Digitizing the Dispatch
Civil War-era newspaper goes high tech
By Joan Tupponce
Chris Kemp, front, and Jim Gwin show off the new, digitized Daily Dispatch, and bound, original copies of the Civil War-era newspaper.
Internet users can now revisit the Civil War with a simple click of the mouse thanks to the University’s online digitizing of The Daily Dispatch, Richmond’s largest newspaper during the Civil War years.
The project was funded by a large grant to Boatwright Memorial Library from the Institute of Library and Museum Services.
“Given how competitive we knew the grant process to be, we were not very optimistic that we would receive a grant,” says Robert Kenzer, professor of history and American studies. “I was quite surprised when we received one of the few grants and that we were awarded nearly $500,000.”
The project focuses on The Daily Dispatch because of its wide circulation and the fact that it was the least partisan of all the city’s newspapers.
“It received most of its revenue from advertising rather than from any political party,” Kenzer says. “Hence, in a sense it was the paper of record for the city.”
During the war, thousands of people flocked to Richmond for work when the city became the capital of the Confederacy.
“The Daily Dispatch felt it important to meet the interests of its readers by providing reports not just about Richmond and Virginia, but the entire Confederacy, so that these newcomers could keep up on the circumstances in their home states,” Kenzer says.
The University contracted with Digital Divide Data to digitize the paper’s more than 4,000 pages of news.
“Digital Divide is an interesting company, profiled in The World is Flat as a unique model of social entrepreneurialism,” notes Rachel Frick, head of bibliographic access services. “The company prides itself on its social mission of providing education and opportunities for the people of Cambodia, and at the same time providing good product.”
The company not only scanned newspaper images from the University’s microfilm, but it also provided transcribed text files that were encoded with additional information to describe the format of the paper.
“This extra information or ‘meta data’ tagging allows for finer precision in searching for information in the newspapers,” Frick explains.
Initially, the University hoped to digitize papers back to 1857.
“As it turned out, with sources of copyright and clarity of film, it didn’t work,” says Jim Gwin, head of Boatwright Library’s collection development. “Historians and technology people decided to start about the time that South Carolina was beginning to secede. The newspaper stopped being published the day Richmond fell and was occupied by Union forces in April 1865.”
Since its launch on Oct. 23, 2006, the Web site is averaging about 160 visits per day—peak usage to date has been 880 visits in one day. Visitors to the site hail from every state in the United States as well as 59 countries around the world.
“In a survey we conducted, about 40 percent of respondents indicated that their purpose for visiting was genealogical research, while 35 percent were there for Richmond or Civil War research purposes,” says Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives. “Our top academic traffic is coming from the University of Virginia, Gettysburg College, UNC-Wilmington, Muskingum College and VCU.”
The project “has been an important learning experience for library staff,” says University Librarian Jim Rettig. “We have learned what it takes to plan and manage a large digitations project as well as how to budget for these costly, complex projects.”
Creating coherent, user-friendly digital collections requires expertise few small liberal arts institutions have, Rettig adds. “We have developed that expertise and can plan other local projects as well as mentor others embarking on digital library projects.”
The library is currently seeking a planning grant that would provide funding for its next digital project.
“We hope to have additions to the Civil War project that will help college students and also students and teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade,” Gwin says.
Kenzer is in the process of identifying other sources to add to the Web site and working to publicize it to historians. He hopes the project will serve as a model for other professors, demonstrating how they might use the Web and create Web sites as part of their classroom teaching.
“One of the benefits is that your efforts not only influence students at your college and university but also those elsewhere,” he says.
To view the digitized editions of The Daily Dispatch, go to dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr/index.html.