Studying Spatial Growth and Urban Development in an Eighteenth-Century Town

FAIN: PM-50065-07

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA 23185-4138)
Jennifer Agee Jones (Project Director: July 2006 to November 2006)
Lisa Ellen Fischer (Project Director: November 2006 to April 2010)
Jennifer Agee Jones (Project Director: December 2006 to November 2006)

The creation of a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software tool that will enable users to construct complex multi-layered and time-based queries to analyze the growth and development of Colonial Williamsburg.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation proposes to expand a previous project to build a map-based analytical tool for studying the eighteenth-century history of Williamsburg, Virginia. The previous eWilliamsburg project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, resulted in a map-based tool for accessing documentary sources about the history and restoration of Williamsburg. In the new project, we propose to create another tool based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software and will enable users to construct complex, time-based queries to analyze the growth and development of the town. The requested funds will be used to create map-based access to building and site information derived from architectural and archaeological research, incorporate databases of biographical details, create a map of the historic topography based on educated guesswork, and expand the eWilliamsburg public site to incorporate an interactive timeline for web visitors.