Tag: UVA-Wise

Final Reflection

As my experience with my website is coming to a close, it is now the perfect time to post my final reflections. The website that Dakota and I created was better then we had imagined it would be, even with the flaws we still have to fix. Both of us admit to not being the most technologically savvy people, so what we were able to create pleased us to no end.

We did deviant from the contract in several ways by content and design. Originally, we had hoped to create a digital archive with numerous amounts of pictures and newspaper articles that viewers could see. However, due to peer edits and lack of time, our agenda had to change. Now our site is more of an overview of what our region was up to, along with clipped articles that focus on specific topics. This narrative style is seen throughout the website and on our changed tabs.

The “Home page” deviated from the contract in that it is not as long winded as we had first envisioned. When we had first began creating out site, we had  long paragraphs in mind for our mission statement. As time went on however, Dakota compacted the mission statement into a couple of short paragraphs that worked better and did not overwhelm our intended audience as much.

The “In the News” tab became two separate tabs, “Entertainment” and “Women in War. The “Entertainment” tab stayed close to the contract in that it did continue to state what events were frequently mentioned during the war and had countless articles as visual aids. However, baseball came to replace  the topic of diseases, as with more research I learned the diseases were featured in Richmond not the norm in Wise. The “Women in War” page also managed to stick close to the contract. I diligently listed the organizations that women participated in and added articles throughout. And yet with encouragement and thought, I increased the descriptions of what they did in their local clubs.

The last tab that I had, “The Flu” underwent some drastic changes. With more research, Dakota and I found that the articles I had clipped did not fit the Spanish Flu epidemic. The articles also didn’t fit, in that they were about Richmond and not Wise, Dickenson, or Big Stone Gap. So with a heavy heart I removed them.  I also allowed Dakota to overtake my tab and add in paragraphs he had found within his research. His narrative explained that the flu had been caught within the mountains, but that information was limited. All in all, my tabs deviated a little from the contract, but in ways that I felt improved the website credibility and design.

Dakota’s tabs of “Local Memorials” and the  “Honor Roll” managed to not deviant from the contract at all. Which was a wonderful achievement, as the intended way was simple and to the point. However “The Local Reflections” had to evolve as he was not able to obtain the appropriate permission to digitally scan the booklets. Dakota overcame that obstacle and wrote an essay using lines that conveyed the main message of the authors. Ultimately, Dakota’s tabs kept to what we had intended and contributed to the site in a helpful and interactive way.

For our division of labor, it safe to say that Dakota and I both stayed within the structured parameters. Though as stated above, Dakota did take over “The Flu” tab due to him having more relevant research, both of us used our own contributions of research to complete our own tabs with little to no help from the other. Though we did work together to edit the tabs and make website a success.

In Conclusion, Century America has taught me that it is okay to change your original plans. That both historical research and the digital world is a constantly evolving process that can bring joy, heartache, and frustration. And yet, even with all the days I wanted to pull my hair out or throw my pencil down, I would go back and do it all over again. Century America has taught me lessons I know I will use in both my academic and future careers.

Article Reflections

Hello World

Today I am going to write about two articles I read and my impressions of them and what they said about digital history.

This first article I read was Learning how to write Analog and Digital History (2012 revision) by Andrea Lawrence.  The first paragraph starts out with the author expanding on how historical has been a robust project that has certain perimeters that have stayed mostly the same over the last few years. And that learning to “do history” (A direct quote) can feel like a just soaking in knowledge. While presenting it can be a very limited experience.

I understood what she was saying up to this point. As I have noticed how lately in the modern world how people have stopped at only sharing knowledge through books or conferences. However there is another way to do so and Andrea tackles this in her paper.

She created a class called Histories of Education where she taught her students how to evaluate historiography and experiment with different forms of historical research and writing methods and formats.  Through online discussion, peer review, blogs, critical reviews, wikipedia and other formats; she taught her students what integrity in historical research is, how to structure and how to document.

