The Valley of the Shadow

Valley of the Shadow Project Staff and Background

Valley of the Shadow Project Co-Editors

Edward L. Ayers is the President of the University of Richmond, and has previously served as Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Hugh P. Kelley Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Author of The Promise of the New South and other books on Southern history, Ayers conceived the idea of a dual community study of the Civil War in 1991. He planned to pursue it through traditional means of research until he became involved in the creation of the Institute of Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia, when it became clear that hypermedia offered new possibilities for doing local studies. He is the Director of the Valley of the Shadow Project and author of a book based on the Valley Project, In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863 published in 2003 by W. W. Norton. His most recent work, What Caused the Civil War? Reflections on the South and Southern History, was published by W. W. Norton in 2005.

Anne Sarah Rubin is Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and served as the Valley project manager from 1993 through 1996. Rubin is the author of A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861-1868, published in 2005 by the University of North Carolina Press and winner of the 2006 Avery Craven award from the Organization of American Historians. She is also the coauthor (with Edward Ayers) of The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in The American Civil War. Part I: The Eve of War (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000). She took the 1995-1996 school year off from graduate study to work full time on the project. As manager, her primary responsibilites included researching the history of the Valley, writing the narratives and web pages, and supervising the research team. She has marked up countless newspapers, letters, and diaries. Rubin received her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

William G. Thomas, III is the John and Catherine Angle Professor in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Thomas served as the Director of the Virginia Center for Digital History from 1998 to 2005, and as the Valley of the Shadow project manager from 1996 to 2001. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia in 1995, and is the author of Lawyering for the Railroad: Business, Law, and Power in the New South, published in 1999 by Louisiana State University Press. He has written several articles on the Civil War, a review of Civil War web sites called The Civil War on the Web: A Guide to the Very Best Sites, published by Scholarly Resources in 2000, and co-authored with Edward L. Ayers a digital article based on the Valley Project, The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities, published by The American Historical Review. He has also co-authored and produced a documentary film series on Virginia's history since the Civil War, called The Ground Beneath Our Feet. Thomas has taught history at the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, and at Episcopal High School and Deerfield Academy.

Andrew J. Torget served as the project manager for the Valley Project from 2003 through 2007. Torget is the co-editor (with Edward L. Ayers and Gary W. Gallagher) of Crucible of the Civil War: Virginia from Secession to Commemoration, published in 2006 by the University of Virginia Press. He is also the co-editor of an annotated anthology of primary sources from the Valley Project, Two Communities in the Civil War: A Norton Casebook in History, published by W. W. Norton in 2007. Torget led the redesign team that reorganized the project's layout, oversaw the development of the Aftermath section of the archive, and completed work on all parts of the archive. Torget's dissertation, "Cotton Empire: Slavery and the Texas Borderlands," examines the movement of American slaveholders and slavery to northern Mexico and the creation of a slaveholders' republic in the borderlands between the United States and Mexico. Torget received his B. A. from Texas A&M University in 2001, his M. A. from the University of Virginia in 2002, and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2009.


Project Managers

Scott Nesbit served as the final project manager of the Valley, as well as the project manager for the Emancipation Project. Scott is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia, studying under Edward L. Ayers and specializing in the American South.

Susanna Lee served as project manager from 2001-2003. Susanna scoured archives in Virginia and Pennsylvania for additional letters, diaries, and photographic images of Franklin and Augusta residents, and created the vastly enlarged and improved personal papers sections of the Valley Project. Susanna is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia, studying under Edward L. Ayers and specializing in the American South. Her dissertation examines how Americans used the memory of the Civil War in their battles over Reconstruction.

Amy E. Murrell served as the Interim Associate Director of the Virginia Center for Digital History for 1999-2000, and directed the SGML tagging of all Valley project letters and diaries. Amy received her Ph.D. in American History from the University of Virginia in 2001 and is currently Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York at Albany. The University of North Carolina Press published her book The Divided Family in Civil War America in 2005.


Virginia Center for Digital History Staff

Scott Gillespie served as the programmer for the Virginia Center for Digital History from 2005-2006, and he worked on upgrading numerous technical aspects of the Valley Project. Scott created eXist-based search engines for the newspapers, the Southern Claims Commission papers, the Memory articles, and the Official Records of the War generated by soldiers in both counties. He also upgraded the 1860 and 1870 census databases, created a postgres database structure for the Cohabitation Records, and provided technical help on numerous aspects of the Valley.

