Progress-Index: Pamplin Park’s archives go digital. “The core of the Pamplin Historical Park archives is the famed Wiley Sword Collection which ranges from personal letters to general orders. Wiley Sword was the author of several Civil War histories and awarded the Fletcher Pratt Prize for the best book of Civil War history. He was also nominated for the Pulitzer, Parkman, Bancroft, and Western Heritage prizes before passing away. Sword had spent his lifetime building this collection for use in his own research and writing.”
Civil War
John Stevens Cooper Family Papers, PC.2190: Featuring a Soldier’s Letters to Wife Left in Charge of the Farm, Family, and Slaves, 1863–1865 (State Archives of North Carolina)
State Archives of North Carolina: John Stevens Cooper Family Papers, PC.2190: Featuring a Soldier’s Letters to Wife Left in Charge of the Farm, Family, and Slaves, 1863–1865. “The John Stevens Cooper Family Papers (PC.2190) are remarkable for the series of letters from John to his wife, Elizabeth, while he served in the Confederate military in 1863 and 1864. This correspondence sheds light on John’s recognition of the fact that, in his absence, Elizabeth knew what was best for managing their farm and slaves. His letters further illuminate his homesickness, his lack of faith in the Southern cause, and, in two notable instances, his desolation upon encountering the enemy.”
New NCDC Addition: Mary Speed (Jones) Mercer Papers (State Archives of North Carolina)
State Archives of North Carolina: New NCDC Addition: Mary Speed (Jones) Mercer Papers. “In support of the She Changed the World initiative, the North Carolina Digital Collections has a new addition to our collections now available for viewing. The Mary Speed (Jones) Mercer Papers are digitized and can be found in the Civil War digital collection.”
The Text Message (National Archives): Over 650 Newly Digitized Navy Logbooks in the National Archives Catalog
The Text Message (National Archives): Over 650 Newly Digitized Navy Logbooks in the National Archives Catalog. “These firsthand accounts of the Battle of New Orleans during the Civil War are just small snippets from two Navy logbooks, which are part of 653 digitized logbooks from 30 Navy vessels that recently became available in the National Archives Catalog (see list below). These logbooks were digitized in the Innovation Hub at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, DC, by a team of five graduate student interns working on a project titled ‘Seas of Knowledge: Digitization and Retrospective Analysis of the Historical Logbooks of the United States Navy.’ This project will continue through 2021 and will focus on digitizing Navy logbooks for the period 1861-1879, after having made 548 volumes of associated muster rolls available in the NARA catalog last year.”
NARA: Confederate Slave Payrolls Shed Light on Lives of 19th Century African American Families
NARA: Confederate Slave Payrolls Shed Light on Lives of 19th Century African American Families. “They are single lines, often with no last name, on paper yellowed but legible after 155 years, among thousands scrawled in loping letters that make up nearly 6,000 Confederate Slave Payroll records, a trove of Civil War documents digitized for the first time by National Archives staff in a multiyear project that concluded in January. For years, the Confederate Army required owners to loan their slaves to the military. From Virginia to Florida, the enslaved conscripts were forced to dig trenches and work at ordnance factories and arsenals, mine potassium nitrate to create gunpowder, or shore up forts.”
Digital Library of Georgia: Georgia Civil War and Reconstruction newspapers now freely available online
Digital Library of Georgia: Georgia Civil War and Reconstruction newspapers now freely available online . “As part of a $27,405.00 grant from the R. J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation, the Digital Library of Georgia has digitized over 100,000 pages of Georgia newspaper titles published from 1861 to 1877 from microfilm held by the Georgia Newspaper Project.”
Digital Library of Georgia: Confederate naval ledger now freely available online
Digital Library of Georgia: Confederate naval ledger now freely available online. “The Confederate States Naval Iron Works operated from 1862-1865. The ledger also includes entries as late as 1866 as Warner worked with the United States Navy in turning over naval equipment to the United States government. Records surviving the Civil War that document the Confederate Navy is limited. This ledger provides information about Columbus, Georgia, ironclad construction, steam engines, and the daily operation and industrial reach of the Confederate States Naval Iron Works.”
Villanova University: Now Digitized!