This article allowed me to reflect on some things I would want to place on my website and how I would want to share history in the future. It also showed that digital history is more then just a new form of sharing history, its a new form of educating, learning and experimenting. It is allowing people to reach new heights and “do history” in a way that is more then soaking knowledge from a page. All in all, I felt her article was very informative if a little ambiguous.

The other article I read was The Accountability Partnership: Writing and Surviving in the Digital Age (2012 revision) by Natalia Petrzela and Sarah Manekin.

This article jumped out at me because of the title. Sometimes I feel like I’m barely managing to keep a float in the Digital world sea. So I wanted to see how other people have managed.

The first paragraph started by introducing our two authors and why they had need an accountability partnership—-a dissertations. Both women had been in different cities and studying two vastly different centuries of history. But they used the internet to connect via email. Both would email each other every day with goals, a schedule of what they were doing, and a reflection on whatever tricky historical question was tickling their brain that day.

Though I found this article sparse on exciting sentences that kept me engaged the whole time, I liked the idea of what they were doing. And felt like it would be a wonderful way to keep on task.

All in all, I felt that their article was informative, if a little too wordy and dry. However I am glad I read their article as it showed me that I would want to avoid blocky paragraphs and cliche catch phrases in my own writing, of my contract and on my website.

Both articles were helpful in sharing ideas and methods which is why they had been originally shared. So I can say that both did their jobs well and I’ll be looking through more articles later.

Until next time.

-Victoria

Research 3

Hello World

I got to explore a entirely new archives and visit a new college in my area!

I arranged with my advisor ages ago to go to Mount Empire Community College and Friday I was finally able to drive over there. I was happy to find that it only took me about twenty minutes. So I can go there more often and not have to worry about ranging gas costs.

Once I arrived there and found my way to the library. (I was hopeless lost for a good bit until I found the Human Resource Department, who nicely pointed me in the right direction). I entered to find that Mount Empire’s library was structured a lot different then UVA-Wise. For one, they have mental detectors. For another, the lighting is kinda of mysterious and old-age.

I waltzed my way over to the front desk and was able to find a student aide who got the main librarian. When he (the main librarian) heard what I was there about—the Wise Historical Society artifacts; he lead me to two very very big filing cabinets and a microfilm room.

He sounded apologetic when he told me I’d have to look through most of the files piece by piece. As he had no idea what all they had acquired. I however assured him, that I wasn’t bothered. I would just have to make sure to come back several times to see what all I could find. He was able to tell me that before I put anything up on Dakota and I’s future site, we would need to get permission from the Wise County Historical Society as they still retained the copyright to all the files. So that was helpful and reassuring.

Yesterday I only got through two drawers. But I was able to find some bonds  awarded to a company in Wise in 1911 and a directory of Historical Societies in Wise County. I wrote the societies down and took pictures of the bonds.

I was happy with those finds. Even if I’m not sure how to work the bonds into the website. At least it showed me that the Wise Historical Society does have some things from the time Dakota and I are looking into.

Thought next time he is coming too, so we can cover ground faster.

Until next time.

-Victoria

Present Findings—

Multiple Newspaper Articles. (From UVA-Wise Library microfilm).

Photos of soldiers (From Dickenson County Historical Society)

Photos from Looking Back at Wise County The Early Years

Information from The Heritage of Wise Volume One and Volume Two

Photo of the memorial featured from Dickenson Memorial High School

Booklet about Wise County during World War One

Booklet about Dickenson County during World War One

Pictures of a Bond from 1911

Future Research—

More research on Mount Empire and the Wise Historical Society artifacts

UVA-Wise special collections

Napoleon Hill Foundation (Sent email; still waiting for a conformation)

Big Stone Gap Public Library

Russell County

Lee County

Washington County

South-west Virginia Museum

Old Dickenson County Newspapers (Microfilm from Library of Virginia)

Microfilm of the muster roll of Wise County from the Library of Virginia

Questionnaires of soldiers from the Library of Virginia

Map

Hello World.

I am updating today to let you know of a little project I was assigned.