Kim Tryka served as Associate Director of the Virginia Center for Digital History (VCDH) until 2005. Kim designed and oversaw the conversion of the Valley newspapers and personal papers into Extensible Markup Language (XML), as well as providing critical support for the Valley's technical and organizational design.

Jennifer Muter served as the programmer for VCDH and IATH. Jennifer helped design and build the Valley databases and search engines, assisted with technical aspects of the project, and provided logistical support.

Felicia Johnson served as the web designer for VCDH and IATH. Felicia helped redesign Valley page layouts and graphics.

Alice Carter served as our curriculum developer and coordinator, as well as a web designer and image expert, until fall 1999. Alice previously taught A.P. American history at Greenich Academy in Connecticut for five years. She also holds a Master's degree in History from the University of Virginia and earned her teaching certificate for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Alice worked on the Valley project to develop lesson plans and classroom applications for the Project, consistent with Virginia Standards of Learning and National History standards. Her work is featured in the "teaching materials" section of the Valley project. Alice served as Associate Director of the Virginia Center for Digital History from 1998-1999.


Project Staff

Andre Fleche worked on many different parts of the Valley Project from 2002 to 2006. Andre researched and created an expanded version of the Official Records section of the Valley Project, collating hundreds of reports and records from Augusta and Franklin units that fought in the war. He also led the team that expanded the Valley newspapers to include 1868 to 1870, marking up all the newspapers in XML and managing the work of Valley research assistants working on the newspapers section of the project. Andre received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2006 and will be an Assistant Professor of History at Castleton State College in Vermont.

Desi Hopkins transcribed, marked up in XML, and proof-read hundreds of letters and diaries in the Valley archive, allowing the Valley Project to transition into an XML database of its collection of personal papers. She also led the work on the Freedmen's Bureau section of the archive, collating and overseeing the transcription of all aspects of the extant Bureau records. Desi is a Ph.D. candidate in Russian History at the University of Virginia.

Jaime Amanda Martinez transcribed and marked up letters and diaries in XML, marked up newspapers in XML, assisted in creating the Valley reference centers, and oversaw the collection and transcription of the Southern Claims Commission papers section of the Valley Archive. Jaime is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia, studying under Gary Gallagher and specializing in the Civil War.

Catherine Neale researched, transcribed, and marked up letters and diaries in XML, researched and created Valley timelines, and helped build the Memory of the War section of the Valley. Catherine graduated from the University of Virginia in 2006 with a B. A. degree in American History.

Ryan Fleenor helped transcribe the Valley 1870 manufacturing census and the Freedmen's Bureau Cohabitation Records, putting both into searchable databases. Ryan also marked up various letters and diaries for the project--particularly in the Freedmen's Bureau and Memory sections--and did research for the project at the National Archives, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Library of Virginia. Ryan graduated from the University of Virginia in 2006 with a B. A. degree in American History.

Kid Wongsrichanalai transcribed the Valley 1870 agricultural census and the Freedmen's Bureau Cohabitation Records, helping to put both into searchable databases. Kid also worked on various aspects of the project, particularly the Freedmen's Bureau (for which he helped conduct research at the National Archives) and the letters and diaries section of the project. Kid is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, specializing in the Civil War and working with Gary W. Gallagher.

Noel G. Harrison proposed, researched, wrote, and digitized the webpages composing the "Popular Culture in Franklin" and "Popular Culture in Augusta" sections of the Valley Project's "Memory of the War" discussion. Noel's previous foray into digital history, in 2002, saw him propose, research, and write the seven webpages composing "Walter Reed and Typhoid Fever, 1897-1911," an online exhibit sponsored by the UVa. Health Sciences Library. Noel, a former museum curator and National Park Service historian, published his UVa M.A. thesis, on Northern Virginia civilians during the Civil War, in 1998. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate and studies under Edward L. Ayers.

Dave Zimring transcribed, marked up in XML, and proofed numerous newspapers for the 1868-1870 expansion of the newspapers section of the project, taking the lead on the work on several of the newspapers during 2005-2006. Dave is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, working with Gary W. Gallagher and specializing in the Civil War.

Keith Harris transcribed and marked up in XML several newspapers for the Aftermath section of the archive during the summer of 2005. Keith is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, working with Gary W. Gallagher and specializing in the Civil War.

