What was Washington, D.C. like during the Civil War? It's an arresting and interesting question, and the people at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Digital Research in the Humanities have created this digital archive to look into it. As their introductory statement notes, this collection "examines the U.S. national capital from multiple perspectives as a case study of social, political, cultural, and medical/scientific/transitions provoked or accelerated by the Civil War." On the homepage, visitors will find six sections, including Maps, Texts, Visual Works, and Data. For those with a spatial bent, the Maps area is a real find. Visitors can use the interactive GIS-enabled map to look at the layers of history throughout the city with a grain of detail that is remarkable. Moving along, the Interpretations area includes scholarly essays, such as "Washington, the Strategic Capital."
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