end, the goal is not simply to reconstruct objects or rooms, but to imagine how a house became a home.

Reconstructing Historic Spaces

These methods can also be applied beyond a single family or narrative, helping preserved historic interiors reconnect with the people who once inhabited them.

By combining surviving architecture, furnishings, and historical context with AI-assisted visualization, museum spaces can be explored not only as preserved rooms, but as lived environments.

Present-day interior of the historic jail parlor museum room

A preserved interior at the Old Jail in Wiscasset, Maine, documented as it survives today.

Historically informed reconstruction of the jailkeeper and his wife within the restored parlor

The same room reinterpreted as a lived domestic space, reconnecting architecture, furnishings, and daily activity through historically constrained visualization.

Interpretation, Not Invention

AI made it possible to iteratively construct and refine evidence based scenes, allowing each detail to be tested against real evidence in ways not practical through traditional illustration alone.

Used in this way, AI becomes a tool for exploration rather than invention, helping ask what could have been, and more importantly, why.

Each object connects to documented behavior: education, play, and moral instruction. The image is not an answer, but an invitation to ask better questions.

We do not recreate the past. We listen carefully, and imagine responsibly.

Why This Matters

Historical objects tell us what survives. Interpretation helps us understand how people may have lived with them.

These methods extend beyond a single project into broader applications for museum interpretation, public history, education, and digital exhibits.

The work has expanded into presentations at historical institutions, historically grounded illustrations, classroom resources, and published research surrounding the discovery and return of the Prescott family samplers.

By reconnecting preserved artifacts with lived experience, these methods can help students, museum visitors, and modern audiences engage more directly with historical context that might otherwise feel distant or abstract.

These images are not claims of fact, but invitations to look more closely, to ask better questions, and to engage with the past in thoughtful and meaningful ways.

The goal is not certainty, but better understanding.

Image & Research Credits

Selected images draw upon garments in the Historic Textile & Costume Collection at the University of Rhode Island. Background interiors from the Pownalborough Court House are courtesy of the Lincoln County Historical Association.