Doug O'Reagan worked on various aspects of the project during the summer of 2005 and 2006, marking up in XML various letters and diaries, organizing and marking up Memory articles, transcribing and marking up newspapers, and work on numerous other parts of the Valley archive. Doug is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

Josh Botts transcribed, marked up in XML, and proofed numerous Memory articles during 2005-2006, allowing us to complete that section of the archive. Josh is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, working with Mel Leffler.

Matt Speiser worked on various aspects of the project during the summer of 2005, particularly the Memory section which he helped to re-organize as he transcribed and marked up in XML numerous Memory articles. Matt is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, working with Gary W. Gallagher and specializing in the Civil War.

Elizabeth Ladner gathered, transcribed, marked up in XML, and proofed numerous Southern Claims Commission papers during 2005-2006. Elizabeth is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, working with Edward L. Ayers.

Philip Herrington transcribed, marked up in XML, and proofed numerous Southern Claims Commission papers during 2005-2006. Philip is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, working with Edward L. Ayers.

Andrew Witmer transcribed and marked up letters in XML, helped build the Valley timelines, and worked on creating the Memory of the War section. Andrew is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia, studying under Joseph Kett and specializing in religious history.

Amanda Mushal transcribed and marked up letters and diaries in XML and helped build the Valley timelines. Amanda is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia, studying under Edward L. Ayers and specializing in the American South.

Watson Jennison headed the newspaper team for the project until 2003. He transcribed, tagged, and edited several years of various newspapers, converting our text sources into XML. Watson received his Ph.D. in American History at the University of Virginia in 2003 and is currently Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Aaron Sheehan-Dean led our geographical and statistical data analysis team from 2000 to 2003. Aaron received his Ph.D. in American History at the University of Virginia in 2003 and is currently Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Florida. His dissertation explores the enlistment of soldiers in Virginia during the Civil War and their motivations for fighting.

Benjamin Knowles created the individual graphics for the Valley Project and helped with the overall graphical design of the website. Benjamin also worked on the soldier's records and provided general troubleshooting assistance.

Pranav Pittie digitized images of several Valley newspapers, allowing the project to expand our offering of original images of the newspapers.

Heather Wiedner helped to transcribe and proof various letters and diaries for the Valley Project. Heather is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia, specializing in English history.

John Koerner transcribed and marked up newspapers in XML for the Valley as we worked to expand that section of the project to include the years 1868-1870. John graduated in 2006 from the University of Virginia.

Jeremiah Starsia served at the Valley Project's high school intern for the summer of 2004, working on various aspects of the project such as the Letters & Diaries section of the Valley.

Hannah Bush, a graduate of Mary Washington College and the Treasurer of the Stonewall Brigade Band, served as a special consultant during preparation of the two webpages on its history, in the "Popular Culture in Augusta" section of the Valley Project. That work would have been impossible without her impressively organized archives, encyclopedic knowledge of the band's history and past personnel, and detailed responses to a barrage of inquiries.

Travis Lee Clements, a graduate of Mary Washington College and owner of APER Appraisal in Staunton, served often--and with his trademark generosity and cheerfulness--as photographer, driver, and scout during preparation of the eight webpages that compose the "Popular Culture in Franklin" and "Popular Culture in Augusta" sections of the Valley Project.

Scott Crocker created a Geographic Informations Systems (GIS) map of Franklin County for 1860.

Lara Diefenderfer helped create a database of 1870 Franklin County census returns, and transcribed the letters of Jedediah Hotchkiss.

Jaime Henshaw worked on a number of projects, including the 1870 Franklin County census database, the soldiers' dossiers, and the transcription of letters.

Amy Rider worked on the Franklin County census for 1870. Amy is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia and has worked with the population census in her own research on women's labor in the South.

John Riedl spent a year reading and tagging each issue of the Staunton Spectator published between 1865 and 1867. John is a Ph.D. candidate in American History at the University of Virginia.

Andrew Chancey worked on all of our databases to ensure clean and consistent data entry and editorial and stylistic consistency. He worked on nearly every part of the Valley project between the fall of 1996 and 1998, including map databases, soldiers dossiers, census databases, and newspaper transcriptions. Andrew received his Ph.D.. in history from the University of Florida.

Sonja Czarnecki worked on the Valley project after graduating from the University of Virginia in 1998-1999 as a history major. Sonja worked on teaching modules for the Valley, public outreach, and Valley "help" files. Sonja currently teaches history at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH.

