Website
Welcome to the latest website upgrade for TMBAP. This edition features:
- easier and faster navigation
- search by text
- highlights of recent progress of the project
- new videotapes with closed captioning and transcripts
- new oral history interviews with transcripts
- donation options, soon to include “Adopt-a-Project”
Earlier Versions of the Website
As TMBAP has expanded, the website team has endeavored to make the site reflect the project’s accomplishments and aspirations.
The first website was launched in 2011. At this time TMBAP of LFT was a new organization. The ONLY available archival records were a small number of letters Clarence Boyd had published. Clinical AV records at NLM were not available for public dissemination; all other AV records at the Bowen Center were not available; NLM’s professional paper collection had been closed pending a sensitivity review; family papers were inaccessible in LeRoy Bowen’s home; the “Treasure Trove” of early records had yet to be discovered; the ownership and/or accessibility of photographs in the Bowen family collection had yet to be resolved; and the Oral History Project was just getting underway.
The website’s goal focused on communicating to Bowen professionals and the public TMBAP of LFT’s mission to preserve and make Murray Bowen’s archives accessible to the world. LFT’s vision was “To Give Murray Bowen’s Theory to the World.” The website was conceived to be an essential tool to raise funds, describe the organization, and begin defining the content and importance of Murray Bowen’s archives. The website logo – the planet – reflected LFT’s vision of giving Bowen’s Theory to the world.
The second major version of the website was launched in 2015. A team of six developed and produced the 2015 upgrade. The goal of the upgrade evolved to develop an architecture that could organize and provide historical, societal, and scientific context for Murray Bowen’s work. With only the Williamsburg Collection available, the team focused on this collection. The primary goal was to create a central, living “exhibit” with a focused variety of information and context about Murray Bowen. From this goal, the team’s strategy was to create a framework that could be added to indefinitely, as documentary material from the archives became available, to include: a chronology of Dr. Bowen’s life, including nodal periods; the emergence and evolution of Murray Bowen’s theory; and historic and scientific contexts. The timeline includes photos and objects from each era. The intent was to include scans of documents from the archives for each era as well. The timeline works together with a book of excerpts that reflect the evolution of Dr. Bowen’s concepts through highlighting key topics that would resonate with the public. As both time and access to archive sources were limited, the team understood this effort would lay the foundation for growth in the future; it was considered a work in progress, not a finished product.