The Valley of the Shadow
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The Valley of the Shadow is a digital humanities project hosted by the University of Virginia detailing the experiences of Confederate soldiers from Augusta County, Virginia and Union soldiers from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. It is considered one of the most impressive uses of new technology in representing history.
This site is versatile in its layout and provides many search options. Students, teachers, and the occasional historian will truly get a real-life experience when searching this site. The home page is laid out with pre-war, war, and post-war information. Official records, such as census and church records, personal diaries and letters, as well as newspapers, references, and images are easily accessible links.
Newspapers: The newspapers are scanned copies of newspapers from each of the counties in addition to those of surrounding cities such as Richmond and New York. The site offers a variety of newspapers clearly providing readers with the different opinions of the time. They chose four papers: “the Staunton Spectator (Staunton, Virginia; Whig), the Republican Vindicator (Virginia; Democratic), the Franklin Repository and Transcript (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Republican), and the Valley Spirit (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania; Democratic).”
It is possible to search the articles in a general fashion or pick a topic such as African American race relations or arts and entertainment. The papers can be viewed in their original format or they can be viewed in a typed format on the site. The site warns that the language has not been edited and it may be offensive. Some article titles are “A White Heiress Elopes with a Negro,” “Celebration of the 4th at Staunton," and “Reconstruction of Southern Industry.”
Letters and Diaries: The letters and diaries are personal letters and diaries that have been typed onto the website and provide firsthand opinions of the communities going through Civil War. There are letters from families and soldiers as well as important politicians. These can also be searched by keywords, date, or subject. These letters truly make the time period come alive and provide new perspectives.
Images: Images of the Civil War are available with search options for battlefield, soldier’s name, and subjects. There are topics and ideas to begin with.
Overall, this site has an extensive source of first hand information from letters, diaries, and newspapers, in addition to objective information from censuses and statistics as well as war records. The Valley of the Shadows project is a great start to beginning to understand the personal side of the nations shared history.
[edit] References
- Alkalimat, Abdul, The African American Experience in Cyberspace: A Resource Guide to the Best Web Sites on Black Culture and History
