SHANTI - Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives

Focus

Tool Development, Scholarly Content, Teaching

Overview

Jefferson’s Travels Project is an NEH-funded project to develop in interactive visualizations of Thomas Jefferson’s physical and intellectual travels. Work is done by 4th-year history majors in a capstone course at the University of Virginia, and in conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation (Monticello).

Science fiction not withstanding, people exist in only one place at any given time. This offers a useful pair of concrete dimensions to ground the complex and often abstract web of historical inquiry. Jefferson’s Travels is an interactive look at Thomas Jefferson’s life organized around where he was and when. A specially constructed interactive browser provides for fast and easy navigation along the time and place dimensions, and offers an opportunity to explore Mr. Jefferson’s life by examining primary source documents and information. This new Internet-based browser facilitates a new form of historical narrative when the story can be told not just through words, but by interactive visualizations showing relationships using historically vetted primary source documents and data.

People

Bill Ferster, Director

Scot French

Chad Wollerton

Jack Robinson

Sponsors

National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)