Colleen Doody led the newspaper research team until 1999. She transcribed hundreds of articles, tagged years of newspapers, and supervised the work of other researchers on the newspapers. Colleen earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. from James Madison University. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia.

Robert J. Driver, Jr., a retired Colonel in the United States Marine Corps, serves as a special consultant to the Valley Project. Bob is the author of several regimental unit histories in the Virginia Regimental Histories Series. He has compiled thousands of note cards on the Confederate soldiers from Augusta County and has created and edited the Augusta rosters for the project. Bob lives with his wife Edna in Brownsburg, Va., where he is working on several new Civil War books.

Brian Erb worked on the project from September 1995 through August 1996. He marked up newspapers, transcribed personal papers, worked on our map databases, compiled and marked up rosters, and worked on a variety of other projects. Brian is currently pursuing his Masters of Library Science degree at Florida State University.

Geoff Evans was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia and worked on the project from 1998-2000. Geoff mastered Macromedia Flash Shockwave and designed and built the project's animated theatre maps in the Part II section. Geoff currently teaches history at the Hun School in Princeton, NJ.

Sally Henninger worked on the project from September 1996 through September 1997, tagging newspapers, building sgml files for the letters project, and transcribing newspaper articles. Sally teaches at Blue Ridge School in Dyke, Virginia.

John F. Kirn, Jr. served as our head statistician and data analyst. John specializes in using social-scientific methods to analyze American political history. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his M.A. from the University of Virginia. John teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a doctoral candidate in history at The University of Virginia.

Ariel Lambert worked as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, worked on the project from 1998-2000. Ariel took a GIS course at UVA to prepare herself to work on the Valley GIS effort, and then helped direct that complex project. She worked with Steve Thompson to develop the 1870 Augusta georeferenced map. Ariel currently is the Planning and Local Assistance Specialist in the Division of Historic Preservation, Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Kent McConnell worked on the project during 1995 and 1996. A doctoral candidate in the European and American Religious History program in the Religious Studies department at the University of Virginia, Kent brought to the project his experience and scholarly interest in religious history. Kent oversaw the research into churches in Augusta and Franklin. He spent long hours driving from church to church to try to find church records, met with ministers in the counties, and transcribed thousands of names and church data into databases on church records. His dedicated work on the databases for church records netted thousands of names of parishoners of some of the most significant churches in Augusta and Franklin.

Jeff McClurken worked full time on the project from the fall of 1994 through the summer of 1995, and during the summer of 1996. He transcribed, revised, and edited hundreds of census pages; marked up newspapers, diaries, and military rosters; created timelines for both national and Franklin County events; worked on our map databases; charted troop movements for Franklin and Augusta regiments; and traveled ti=o Chambersburg to collect documents. Jeff is now a graduate student in history at The Johns Hopkins University.

Gregg L. Michel served as our census expert for several years. He constructed databases and helped design search pages for all of the Augusta and Franklin censuses: manuscript population, slaveholders, manufacturing, and agricultural censuses. Additionally, he developed a scheme of occupation codes for the transcribed population census. Gregg also constructed comparative maps for a wide array of economic, political, and demographic variables. Gregg received his Ph.D. in history at the University of Virginia, writing his dissertation about white Southern student activists during the 1960s. Gregg currently is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Andrew Morris has worked on the project during the summers of 1995, 1996, and 1997. His work on the project included the transcription and editing of the population census, selecting, summarizing, and HTML markup of local newspapers, work on the map databases, as well as visits to Pennsylvania archives to obtain materials for the project. Andy is a Ph.D.. candidate in American History the University of Virginia; he received his A.B. in history from Brown University and his M.A. in history from the University of Virginia.

Michael Mullins worked on the project over several weeks during January and February 1997 as a visiting intern from the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He conceived and implemented the octagonal "floor plan" navigational scheme of the website, and the new design of the the site's "front end". Michael is an Australian and recently completed a part-time Masters in Applied History at the University of Technology Sydney while working with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Josh Rothman worked on the project during the summers of 1995 and 1996. He has transcribed the population census, tagged newspapers, created an Augusta County events timeline, and wrote our introduction to nineteenth-century newspapers. Josh is a graduate student in History at the University of Virginia.

