In 2013, as part of my work managing digital initiatives at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (now Science History Institute) in Philadelphia, I created a livestreamed program called #HistChem to establish a deeper dialogue with audiences around history, science and culture.
The experiment was not simply about livestreaming an event. It was an attempt to connect institutional expertise, collections, live conversation, social participation and measurement into one recurring public program.
Program objectives
- Make the institution accessible by featuring its people, collections and research initiatives
- Unify traditional and social media platforms
- Spark compelling conversations about history, science and technology
- Track effectiveness through metrics and social curation tools
The hypothesis
The whitepaper shows that #HistChem began with a specific audience problem rather than a fascination with livestreaming. Previous CHF broadcasts demonstrated that people would stay with long-form live content when the subject interested them, but the institution had not yet built much sustained interaction around that attention. The working hypothesis was that a regular, conversational program led by people audiences could trust might turn scattered viewers into a community.
Early results
The 2013 evaluation provides useful snapshots. The first #HistChem program generated 416 views of the livestream page, 135 subject-matter interactions including 50 unique tweets, and an average stream duration of 32:47. The second drew 312 views with average viewing time still above 30 minutes; when a guest later shared the archived program through a well-established blog, the Vimeo version generated 15,600 loads in six weeks.
More important than raw reach, the report says meaningful interactions—especially audience questions for guests—grew across successive programs while live views remained above 100 per show. In the 90 days after the first program, CHF’s YouTube account added nearly 25 percent to its subscriber total. The Distillations mobile app, another part of the cross-platform model, had more than 2,600 active installs at the time of the report.
The same report also explains why the model was difficult to sustain. A single program generated planning work months in advance—topic development, guests, objects, related media, blog content, graphics, streaming setup, promotion, live production, then separate edited video, audio and social outputs afterward. The system produced engagement, but it was operationally expensive.
Program documentation
Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels is one surviving example of the program. Additional episodes remain in the #HistChem Vimeo channel.
The interim evaluation report below documents the model and offers tactical advice for other cultural institutions considering livestreamed public programming.
Case Study at a Glance
Context: #HistChem combined institutional expertise, collections, live conversation, social participation and measurement in one recurring public program. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Challenge: Turn long-form viewer attention into sustained interaction and community rather than simply broadcast another event. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Practice: Build each episode as a coordinated system of guests, objects, media, promotion, livestreaming and post-production—an approach that produced engagement but demanded heavy operational effort. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Outcome: Early programs produced long viewing times, audience questions and measurable cross-platform growth, while also exposing the cost of sustaining the model. Highlight the Supporting Passage
What this case suggests: The durable idea was not livestreaming itself but designing digital channels so that people, knowledge and platforms reinforce one another. Highlight the Supporting Passage
Supporting Documents & Sources
View the evaluation report, surviving programs & related media
- Livestreaming Engagement Model program report — interim evaluation, metrics, and tactical guidance.
- Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels — surviving #HistChem program example.
- #HistChem Vimeo channel — additional surviving webcast episodes.
Archive Note / Provenance
View what happened, what remains & how the experiment reads now
Livestreaming itself became ordinary. The more interesting historical record is the system being tested around it: institutional expertise, collections, live conversation, social participation, promotion, measurement, and post-production working together rather than as separate outputs.
The model worked unevenly and required more production effort than it could easily sustain. That matters. #HistChem was not a finished answer; it was an experiment that demonstrated both the engagement potential and the operational cost of integrated digital programming.
What remains is the underlying systems idea: design digital channels so that people, knowledge, media, and platforms reinforce one another. That principle continued into later work even as the specific livestreaming technology became commonplace.
Critical Questions + Add to the Record
- What happens when useful tools become systems we depend on?
- Who gets to speak, and whose knowledge is heard?
- What should technology strengthen in us—and what should it never replace?
Application here: #HistChem tested whether livestreaming could become more than a broadcast tool by connecting people, collections, conversation, promotion, metrics, and reuse into one recurring system—and exposed the labor required to sustain that integration.
Were you part of #HistChem, experimented with early institutional livestreaming, or have documentation about similar programs that survived, changed or disappeared? Add context, corrections or firsthand knowledge to this record.
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Case Study: Livestreamed Interactive Webcasts for Cultural Institutions – http://t.co/YBssmgFrEX #socialmedia