eHistory

Through a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I learned about eHistory, the Web site of the Center for Virtual History, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia. The Center was founded by Stephen Berry and Claudio Saunt.The Center has created online projects.

The Invasion of America is an interactive map which shows Native American land cessions between 1784 and 1887.When the slider on the map is moved, changes from year to year are visible. By clicking on the map, one can see who ceded the land, and when it was ceded. Pop-up boxes link to documents, including the text of treaties.

IndianNation contains pages for Native Americans counted in the census of 1900. I found Louis Thifault, the father-in-law of my first cousin 3 times removed Ralph Edwin Boe, listed on the site. Louis lived in Rolette, North Dakota and was a member of the Ojibwe tribe. The site did not have much information on him. People can register and add information to the site. I registered and began adding information.

Pox Americana contains information on the smallpox epidemic of 1775-1782. Cases of smallpox are shown on an interactive map; if you click on a case, details about it are provided.

The Georgia Virtual History Project includes maps, tutorials, and videos on the history of the state of Georgia. A mobile app is also available.

Other projects being developed by the Center are Born Unfree (biographies of former slaves interviewed by the Works Progress Administration), Common Tongues (the Corpus of American Civil War Letters Project, a collection of letters by Civil War soldiers who wrote "by ear"), CSI Dixie (coroners' inquests for the state of South Carolina between 1840 and 1880), Freedmen's Teacher Project (biographies of teachers in freed people's schools), Fugitive Federals (Union prisoners who escaped the Confederacy), and Mapping the American Population (demographic changes in North America between 1500 and 1800).