November 29, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is working hard to bring 18th-century Virginia to the Internet.
The charity has embarked on an ambitious two-year project to create an online interactive map that will allow users to examine how the town changed during the 1700s and to learn about the people associated with each property.
To create the map, staff members at Williamsburg’s Digital History Center are bringing together all the archaeological, architectural, and historical research on the Colonial town and putting that information into a geographic database.
When the project is finished, users will be able to create maps of Williamsburg at various points in the 18th century and see how the town grew and developed over time, says Lisa E. Fischer, manager of the Digital History Center.
She says that visitors to the site will be able to design their own searches, such as, “Show me every building that’s standing in 1730,” or “Show me all of the taverns in 1775,” and the program will map the results.
Although no new research is being conducted as part of the mapping project, the foundation still expects that it will further the organization’s study of the Colonial town.
“We’re going to be learning new things as a result of that process of trying to fit everything together and get a sense of what was found where and how does it relate to the other things that were found on the site,” says Ms. Fischer.
The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the foundation a $275,000 grant for the project, which is expected to be completed in June 2009.
