The new museum impressing visitors to Ellis Island contains a high-tech globe built in Loveland.
The second phase of the Peopling of America Center opened to the public Wednesday at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration in Upper New York Bay, in Jersey City, N.J.
The museum at the entry point for millions of immigrants to America was devastated by Superstorm Sandy two years ago and has been rebuilt and expanded.
The globe, a 5-foot-diameter OmniGlobe made by ARC Science Simulations in Loveland, visually depicts the movement of people worldwide over the millennia.
“It’s the story of human migration, kind of from the beginning, so it goes back hundreds of thousands of years,” said Thomas Ligon, president of ARC Science Simulations.
“The concept is a total story of people moving around to find better lives and new lands. It’s very wonderfully done,” he said.
The content, sponsored by the History Channel, was researched and created by a team in New York headed by artist Kate Raisz, he said.
The presentation doesn’t have sound but tells the story in 10 to 12 minutes using moving type and images on the globe, supplemented by text on four video monitors at the railing around the globe.
Ligon’s company has installed its OmniGlobes in 120 to 130 locations around the world — such as museums and universities including the Denver Botanic Gardens, Colorado State University and Front Range Community College in Fort Collins — displaying images, animations and movies depicting the earth, plate tectonics, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, climate, other planets and many more topics.
The dual-projector Ellis Island globe cost about $100,000, Ligon said. His company uses proprietary technology, including a special surface treatment of the acrylic and vinyl layers of the globe, to clearly capture the images from the projectors inside.
“They’re very challenging to make. It requires extremely good craftsmanship,” Ligon said.
ARC Science Simulations has five employees plus Ligon, he said, and can build a couple of OmniGlobes in a month.
This is the company’s first installation in a national museum, Ligon said.
“We’ve never had an installation that’s gotten this much publicity,” he said, including a review of the museum in Wednesday’s New York Times that included kind words for the OmniGlobe display.
Craig Young: 970-635-3634, cyoung@reporter-herald.com, www.twitter.com/CraigYoungRH.
