The project details the lives of two communities one Northern and one Southern from the beginnings of the Civil War to Reconstruction though the use of primary materials. "Giving a voice to hundreds of individual people the Valley Project tells forgotten stories of life during the era of the Civil War." [1]

The Valley Project is part of the Virginia Center of Digital History and its mission statement is below.

"Our mission is to develop high-quality, well-researched, and reliable history resources in digital format and deliver them to schools, colleges, libraries, historical societies, and the general public via the Internet. By doing this we hope to transform how American history is taught, learned, understood, and accessed." [2]

To achieve this mission VCDH has committed itself to collaborative efforts with other institutions, both within and outside of the University of Virginia system, and to using innovative technologies which allow information to be freely accessed by a general audience.

VCDH has received support for its project and initiatives from the generous donors of the University of Virginia, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Jessie Ball DuPont Foundation, the Virginia Department of Education, the National Park Service, and several private foundations." [2]

The Valley Project started in 1991 as research for a book by Edward L. Ayers, Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History at the University of Virginia. "Computers were not a part of the Valley of the Shadow concept at the very beginning, but it soon became apparent that they offered a powerful new way to approach the project. Ayers planned to weave together the small details of life in the communities during the Civil War using letters, diaries, memoirs, census records, church records, government records, battle reports, speeches, and newspapers." [1] Like many digital archives the Valley Project started in the university academic setting and in this case for the research of one individual. But it has grown out of academia to a larger educational audience.

"The project is the brainchild of the historian Edward L. Ayers." [3] It began money from the University of Virginia which quickly exhausted. They were able to partner with the "Woodrow Wilson Birthplace and Museum in Staunton, Virginia. They saw possibilities in the Valley Project for enriching the understanding of their visitors, and envisioned a terminal in the Museum that would allow staff and visitors the opportunity to explore daily life in the town. The Birthplace and Museum secured a grant of six thousand dollars from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities so that we could continue building the project; we, in turn, happily agreed to set up a workstation there running the Valley Project. The Augusta Archive, created for the Museum and built from the outset for the World Wide Web, was the true prototype of the Valley Project." [1]

In 1996 the Valley Project was able to receive a grant from the NEH for over two hundred thousand dollars. In 1998 Ayers founded the Virginia Center for Digital History which oversees the Valley Project as well as many others. In addition to the NEH grant the VCDH has many partners and support.

The Valley Project has a sizable staff and among them several graduates students who work on the Valley Project. [1]

The Valley project has been built using SGML and XML. This technology allows the documents to be interoperable with other collections held under the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia. The Electronic Text Center "combines an on-line archive of tens of thousands of SGML and XML-encoded electronic texts and images with a library service that offers hardware and software suitable for the creation and analysis of text. Through ongoing training sessions and support of teaching and research projects, the Center is building a diverse user community locally, serving thousands of users globally, and providing a model for similar humanities computing enterprises at other institutions." [4]

The Valley Project "contains nearly a gigabyte of information, including photographs, letters, diaries, censuses, maps, military records, tax lists, and thirty thousand pages from local newspapers, all cross-referenced." [3]

It was hard to determine if the collection is complete already. It is governed by a very specific topic which I don't believe will be expanded in this collection. The only things that one might expect to be added to the project are the scholarly works that develop from the material found in the collection as well as additional educational materials.

The site design is based on the metaphor of a floor plan.

Each octagon represents a time period: The Eve of the War (Fall 1859 to Spring 1861), The War Years (Spring 1861 to Spring 1865) and The Aftermath (Spring 1865 to Fall of 1870). The central chamber is always the reference center which links to the search interface for each database holding the collection. Each time period contains a collection of letters, diaries, and newspaper articles and a few other similar items such as census records and images. Then the individual time periods contain information that pertain to that time. The Eve of the War for instance contains church records, The War Years contain Soldiers Records, and The Aftermath contains Freemen's Bureau information.

From what I can tell the objects in the Valley Project are not linked to the library catalog at UVA. The Valley of the Shadow is a primarily a stand alone collection though it is related to the other projects managed by the Virginia Center for Digital History.

The Valley Project is available freely on the World Wide Web. Their full policy on copyright and fair usage is available on the site.

There are several databases that govern search in the collection. Some of the databases offer a search feature others rely on browsing depending on the amount as structure of the content. The features and methods of search available differ depending on the type of collection. Though typically if there is a search feature there is not a browse feature which is frustrating when you aren't sure what type of information you are seeking or understand what might be available. Another disappointment is that the databases aren't linked. You must search each one individually.

They do offer the ability to ask question but it is not a formal reference service. They have several resources available of reference assistance on the site. One such example is the extensive bibliography for regarding each section and there are teaching resources which give suggestion on what topics to research on the site and instructions opportunities. Also there is usually an "about" section for each collection which offers some guidance on how to approach the objects.

Most of the files reside on a server which is share with the Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities (IATH) at the University of Virginia. Some other materials (mostly letters and diaries) are hosted by the University of Virginia Library's Etext Center. You can tell when you have switched from the IATH/VCDH server to the Etext server because the URL with begin with "etext.lib.virginia.edu". [5]

They are currently using a Sun server and are in the process of switching to a newer one which will prevent any downtime if something should fail. At the level of hardware used to work on the resources that are eventually placed on the server -- there are a series of pcs, mostly running Windows NT. [5]

They also have a linux server, which is being used to explore the possibility of delivering some of the text via eXist, and xml database (though this has nothing directly to do with Valley of the Shadow at this time). [5]

The interface of the site is fairly basic relying on simple HTML pages for the most part. I was unable to determine what type of databases they use and how they are displayed. There are parts of the site that have used other technology to create GIS maps.

There is one section that uses flash to generate and animate a dynamic map of the battles.

They do not have any particular security measures surrounding the Valley of the Shadow Collection. All of the collection is open and available to the World Wide Web. [5]

I don't think that this collection is directly designed to address any research and development issues in terms of the technologies. They have made an effort from the start to use best practices and the best technology for interoperability. What I would say is this archive is one of the best examples for creating research about the content.

The project keeps an listing of all the mentions that have occurred in the press if you are seeking more information about the Valley of the Shadow.

1. http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/
2. http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/index.html
3. Finding history on the Net. By: Horowitz, Mark. American Heritage, Oct95, Vol. 46 Issue 6, p44, 2p; Database:           Academic Search Elite
4. http://etext.virginia.edu/index.html
5. Email received March 18, 2004 from Kimberly A. Tryka, Associate Director, Virginia Center for Digital History,           University of Virginia