The Ballad of Holland Island House

Holland Island sits in Chesapeake Bay, near Wenona, Maryland. The five-mile-long island was settled in the 1600s, and at one time had a population of 360 people and 70 buildings. Erosion ate away at the island, which sat on silt and clay, and the residents moved away between 1914 and 1918. The island’s church was moved in 1922, and only one house remained standing. It was built in 1888. For decades, the water ate away at the island, and the last remaining house finally collapsed in October of 2010. What’s left of the island is now a marsh, home to hundreds of sea birds. See pictures of the island and the house -and the cemetery- at the Baltimore Sun.

The Ballad of Holland Island House is a song and video by Lynn Tomlinson, with music written by Anna Roberts-Gevalt and Elizabeth LaPrelle. The animation was done by manipulating a thin layer of oil-based clay. It tells the story of the house, from its beginnings as a home for woodland creatures as a tree, then generations of people, then birds, and finally fish. (via io9)