Week One
Classes at the University of Mary Washington are back in swing, and the Century America project is now officially underway. Along with my colleagues Leah, Jack, and Julia, I am beginning the first stage of the process: inventorying potential resources for our research.
We are fortunate to have an abundance of local resources available both from the University’s special collections and from Fredericksburg locations, like the Virginiana Room at the downtown library, the Central Rappahannock Heritage Center, and the archives located at the Circuit Court. Some interesting findings so far are a digitized collection of course catalogs from the school’s beginnings in 1908, Battlefield yearbooks, and a collection of wartime posters. I am excited to begin uncovering the stories hidden in less obvious sources, like local plats, business directories, and Census records to see what trends appear.
We are currently gathering some of these sources and determining which will provide us with the best picture of UMW and Fredericksburg during the Great War. A preliminary inventory is coming soon!
