Credits

The Medusa Cultural Resource Information System was created in 2014 from an application, also termed Medusa, developed for use by consultants and staff at the Maryland Historical Trust Library.

Medusa was developed by MHT staff in the Office of Research, Survey, and Registration (ORSR), including now-retired Chief Archaeologist/GIS Coordinator Maureen Kavanagh, Cultural Resource Information Manager Greg Brown, Historic Preservation Information System Specialist Jen Chadwick-Moore, Archaeological Registrar Jennifer Cosham, and Administrator of Library Services Mary Louise de Sarran. Inventory Registrars Barbara Sheppard, Caroline Warner, and Casey Pecoraro oversaw the development of the architectural resource aspect, with the assistance of architectural historians Marcia Miller (Chief of ORSR) and Heather Barrett (Administrator, Survey & Research). The archaeological aspect was developed with the assistance of Chief Archaeologist Dennis Curry, Research Archaeologist Matt McKnight, State Terrestrial Archaeologist Charles Hall, State Underwater Archaeologist Susan Langley, and Assistant State Underwater Archaeologist Troy Nowak. The Compliance staff at MHT patiently shaped the data input and resource review functions; thanks to, among others, Beth Cole, Amanda Apple, Jonathan Sager, Dixie Henry, and Tim Tamburrino.

We appreciate the hard work of the database and interface development team in Applications Development at the Maryland Department of Planning: Doug Lyford, Greg Schuster, and Debbie Czerwinski. Mapping functionality was developed with the help of MDP Information Services Manager Ted Cozmo. We also appreciate the database development work of Carmen Swann, Jennifer Falkinburg, and several others in related departments.

The project has benefited from the input of the local consulting community, who have provided "wish lists" of features which will be gradually added to improve the product.

We appreciate the advice of other state historical preservation offices, particularly Noel Stratton of Pennsylvania’s CRGIS (https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce) and Jolene Smith, Quatro Hubbard, Carey Jones, and Karen Hostettler of Virginia’s V-CRIS (http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/archives/archiv_vcrisHome.htm).

The project was funded by several grants. Medusa has benefited from the continued support of the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), including several data development grants during the past two decades. A major grant from the National Park Service program Preserve America, titled Improving Public Access to Maryland’s Inventory of Historic Properties, funded much of the development of the online database.

Data development work was also done with the help of grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (Jan 1993-Sept 1994); the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) (July 1995-Dec 1996); the National Park Service Center for Preservation Technology and Training (Dec 1996-June 1998); the Federal Highway Administration (Jan 1999-June 2004 and July 2004-Dec 2007); Preserve America (June 2010-Dec 2011); and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Coastal Zone Management (CZM) program (June 2001-Sept 2012).