Screenshot. Medal of Honor Valor Trail landing screen. "Every medal a story to be told, every recipient a part of something greater." The Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Logos for The Congressional Medal of Honor Society and American Battlefield Trust are also shown.
Congressional Medal of Honor Society

Medal of Honor Valor Trail Experience

Overview

Through a unique partnership with Interactive Knowledge, American Battlefield Trust, and Congressional Medal of Honor Society, we designed, developed, and installed the Medal of Honor Valor Trail Experience. This map-based digital interactive connects visitors to the places most deeply linked with Medal of Honor recipients from the Civil War through the 21st century.  Visitors can discover battlefields, birth and burial places, monuments, museums, and places of valor through two map-based experiences. Powered by database technology, visitors can connect powerful stories to tangible places, creating meaningful connections to the past.

About this project

The American Battlefield Trust and Congressional Medal of Honor Society have a long relationship of collaborating to bring stories of valor to the public through unique experiences. In the summer of 2022, Interactive Knowledge worked with them to launch the Medal of Honor Valor Trail - In the Footsteps of HeroesTM website. This online platform serves as a comprehensive tribute to the Medal of Honor recipients, offering a virtual representation of The Valor Trail, a collection of museums, battlefields, monuments, and markers that honor the heroism and bravery of these exceptional individuals.

 

The project goals

The physical Valor Trail begins in the Congressional Medal of Honor Museum aboard the USS Yorktown in Charleston, SC.  The museum features interactive exhibits that tell the stories of the brave Americans who have served and protected the U.S. with remarkable courage. It’s here where the museum team wanted to bring the same website experience to the visitors of the USS Yorktown.

Interactive Knowledge transformed the online Valor Trail, into a unique experience brought to visitors through a 55” touchscreen display. The kiosk includes two interactive map-based experiences that seamlessly integrate with the American Battlefield Trust (ABT) database, providing information on all 3,500+ men and one woman who have earned the Medal of Honor and showcasing the locations where they earned their medals, known as Places of Valor.

Visitors can explore The Valor Trail across the country through the first map that displays a collection of birthplaces, museums, battlefields, monuments, and markers that are dedicated to Medal of Honor recipients.  The museum hopes that this interactive will teach visitors more about these individuals, and will inspire users to visit the physical locations.
 

Kiosk shown with a map and the museum filter is selected. A pop up about the U.S. Coast Guard Museum is shown.

 

The second map experience is called the Places of Valor, a global map interactive displaying data points from the locations where recipients earned their medals. Powered by the Congressional Medal of Honor database, each touch point shows the recipient’s image (if available), military branch, rank, place of birth, and the Medal of Honor citation they were awarded. Visitors can search for family and friends, filter results by conflict, or explore the global maps on their own, diving deep into the history of our nation.

A kiosk is shown with the Places of Valor Across the Globe map. Edward Byers, Jr bio is open in the left panel.

 

The IK approach

In close collaboration with the American Battlefield Trust, The Medal of Honor Society, and the Medal of Honor Museum, Interactive Knowledge developed an exceptional 55-inch touchscreen display that would serve as the centerpiece of the exhibition. This display, powered by advanced database technology, seamlessly integrated the rich data from the ABT database, battlefields.org, and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Through meticulous coding using Electron and React, combined with the dynamic mapping capabilities of Mapbox GLJS, we ensured a seamless and immersive user experience.
 

Side by side images of users and the kiosk. The left, a man stands in front of the kiosk smiling. The right, a woman's back is shown as she interacts with the kiosk

 

The results

In close collaboration with the American Battlefield Trust, The Medal of Honor Society, and the Medal of Honor Museum, Interactive Knowledge developed an exceptional 55-inch touchscreen display that would serve as the centerpiece of the exhibition. This display, powered by advanced database technology, seamlessly integrated the rich data from the ABT database, battlefields.org, and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Through meticulous coding using Electron and React, combined with the dynamic mapping capabilities of Mapbox GLJS, we ensured a seamless and immersive user experience.

The display was carefully designed to enable visitors at Patriot Point to effortlessly navigate the interactive interface, forging meaningful connections to the heroic stories and tangible locations associated with Medal of Honor recipients. By employing the power of storytelling and leveraging the latest technology, we aimed to provide visitors with a captivating and impactful journey through history.