Phillip D. Troutman worked on the Valley project from the summer of 1994 through the summer of 1996. His specialty was geographic mapping, and he was responsible for locating individuals and buildings on existing maps. He has done considerable research in tax, insurance, war claims, and archival records. Phil received his Ph.D. in American History from the University of Virginia, writing his dissertation about notions of slavery, freedom, and progress in antebellum Virginia.

Drew VandeCreek is the Director of the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project at the University of Northern Illinois. For the Valley Project he made several research trips to various archives in Pennsylvania, constructed timelines for both Virginia and Pennsylvania, compiled secondary literature on Pennsylvania, marked up newspapers, and transcribed several other sources. Drew received his Ph.D.. in history from University of Virginia in 1996. His dissertation is entitled Make it National: The Construction of Economic Expertise and the Progressive Economic Policymaking System, 1893-1933.

Amy Vorhees joined the Valley project in 1999 after previously working in the publishing field. She has edited all the War Years letters for consistency and accuracy and has transcribed Augusta County files from the Southern Claims Commission. Amy entered law school at the University of Virginia.

A number of other people, primarily undergraduate and graduate students from the Corcoran Department of History have made valuable contributions to this project. In alphabetical order, they are:

Peter Brownfeld (soldier's rosters, census, letters markup)
Molly Campbell (image design)
Trish Canney (programming)
Elizabeth Crocker (letters and diaries markup)
Sonja Czarnecki (web-searchable database of war damage claims)
Geoff Evans (animated mapping, Official Records research)
Bob Guffin (claims transcription)
Charles Irons (data collection, mapping)
Edna Johnston (data collection, scanning, organization)
Peter Kastor (newspaper markup, html markup, and overall design)
Ariel Lambert (Geographic Information Systems Mapping)
Juliette Landphair (newspaper markup)
Andrew Lewis (census transcription and scanning)
Moses Miles (programming)
Brad Mittendorf (image and text scanning)
Sarah Nelson (newspaper tagging and transcriptions)
Risa Anne Ryland (transcription completion and proofchecking of the 1870 Franklin County census)
Peter Sheehy (newspaper and claims transcription)
Lisa Sziffel (newspaper transcriptions)
Andrew Trees (newspaper and claims transcription)
Steven Totty (programming, database and cgi)



Technical staff from the Institute of Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) who have contributed include:

Thornton Staples was formerly the Project Director at IATH. He participated in all facets of the design and construction of this project.

Dot Akinola (system set-up and software development)
Dan Ancona (searching scripts and VRML)
Trish Canney (searching scripts)
A. C. Capehart (searching scripts)
Karen Dietz (SGML entry templates)
Susan Gants (database and statistics)
Perry Roland (geographic information)
Christie Stephenson (digital imaging)
Steven Totty (msql database programming, cgi scripts)
Pete Yadlowsky (software development and sound)

Thanks to to Jason Haynes and Joy Shifflette, Administrative Assistants at the Institute for their contributions and support. Thanks also to the Department of History, especially Elizabeth Stovall, Lottie McCauley, Ella Wood and Kathleen Miller.




Background

In 1991, the University of Virginia's campus-wide Information Technology Committee generated the idea of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, a place where technologists and humanists would collaborate on cutting-edge research projects. The International Business Machines Company (IBM) generously donated equipment and technical support. John Unsworth was named director in 1993.

Chosen as one of the two "prototype fellows" for the Institute in its initial year of 1992-1993, Edward Ayers of Virginia's History Department received the half-time support of systems analyst Ross Wayland, an RS6000 workstation, and the financial support necessary for the digitization of the newspaper and census images, performed by Accessible Archives of Philadelphia.

In the summer of 1994, the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace received a grant from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to install a sample of the project in Staunton. The staff of the Birthplace, led by its director, Susan Klaffky, and its research director at the time, Susan Simmons, conducted extensive outreach programs to bring the Augusta County community into the project. The project received generous support from the Valentine Museum, which helped accelerate the research in the late summer and early fall of 1994. Pat Hobbs of the Wilson Birthplace worked with the Historic Staunton Foundation and the Augusta County Historical Society to provide valuable primary resources.

Over the years we have been sustained by the generous contributions of several institutions. The University of Virginia has provided generous support for the project. W. W. Norton and Company agreed to publish a version of the Valley Project in CD-ROM form in 1996. In the fall of 1996, the Valley Project received a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities' Teaching with Technology Initiative, providing crucial support to the project.

We are very grateful for the support we have received, without which the Valley of the Shadow Project would not be possible.



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