My Century America Professors asked me to play around with and create a digital story using either Google map from the Google Map App or a time-line template off of Google drive.

I had created a time-line based off of events in my life. Since I already had the pictures in the public domain anyway on Facebook; I didn’t feel weird about sharing them again. Besides, looking back is always a wonderful thing to do when you’re a college kid and a historian in the making.

However, I had loads of trouble trying to get the pictures to be the right pixel size for the template and I couldn’t get them into the media thumbnail column at all.

Eventually, realizing that I am not a technologically advanced person, I put that aside to be messed with later on.

(I will be asking my IT department to help me out when it comes time to make a time-line for the website so I don’t end up in a world of hurt).

Instead of the time-line, I published a map. It’s of places that I’ve lived so far during my life. There aren’t any pictures, as I didn’t want to use any from the public domain without permission and I didn’t have any pictures on hand, but there is a line connecting the places in order of how I visited them.

I don’t think I’ll be using a map on my website, but the practising was loads of fun and who knows? I may need to know how to use Google Maps for some other kind of project.

Here is the link to my sad pitiful map.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zuZlWrQ3CGIw.k4H9e0ylptUU

Let me know if there is any changes or corrections that should be made.

Thanks.

-Victoria

Research

Hello World.

So going into this project, my partner and I developed a plan of what we both wanted to initially research. The focuses we decided upon will probably change in the future as we progress farther, and get more documents, but for now they are a jumping off point.

My side of the research is two fold– I will be looking into the local organizations that developed or expanded during the Great War and the local soldiers who served. For the local organizations, I want to look into how many members they had, what kinds of activities they sponsored, how prominent they were in the local media, and whither they had any formal documents backing their activities. The organizations are to include the Red Cross, the Boy Scots and the local churches. For the soldiers, I want to see who was called up by the draft, who volunteered, who earned medals and honors, and who died.

My research partner, Dakota will be looking into the economy and agriculture of our county and the towns within it during the war. Specifically how the towns operated on a boom and bust economic cycle that lifted and lowered the standard of living and population for short periods of time. He wants to see how that cycle and the dependence on coal worked during World War One and its aftermath.

To fulfill my part, I went to the Wise Public library and the UVA-Wise library. I also set up meetings with prominent people and businesses within the coming week.

The Wise public library was helpful in some ways and lacking in others. When I went to visit there on Wednesday, I was able to pick up three books.

Looking Back: Wise County In the Early Years 

The Heritage of Wise County and The City of Norton 1856-1993 Volume One

The Heritage of Wise County and The City of Norton 1856-1993 Volume Two

The first book had pictures in it. Ones that I hope to make use if they are found to be relevant. The other two had some articles that could be of help. Most of the articles had a subscript telling where the Wise Historical Society copied them from. So the books were helpful.

However, when I visited the archives this weekend, I was sadly disappointed. The archives in the Public Library were a flop. The documents and magazines that I found were either not in the years needed or not based in my local community. The newspapers on microfilm were also not helpful as they only dated back to 1923.

Feeling a little bit sad, but hopeful I moved on to the UVA-Wise library. As it was now Sunday, I had the place to myself and the peace and quiet to spend hours searching through microfilm.

Those hours paid off as I was able to find a newspaper called the Big Stone Gap Post. A newspaper that had various detailed segments about organizations such as the Red Cross and The Boy Scots of Big Stone Gap.

Wise, called Gladeville at the time was also mentioned several times, as my town joined the Red Cross and helped other towns of Wise County in their efforts to help the troops.

Besides organizations, I was able to find multiple lists of soldiers that signed up during the draft and what town they originated from.

So I plan to call my initial researching into my research agenda a success.

I have a long way to go, but at least I have a start.

-Victoria

Present Findings—

Multiple Newspaper Articles. (From UVA-Wise Library microfilm).

Future Research—

Mount Empire and the Wise Historical Society artifacts located there.

UVA-Wise special collections

Napoleon Hill Foundation

Dickenson Historical Society

Big Stone Gap Public Library