About
David Brinkman was an officer and the past (2-times) Chair of the Greater Piedmont Chapter of the Explorers Club.
The Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional
society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal
that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its
inception in 1904, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying
force for explorers and scientists worldwide. Our members are the first
to the North Pole, the South Pole, summit of Mount Everest, and the
surface of the moon.
David Brinkman was born in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina but has
spent most of his life in Columbia, SC. He graduated from Irmo High
School and the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in Computer and
Electrical Engineering. For 38 years, he has worked as a software
engineer for NCR, AT&T, Avtec/Motorola Solutions, and Intel Corporations.
David never had an interest in history until 1997 when, after losing
his father, he began a labor of love to represent and honor his
father's military service in his dad's WWII reunion group. It was
through this that David caught the history bug. In 2005, the discovery
of an old bridge abutment in his new backyard on the Broad River
started a series of local history projects from Columbia to Charleston.
Exploration Work:
* Extensive research of Columbia's River history (1700's to early 1900's):http://historysoft.com/bridge
* Specialized work with computer overlays of old surveys and maps onto today's
maps (This work helped: Find the lost Broad River Confederate Bridge and
General Sherman's pontoon crossing site; Find the site of Jacob Geiger's Mill on the
Congaree river; Verify the location of Friday's Ferry (at Granby) with that of
remains found in 2007; Find the location of the 1748 Fort Congaree in 2013.
* GPS mapping and photography of hundreds of South Carolina Ferry and Bridge sites.
* Creation of Smartphone GPS enabled tours for Android and iPhone smartphones (You do the
walking and your phone does the talking): http://historysoft.com :
Phone apps created:
-Columbia's Three Rivers History Tour (150 points of interest over 15 miles).
-Midlands' Historical Markers App (140 markers).
-Riverbanks Zoo Tour App (70 points of interest including Saluda Mill Ruins).
-Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum App: The first smartphone
museum app that has automatic detection of a person's location in a museum.
-Charleston 3D Tour App (350 markers and over 400 stereoscopic images of
Charleston from the Civil War and today.
-Clarendon County Tour App featuring the Swamp Fox Murals
* Finding Granby project: Team leader over a Research and Archaeological project to
find the remains of the old South Carolina town of Granby. The dig has produced over
16,000 artifacts from the Granby period.
* Board member of the Cayce Historical Museum. This also involves the development of
technologies to showcase local history. These technologies include Geophysical tour
applications, Virtual and Augmented Reality applications, and history kiosks.
Awards:
2017: The South Carolina Archaeologist of the Year Award. Presented
by the Archaeological Society of South Carolina for David Brinkman's
dedicated efforts in the field of Archaeology.
2011: Columbia, SC Chamber of Commerce Pillar Award finalist: Pillar of
Technology in the Arts for David Brinkman's South Carolina Confederate
Relic Room and Military Museum Smartphone Application which uses
phone sensors to determine a visitor's position in the museum.
2009: The Historic Columbia Foundation's Helen Kohn Hennig Award
for Historic Preservation to David Brinkman for the PBS History Detectives
"Civil War Bridge" nationally television episode.
* Extensive research of Columbia's River history (1700's to early 1900's):http://historysoft.com/bridge
* Specialized work with computer overlays of old surveys and maps onto today's
maps (This work helped: Find the lost Broad River Confederate Bridge and
General Sherman's pontoon crossing site; Find the site of Jacob Geiger's Mill on the
Congaree river; Verify the location of Friday's Ferry (at Granby) with that of
remains found in 2007; Find the location of the 1748 Fort Congaree in 2013.
* GPS mapping and photography of hundreds of South Carolina Ferry and Bridge sites.
* Creation of Smartphone GPS enabled tours for Android and iPhone smartphones (You do the
walking and your phone does the talking): http://historysoft.com :
Phone apps created:
-Columbia's Three Rivers History Tour (150 points of interest over 15 miles).
-Midlands' Historical Markers App (140 markers).
-Riverbanks Zoo Tour App (70 points of interest including Saluda Mill Ruins).
-Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum App: The first smartphone
museum app that has automatic detection of a person's location in a museum.
-Charleston 3D Tour App (350 markers and over 400 stereoscopic images of
Charleston from the Civil War and today.
-Clarendon County Tour App featuring the Swamp Fox Murals
* Finding Granby project: Team leader over a Research and Archaeological project to
find the remains of the old South Carolina town of Granby. The dig has produced over
16,000 artifacts from the Granby period.
* Board member of the Cayce Historical Museum. This also involves the development of
technologies to showcase local history. These technologies include Geophysical tour
applications, Virtual and Augmented Reality applications, and history kiosks.
Awards:
2017: The South Carolina Archaeologist of the Year Award. Presented
by the Archaeological Society of South Carolina for David Brinkman's
dedicated efforts in the field of Archaeology.
2011: Columbia, SC Chamber of Commerce Pillar Award finalist: Pillar of
Technology in the Arts for David Brinkman's South Carolina Confederate
Relic Room and Military Museum Smartphone Application which uses
phone sensors to determine a visitor's position in the museum.
2009: The Historic Columbia Foundation's Helen Kohn Hennig Award
for Historic Preservation to David Brinkman for the PBS History Detectives
"Civil War Bridge" nationally television episode.
