Digitizing and Creating Access to Archival Collections Related to the African American Experience in Virginia, 1861 to 1902
FAIN: PW-51071-12
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (Charlottesville, VA 22903-4625)
Matthew S. Gibson (Project Director: July 2011 to September 2016)
The addition of approximately 300 entries to the online "Encyclopedia Virginia," covering topics and biographies related to Virginia's African American history from 1862 to 1902.
"Encyclopedia Virginia," a project of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, in partnership with the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, a project of the Library of Virginia, seeks support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create more than 300 entries and a comparable number of transcribed primary sources for the encyclopedia's newest section, Freedom to Disfranchisement: The African American Experience in Virginia, 1861 to 1902, which traces the story of African Americans in Virginia from the ending of slavery and the beginnings of freedom and citizenship to the legislated 1902 reversal of those civil rights.
Associated Products
To Secure Justice for Ourselves: Discoveries from Freedom to Disfranchisement, The African American Experience in Virginia, 1861-1902, A Collaboration of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography and Encyclopedia Virginia (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: To Secure Justice for Ourselves: Discoveries from Freedom to Disfranchisement, The African American Experience in Virginia, 1861-1902, A Collaboration of the Dictionary of Virginia Biography and Encyclopedia Virginia
Author: Mari Julienne
Author: Matt Gottlieb
Abstract: The Library of Virginia and the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities are partners in publishing content from the Dictionary of Virginia Biography and other LVA projects and collections on VFH's website Encyclopedia Virginia. In 2012 the DVB and EV received a three-year NEH grant to fund the partnership's current project, Freedom to Disfranchisement: The African American Experience in Virginia, 1861–1902, which tells the story, through biographical and topical entries, of African American agency and challenges from the Civil War and the beginnings of freedom and citizenship to the legislated reversal of those rights by the Virginia constitution of 1902.
In this session Mari Julienne and Matthew Gottlieb will discuss and demonstrate the content created for the project, including previously published and new biographical material from the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, as well as topical entries on emancipation and Reconstruction in Virginia, organizations and movements that gave rise to an African American professional class, race riots and lynching, politics and voting in late-nineteenth-century Virginia, and the state's first public school system. To engage users in the historical complexities and details of this period, Encyclopedia Virginia is more than an aggregation of written essays. Taking advantage of the digital format, EV expands the story through the inclusion of images, maps, primary source documents (with transcriptions), and other historic artifacts. Biographical entries are also linked to each other and to Encyclopedia Virginia's topical and thematic entries to provide a richer context for learning and research than possible in the traditional print medium.
Date: 3/13/2015
Primary URL:
http://www.virginiaforum.org/Primary URL Description: The Virginia Forum is interdisciplinary and welcomes participation from scholars, teachers, and historical professionals in all fields. The Forum brings together historians, teachers, writers, archivists, museum curators, historic site interpreters, librarians, and others engaged in the study and interpretation of Virginia history to share their knowledge, research, and experiences. The Virginia Forum is an annual event and is hosted by different universities and historical organizations around the state.