The Scrapbook (SCR) group will be working with the owners of the scrapbooks, from whose family they came. This project will involve digitizing a set of scrapbooks in a way that makes them accessible and presents information about the lives of the women involved and perhaps with life in Fredericksburg over the last three generations.
The National Park Service Civil War Letters Project (CWL) group will be working with Luisa Dispenzirie, Archivist, and others from the National Park Service’s Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park to digitize over 250 letters from Sgt. Jerome Peirce, and make them available with a project that contextualizes the letters and Peirce’s life.
The James Farmer Project (JFP) group will work with various groups on campus as part of the celebration of James Farmer this year. This site will involve working with various Farmer-related resources and people on campus. This group might create videos from media in the library or in other locations. Students may also contribute to digitization efforts of UMW Farmer materials, may develop interpretive content (film, kiosks, etc.), and will build on previous works about Dr. Farmer (including this UMW student Digital History site).
The UMW Buildings (MWB) group will be researching and presenting on the history of buildings and murals on campus and the people for whom they are named. This project will build on and address the findings and recommendations of the Presidential Campus Environment Ad Hoc Committee. It will involve consulting with several people on campus who have been involved in related research, including Professor Spencer (in Historic Preservation). This site could include an up-to-date online exhibit with all of the buildings and murals on campus and links to a scholarly history of each of them and/or their namesakes.
The structure of the class is such that we’ll spend the first four weeks looking at examples of Digital History/Digital Humanities/Digital Liberal Arts and being introduced to a “digital toolbox” from which you and your group will chose as you decide on the shape of your project. Then you and your group will propose a contract for the project. Once I approve that contract, you’ll work on that the rest of the semester.