Villanova University: Now Digitized!. “Over ten years ago, Distinctive Collections posted a blog post, “THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY…,” about the many materials that are too difficult to digitize. Michael Foight, Director of Distinctive Collections and Digital Engagement, described how the unique Special Collections materials sometimes are too fragile or too tightly bound to be properly scanned. Another complication brought to light is how complex materials once digitized can lose its context with each other. For example, digitizing scrapbooks with many components are digitized individually may lose the interrelationships between each other and the scrapbook as a whole. These obstacles highlight how the argument for ‘digitize everything’ is not so simple or easy. But with the years of upgrades to the Villanova Digital Library we are able to revisit the scrapbooks that could not originally be digitized!”
Library of Congress: Newly Digitized Collections Now Online Include History of Women’s Suffrage, Civil War, Landscape Architecture and Monetary Policy
Library of Congress: Newly Digitized Collections Now Online Include History of Women’s Suffrage, Civil War, Landscape Architecture and Monetary Policy. “Researchers and students have gained access to seven newly digitized collections of manuscript materials from the Library of Congress, including records of one of the most important women’s suffrage organizations, the papers of President Abraham Lincoln’s personal secretary and collections on the history of federal monetary policy. The availability of these collections added more than 465,000 images to the Library’s already vast online resources.”
State Archives of North Carolina: New Additions to Civil War Digital Collection
State Archives of North Carolina: New Additions to Civil War Digital Collection. “A selection of 12 volumes from the Soldiers’ Home Association have been added to the Civil War digital collection. These volumes document the history of medical care for veterans and the elderly around the turn of the 19th century.”
University of North Carolina Libraries: How Carolina’s Archivists Preserve and Share the History of UNC’s Confederate Monument
University of North Carolina Libraries: How Carolina’s Archivists Preserve and Share the History of UNC’s Confederate Monument. “Protestors toppled the monument on August 20, 2018, and officials swiftly removed it. Five months later, Chancellor Carol Folt punctuated her resignation announcement with an order to dismantle and remove the statue’s remaining pedestal and plaques. The protracted conflict—with its protests, counter-protests, petitions, news cameras and rallies—has played out dramatically and very much in the public eye. Meanwhile, just a quad away, librarians and archivists at the Wilson Special Collections Library have taken on a different kind of monumental task: helping people make sense of the statue’s controversial past and the role that it continues to play on campus, even in its absence.”
Washington Post: Two women lead a free tour of Charlottesville’s Confederate monuments each month. A new website lets everyone listen.
Washington Post: Two women lead a free tour of Charlottesville’s Confederate monuments each month. A new website lets everyone listen.. “Once a month, the two African American women walk to the former slave auction block in Charlottesville. They stand before a crowd that often numbers in the dozens. University of Virginia professor Jalane Schmidt gestures toward the ground, pointing out a small concrete marker, flush with the brick sidewalk, that declares: ‘On this site, slaves were bought and sold.’ Beside her, Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, clears her throat. ith that, the tour — which will stretch for roughly 90 minutes and take attendees through the history and legacy of Charlottesville’s embattled Confederate monuments — begins.”
Penn State News: Partnership allows for the launch of the PA Civil War Deserters Database
Penn State News: Partnership allows for the launch of the PA Civil War Deserters Database. “After years of development, Penn State University Libraries, in partnership with the Richards Civil War Era Center, has launched the Pennsylvania Civil War Deserters Database. Containing more than 24,000 individual records of soldiers, the interactive database allows users to search the compiled records for individual solders by name, but also identify groups of soldiers by specific criteria such as blacksmiths who deserted or number of desertions following the Battle of Gettysburg.”
New Transcription Workflow: African American Civil War Soldiers (Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter)
Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter: New Transcription Workflow: African American Civil War Soldiers. “African American Civil War Soldiers recently launched a new workflow to complete the transcription of the military records of all Black men who fought for the Union army, beginning with the famous 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments.”
Gettysburg Times: Database, website created to preserve Gettysburg’s black history
Gettysburg Times: Database, website created to preserve Gettysburg’s black history. “Thanks to a four-way collaboration, a new website will soon make it possible for local and distant members of the black community to learn about their ancestors who lived in Gettysburg. Historians and others interested in the lives of Adams County’s black population will also find the new resource invaluable.” This database will also include information about African-American soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
