VR puts Oakland students in the rooms where Hamilton happened

Oakland students Eduardo Venegas (left), 17, and Valeria Ochoa, 16, use Google Cardboard viewers to see virtual reality images of locations related to newly popular Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary. less Oakland students Eduardo Venegas (left), 17, and Valeria Ochoa, 16, use Google Cardboard viewers to see virtual reality images of locations related to newly popular Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close VR puts Oakland students in the rooms where Hamilton happened 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Guadalupe Suarez, a 16-year-old Oakland high school student, has never been to Philadelphia or New Jersey. But on Monday, she and her classmates at Aspire Golden State College Preparatory Academy were able to travel virtually to historic sites related to the life of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary and the subject of the hit musical now playing in San Francisco.

“It felt like you were there,” Guadalupe said. She and the other students lifted Google Cardboards — inexpensive virtual reality viewers — to their faces to explore key places in Hamilton’s life, including the New Jersey site where Aaron Burr fatally shot Hamilton in a duel.

On Wednesday, Google is releasing six virtual reality tours related to Hamilton. The goal is to help students “engage more deeply with Alexander Hamilton’s story,” Suzanna Bobadilla, a product marketing manager for the company’s Social Impact Team, wrote in a blog post. Google took 360-degree photos of historic sites, including Trinity Church in New York City where Hamilton is buried and Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

By releasing these images in the midst of the “Hamilton” craze — taking people to “the room where it happened,” in the lyrics of a popular number from the musical — the Mountain View company is not throwing away its shot to capture more market share for its Google Expeditions in classrooms. Google Expeditions, the arm of the company that offers the virtual field trips, has already been used by more than 1 million students to experience places like the Great Wall of China and underwater explorations. Such projects ensure that young audiences will become familiar with Google’s version of the virtual reality technology.

By releasing the Hamilton-related images, which also will be available to the public, the company is “clearly piggybacking on a historical figure that is interesting to people right now,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst of Jackdaw Research, a firm that studies the technology industry.

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To access the virtual imagery, viewers need a smartphone and virtual reality headgear, such as Google’s $15 cardboard viewer.

The Oakland students received virtual tours as part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s Hamilton Education Program for schools with low-income students. The virtual tours were created in collaboration by Google and the institute. Google.org, the tech giant’s philanthropic arm, gave the institute $813,000 so that 5,000 Bay Area, New York and Chicago students could see “Hamilton” — part of a larger program funded by other donors as well. On Wednesday, Guadalupe will join 2,000 students from 24 Bay Area schools attending the play.