Author: Julia Wall

This past Friday the DSSF team took the road to Lafayette College with the purpose of visiting their digital summer scholars. All of their projects were unique and their topics literally went all over the world, from social justice movements at Lafayette to government mysticism in Iraq. However, even with all of these different topics, we still found common ground in the field of digital humanities and what tools would be used for projects, discussion on how to present research, and how to contribute to the field of digital humanities. I knew, starting out, that no one would have anything close to my project because it is such a narrow topic within an already narrow field, but I still found great opportunity for collaboration with the scholars from Lafayette and I hope that we continue our collaborative efforts in the future. (Much like how Marquis de Lafayette collaborated with Washington in the American Revolution.)

Project Name: Your Friend and Classmate: Following the West Point Class of June 24, 1861 Through the American Civil War

(Project title comes from George Custer’s note to William H. Harris in his photograph album)

Project Owner: Julia Wall

Project Summary

My project is going to be an interactive yearbook based on the Photograph Album we have in Special Collections, belonging to William H. Harris. Each cadet will have their own page and on that page will be basic information: their Army/Corps/Division/Brigade/Regiment/Company throughout the war and where they went, or what battles they fought, if they were wounded, if they died. After the basic information I want to look into their letters, diaries, correspondence, to see what their perspective of the war and of their life was. I do not want this to be a database of a West Point Class, I want it to be the retelling of their stories so that they might be remembered. My audience will most likely be made up of Civil War scholars and West Point enthusiasts but I want to make it accessible to the general public as well, informing them why these men are important and why we should remember them.

Deliverables

• Scans of William H. Harris’ Photograph Album
• Letters, diaries, etc. of the cadets
• Timeline JS
• Scalar or Internet Archive (for the Photograph Album)
• Picture of William Duncan Fuller
• StoryMap? (I need more than one marker at a time, so maybe another mapping app)

Timeline

Week 2

• Finish write-up of Cullum’s Register
• Start Exploring timeline apps
• Start Exploring mapping apps

Week 3

• Categorize battles and locations
• Look for letters
• Have all Army/Corps/Division/Brigade/Regiment/Company information done
• Work on timelines/maps

Week 4

• Look for letters
• Start on descriptions/bios of cadets
• Start on web design
• Work on timelines/maps

Week 5

• Finish Big Map
• Look into Internet Archive/Scalar
• Look for letters
• Write descriptions/bios of cadets
• Work on timelines/maps

Week 6

• Look for letters
• Write descriptions/bios of cadets
• Work on timelines/maps

Week 7

• Write descriptions/bios of cadets
• Finish any timelines/maps

Week 8

• Write introductory notes, dedication, etc.
• Link maps, timelines, etc.

Week 9

• Finish descriptions/bios of cadets

Week 10

• Any last minute touches
• Final Presentation

End of Life/Future Plans

If I left out any cadets, or did not finish up research on any I will continue to work on their bios/timeline/map. The project will continue to be updated with any new research found on the cadets, either by myself or readers of my project that contact me. It will be preserved on Gettysburg Sites, but other than that their biographies are typed out and saved in multiple ways online. The information will still be out there.

During this week we were presented with a lot of definitions of Digital Humanities, from paragraphs to a simple “TBA”. To me the definition of Digital Humanities is truly “TBA” because it is a relatively new field that combines two already established fields with different objectives and different values. We develop digital humanities as we work on our projects, finding out what works, what does not, and what limitations we find on the way.

Like any field there should be principles and values that are held by those participating. Some of the ones that we talked about were openness, collaboration, connectedness, diversity, experimentation, etc. I think one of the most important values of digital humanities is openness. Openness is important to digital humanities because it brings the openness and access of the digital world to the kind of closed off world of humanities. Most studies of humanities are done in an archive or with primary sources that are not easily accessible or understandable to the public but with the digital component it brings the study of humanities to everyone and broadens the audience of the study of humanities. The study of humanities has been around for such a long time and is considered to only be interesting and understandable to a select group of academics, digital humanities brings a more modern approach to how we see humanities. For the longest time history was done by old white men, and still is today for the most part but more and more people from diverse backgrounds are getting into areas of history that were previously dominated by said old white males. Digital humanities makes it easier to get a foot in the door for people who are not the majority in their field. Like a civilian female researching West Point cadets involvement in the American Civil War.

I could easily write a paper or form an exhibit about these cadets but through digital humanities I have a platform to share my project with literally the world. These cadets gave everything so that their country might live and prosper, they deserve to have their story told and to be known for more than just their military merits, but for who they were as people. I want to humanize these cadets and give them life again, because so often in history we are so quick to put men like Custer, Cushing, and O’Rorke on pedestals and praise them for their military merits but then forget that they were actual people with feelings, thoughts, and personality. Through their letters and through digital humanities I hope to show that they were just young men who went above and beyond the call of duty and what was expected of them, even as West Point cadets where expectations were sky high. Through digital humanities I can combine their military merits with their life experiences as people and not simply military figures. Digital humanities allows me to humanize these young men by displaying their stories in a way that is accessible and entertaining to the public today. By making my project interactive through the tools of digital humanities it makes the project more personal and able to connect with more people. I look forward to the research I will do and the part my project will play in furthering the definition of digital humanities.

Greetings, my name is Julia Wall and I am a rising sophomore at Gettysburg College, with a major in History and hopefully double major in Political Science as well as minor in Civil War Era Studies. I was interested in the Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship because it worked with items in Special Collections and also brought in the field of Digital Humanities which I had never heard of before this opportunity. I think that digital humanities is a great way to provide information that is more readily and easily accessible for a more modern and digital audience.

My project is based off of the photograph album of William H. Harris, a West Point cadet that graduated with the June class of 1861, in Special Collections. William H. Harris kept up with almost every classmate and where they went during the American Civil War. Which leads me to wanting to tell the stories of these cadets through a digital yearbook and collect their stories, letters, etc to contribute to a bigger picture of who they were.