Newswise — Virginia Tech is expanding the scope and use of rare historical materials through the award-winning web site Virtual Jamestown. Here, on-line, rarely seen documents, images, maps, and physical materials are integrated, historical context provided, and technology applied as an analytical tool. Already thousands visit the site each day to learn more about the history and legacies of Jamestown.
Virginia Tech history professor Crandall Shifflett is applying advanced technology to historical research, scholarship, and teaching to provide robust exploitation of historical resources, including extraordinary first-hand source material.
"Under Shifflett's guidance, Virtual Jamestown is a pioneer project in the application of advanced technology to the humanities," said William Thomas, III, director of the Virginia Center for Digital History.
In 2007, scholars anticipate a vigorous reexamination of the importance of Jamestown in the nation's history, as its "400th birthday" is commemorated. While anniversary plans focus upon on-site visitations where recreated versions of Jamestown's past are presented, the Virtual Jamestown site encourages exploration via the Internet.
With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, a comprehensive survey is underway of 26 archaeological sites in the Jamestown area. Virtual Jamestown will create a database of vital information about site contents and provide identification of artifacts, many never before seen by the public An annotated census of digital collections on "Jamestown in the Atlantic World" will be posted this summer.
Virtual Jamestown sheds new light on the experiences not only of the well-known historical figures, such as John Smith and Bartholomew Gosnold, but also of marginalized populations, such as indigenous peoples, African slaves, indentured servants, and colonial women. The final assembly of the "virtual collections" will provide a teaching and research archive of unparalleled scope and depth for colleges and universities both at home and abroad.
"The web site highlights the underestimated significance of Jamestown, established 13 years before the Mayflower, as a seedbed society. Jamestown sprouted from a global contest among competing commercial interests to become a locus for new forms of governance, evolving systems of labor and enterprise, and the diffusion of diseases, plants and animals, and diverse cultures," according to Shifflett. A major, national project in digital history, Virtual Jamestown has a well-informed advisory board comprised of scholars who represent various research and public institutions, including: Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (or Jamestown Rediscovery®), Colonial National Historical Park (National Park Service), Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the Library of Virginia, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the Virginia Historical Society, Virginia Tech, the University of East Anglia in Britain, and the University of Virginia's Center for Digital History. (See attachment for complete listing of scholars and their affiliations). Carole Schmidt, formerly of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change, serves as the project consultant. "Virginia Tech, with its resources in technology, is uniquely positioned to become a center for applying technology to history," says Shifflett, project director of Virtual Jamestown. A new track in the VT's graduate history program has recently been approved to explore Atlantic World Studies through the techniques of digital history.
For tour of Virtual Jamestown, visit http://www.virtualjamestown.org/
Mellon Virtual JamestownDistinguished Scholars Advisory Board
Charles BryanPresident and Chief Executive OfficerVirginia Historical Societyhttp://www.vahistorical.org/
Edward CampbellDirector, Collection Management ServicesLibrary of Virginiahttp://www.lva.lib.va.us/
Andrew ChanceyAssociate Director, Virginia Foundation for the HumanitiesVirginia Foundation for the Humanitieshttp://www.virginia.edu/vfh/
Tom DavidsonCuratorJamestown-Yorktown Foundationhttp://www.jyf.state.va.us/
James HornLibrary Director / Deputy Research Division AdministratorJohn D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundationhttp://www.history.org/history/jdrlweb/index.cfm
William KelsoChief ArchaeologistAssociation for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Jamestown Rediscovery®http://www.apva.org/
Dave PeacockDirector, Virtual NorfolkUniversity of East Angliahttp://virtualnorfolk.uea.ac.uk/
Karen RehmChief HistorianColonial National Historical Parkhttp://www.nps.gov/colo/
Crandall ShifflettProject Director, Virtual JamestownVirginia Techhttp://www.vt.edu/
William Thomas, IIIDirector, Virginia Center for Digital HistoryUniversity of Virginiahttp://www.virginia.edu
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