[Cross-posted with the course site at https://courses.mcclurken.org/adh20/announcements/presenting-the-adventures-in-digital-history-2020-class-projects/ ]
In a normal year, yesterday would have been the day in the semester when the students in Digital History would present their projects to an audience at the History and American Studies Department Spring Symposium. This is a tradition that began back in 2008 with the first iteration of the class. It was an amazing debut of digital history projects during a day which previously had been reserved for presentations of 30-40 page research papers. It was an important moment for digital history projects in the department and has continued to be a wonderful moment for the students, their friends, faculty, staff, and project partners.
I’m sorry we won’t be able to do that public in-person presentation this year. Nothing about this semester has been normal, but I am happy to share the projects and the students’ presentations on them once again. I am incredibly proud of their work, even as they were pulled away from each other and away from some of the original sources they were working with to digitize, analyze, and share.
I encourage you to check out each of the presentations and the Digital Public History sites that students created this semester.
Rowe Family Scrapbooks Project
Presentation:
Project Site: https://rowefxbg.umwhistory.org/
Group Contract: https://courses.mcclurken.org/adh20/project-contracts/1121-2/
Farmer at Mary Washington Project
Presentation:
Project Site: http://farmer.umwhistory.org/
Group Contract: https://courses.mcclurken.org/adh20/project-contracts/james-farmer-project/
UMW Academic Buildings Project
Presentation: http://ckinde.com/ADH_Blog/uncategorized/explore-umw-tour/ (presented in five parts)
Project Site: https://explore.umwhistory.org/
Group Contract: https://courses.mcclurken.org/adh20/project-contracts/umw-academic-buildings/
Peirce Civil War Letters Project
Presentation:
Project Site: https://peirceletters.umwhistory.org/
Group Contract: https://courses.mcclurken.org/adh20/project-contracts/civil-war-letters-project/
There are still a few revisions to be done on each site, but check out what great work UMW students have done this semester.
I haven’t had a chance to look closely at all the projects yet, but they look great!
The thing that caught my eye was the use of StoryMapJS for the Peirce letters. It gives you a sense of how much traveling around the country he did, often criss-crossing back to places he had been.
I also appreciate the efforts students have gone to to make their sites accessible.