Frequently Asked Questions
What is Civil War Washington?
Civil War Washington is a digital humanities project that allows users to study, visualize, and theorize the complex changes in the city of Washington, DC between 1860 and 1865 through a collection of datasets, visual works, texts, and maps. The purpose of the site is to explore the city and to interpret the city in its historical and cultural contexts. The first iteration of Civil War Washington was begun in 2006, and the site will be a work in progress for some time to come. The materials—and perspectives one might bring to them—are virtually limitless, and we expect the site to continue to encompass more of these materials and points of view over time.
Who is behind Civil War Washington?
The Civil War Washington project team is comprised of a diverse array of humanities scholars and library and technology professionals. The site, which is published by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is directed by Susan C. Lawrence, Elizabeth Lorang, Kenneth M. Price, and Kenneth J. Winkle. Posdoctoral researchers, graduate assistants, and undergraduate students all contribute to the project in a variety of ways. In addition, Civil War Washington has an advisory board that includes experts in American literature, history, and computer science, among other disciplines. For more on individual members of the project team, see our participants page.
How is Civil War Washington funded?
Civil War Washington has benefited from the generous support of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Internal grants and other funding from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln supported the project for its first four years, and in 2010, Civil War Washington was awarded a three-year NEH Collaborative Research Grant. In addition, the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities provides significant resources for the project, particularly technical expertise. The Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experience program at UNL also supports our work.
Can I have permission to use your materials?
Civil War Washington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, which allows others to distribute and adapt our work, so long as they credit Civil War Washington, make their work available non-commercially, and distribute their work under the same terms. Requests for permission to publish or otherwise use our materials for commercial projects should be emailed to the project team. We will respond to your request as soon as possible, typically within a few days. Parts of Civil War Washington may include third-party content that is made available on different terms. (Rights to images, for example, are often held by institutions or individuals who have shared them with us.) In such cases, and where that use does not fall under the terms of fair use, we indicate the different terms or acknowledge that the content is used with permission. For permission to use these materials, contact the rights holders directly.
Where is the data?
The data will be available for download from the data page. It is under development and will be available in various formats.
Can you help me with my research about a relative who participated in the Civil War?
Individual genealogical research is outside the scope of our project. We encourage those interested in family history to use our site with the understanding that our research team cannot respond to genealogical requests. For military service records, we suggest contacting the National Archives, which maintains military service records from 1775 to the present. In addition, the Library of Congress's web page for its Local History & Genealogy Reading Room offers helpful resources for genealogical research, including for research at the Library of Congress as well as for using various Internet sources.
What resources are available for teachers who want to use Civil War Washington in the classroom?
The documents, maps, and data available on Civil War Washington lend themselves to a variety of uses in the classroom. At this time, we do not make available course syllabi or other curriculum materials. If you use Civil War Washington in your teaching—whether at the elementary school level, graduate studies level, or anywhere in between—we would appreciate hearing from you.
How can I contribute to Civil War Washington?
If you have ideas, data, expertise, or materials you're interested in sharing with or contributing to Civil War Washington, please
email the project team.
How can I contact project members?
Please send us your comments about Civil War Washington. We are eager to hear how you have used the site as well as suggestions for development and improvement. If you have questions or comments about the content of Civil War Washington, please contact us. Comments about web design or functionality should be sent to cdrh@unl.edu.
