Contact person:
Paul Quigley
Director, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
pquigley@vt.edu
540.231.9090
History Department, 405 Major Williams Hall, #0117
Project description: The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, housed in Virginia Tech’s History Department, is creating a new driving tour of Civil War sites in southwest Virginia. Places like Gettysburg and Bull Run are a long way from Blacksburg, but our own area contains many sites of interest that Civil War enthusiasts would like to learn more about. We have begun to assemble information about local Civil War sites (e.g. Smithfield Plantation, here on Tech’s campus, and the Battle of Cloyd’s Mountain in Pulaski County) and are looking for a student team to help us develop a website/smartphone app to make this information available to the public. We also hope to make the website/app interactive, allowing users to suggest other significant sites, or to comment/discuss on the sites already included. Some sort of user rating system might also be good.
Project deliverables: The specific deliverable is negotiable. Eventually, we would like to see the tour available in a number of forms: website; smartphone app; audio files; print brochure. This semester, it probably makes sense to begin with either a website or a smartphone app—depending on the student team’s skills and interests. The website/app should provide users an easy way to (a) find the locations of Civil War sites; (b) acquire information about those sites; (c) post their own comments.
Expected impact of the project: The driving tour will be widely used. The Center will promote its use as a centerpiece of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies’ public outreach efforts among Civil War enthusiasts across Southwest Virginia and beyond. Interest in Civil War history is high and this tour will fill in a gap, allowing people to learn about the lesser-known Civil War history of this region in convenient formats.
Required skills of the team engaging in the project: web design, smartphone app design, perhaps google maps
URLs to follow for additional information: http://www.civilwar.vt.edu
Type of project: website/smartphone app
