Message-Id: <200106041443.HAB17646@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2001 10:42:57 -0400 From: ELIZABETH RODERICK <mailto:eroderic@IGLOU.COM> Subject: Virginia Historical Inventory Project To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
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[Apologies for Cross Posting]
The Virginia Historical Inventory Project
http://eagle.vsla.edu/vhi
The Library of Virginia's Digital Library Program (DLP) is pleased to
announce the availability of the Virginia Historical Inventory
Project, funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1997.
The Virginia Historical Inventory (VHI) is a collection of
detailed reports, photographs, and maps, documenting the architectural,
cultural, and family histories of thousands of 18th- and 19th-century
buildings in communities across Virginia. Workers for the Works
Progress Administration (WPA) project documented, assessed, and
photographed early structures (many of which do not survive today),
creating a pictorial and textual prism through which architects,
genealogists, economists, social historians, journalists, researchers,
and the general public can study a unique record of Virginia's past.
The collection consists of more than 19,300 survey reports (consisting
of approximately 70,000 pages), more than 6,200 photographs, and 103
annotated county and city maps. The project was created in the late
1930s by the Virginia Writers' Project, a branch of the federally
funded Works Progress Administration (WPA). Using a standard format,
the field-workers for the VHI prepared survey reports on each
structure, with extensive details taken from onsite investigation,
research in court records and other local resources, and personal
interviews with county residents. The reports include such information
as descriptions of the buildings and their surroundings, the history of
the building, chronological lists of owners, architectural features,
and historical significance. For most buildings, field-workers
completed a standardized "architectural description" form, giving
extensive architectural details such as size, type of building
material, weatherboarding, cornices, shutters, porch, and entryway, and
on interior features such as the stairway, basement, and styles
of doors, layout, and other distinctive features. Field-workers often
added pencil or pen-and-ink sketches to their reports. In addition,
they often included photographs of the buildings they documented.
Unlike the more well-known Historic American Buildings Survey, which
documents prominent historical structures, the VHI was specifically
charged with describing the vernacular architecture and history of
everyday buildings: homes, workplaces, churches, and public buildings.
This aspect of the project makes the existence of photographs that much
more valuable (and poignant): many of these structures no longer exist,
and the VHI photographs may be the only extant visual records of them.
VHI writers did not restrict their reports to structures, however.
There are also reports on cemeteries (often including detailed
tombstone information), antiques, historical events, and personages, as
well as transcriptions of land grants, wills, deeds, diaries, and
correspondence.
The Virginia Writers' Project office in Richmond took the further step
of annotating county and city maps, primarily ones published by the
Virginia Department of Transportation in 1936, by adding numbers in red
ink indicating the locations of documented structures, with the map
number stamped on the corresponding report.
To accomplish the online presentation of the VHI, the DLP has digitized
from microfilm all of the survey reports, scanned from the original
prints all of the photographs, and prepared full-level cataloging
records for each of the reports and photographs. In cooperation with
VTLS, Inc., the Library has also developed an interactive digital
interface for the maps. Finally, the DLP has collected together within
one interface links to all the material available for a specific
report.
The VHI digital project makes it possible for a user to search the
survey report database, view the image of the report, then retrieve the
corresponding map and the photograph. Or, the researcher may search the
interface to find a specific geographical location, and then review the
specific survey report for that site. Or, a researcher may search the
photographs and retrieve the corresponding survey report and map to
provide a context for each image. An additional feature makes it
possible for a researcher to choose a particular locality, then view
the locations and reports for categories of structures, such as
churches, dwellings, taverns, school buildings, cemeteries, commercial
buildings, bridges, and historic sites.
VTLS, Inc., located in Blacksburg, Virginia, provided extensive
consulting, design and technical support for all aspects of the
project, and was instrumental in designing and implementing the
complex interactive interface for all of the project components.
Sam Byrd was the Project Manager, and Glenn Courson was the
Digitization Manager.
While the primary objective was to increase the public's access to
this rare collection, the Mellon Grant is allowing the Library to
create a model for comparing the costs of storing and assessing
the collection in both traditional media and digital format. The
Library will evaluate the use and acceptability of digital and printed
versions of the VHI reports and will test the long-term economic
viability of maintaining and serving these digital collections. The
findings of this evaluation will be shared with other organizations
contemplating digitization of collections.
The URL for the Library of Virginia is http://www.lva.lib.va.us
and the VHI resource is available on the Digital Library Program
Home Page. For more information contact Elizabeth Roderick,
Director, Digital Library Program, The Library of Virginia
mailto:eroderick@lva.lib.va.us
-- Elizabeth Roderick email (mailto:eroderick@lva.lib.va.us) Director, Digital Library Program email (mailto:eroderic@iglou.com) The Library of Virginia phone (804) 692-3761 800 E. Broad Street fax (804) 692-3771 Richmond, VA 23219***************************************************** http://www.lva.lib.va.us The LVA Digital Library Program *****************************************************
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