American Panorama

American Panorama is the Digital Scholarship Lab's flagship project. It uses interactive maps to illuminate themes, issues, and conflicts that have shaped American history.

Projects

In addition to American Panorama, the Lab has created other projects that bring new perspectives to American history.

The Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

A great historical atlas from the 20th century that's enhanced for the 21st.

Mining the Dispatch

An interactive platform that uses topic modelling to explore themes and topics in the Richmond Daily Dispatch during the Civil War.

The Lines that Shape Our Cities

A story map that explores associations between redlining and environmental inequalities, particularly heat islands.

Not Even Past: Social Vulnerability and the Legacy of Redlining

An interactive platform to explore the spatial similarities between inequalities in health today and redlining grades from the 1930s for about 200 US cities.

The History Engine

A collection of thousands of historical “episodes” contributed by undergraduate students from three dozen colleges and universities that paints a wide-ranging portrait of the past.

Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020

A companion to Edward L. Ayers's Southern Journey, which traces the history of the American South through the movement of people.

The Fall of Confederate Richmond

An animated map of the incredible three days in Richmond in 1865 that saw the Confederate capital fall, much of the city burn, and Lincoln arrive to tour the city days before his assassination.

1853 Richmond and its Slave Market

An animated 3D map of Richmond in 1853, focusing on the city's slave market and its implications for understanding the history of slavery in the United States.

Redlining Richmond

An interactive map that explores the history of redlining in Richmond, Virginia, and the lasting echoes of this policy in the present day.

Digital Humanities by Our Richmond Colleagues

The DSL is part of a wider community of digital humanities work at Richmond. Here are a few projects and initiatives we admire.

Race and Racism

Led by Michael Oware, the Race and Racism at the University of Richmond Project is an interdisciplinary initiative that documents, interrogates, and catalyzes community discussions on the history of race and racism at the university.

New American History

Led by Edward Ayers, New American History is home to Bunk, a project that curates explorations of the American past in today's news, and a wealth of learning resources for K-12 educators teaching American history.

The Distant Viewing Lab

Led by Taylor Arnold and Lauren Tilton, the Distant Viewing Lab offers tools and explores techniques for analyzing visual sources using the latest AI and machine learning technologies.

Audible RVA

Created by Andy McGraw, AudibleRVA explores Richmond's soundscape—music venues, noise complaints, music created in the city's jails.

Digital Collections

Led by Warner West, the University of Richmond's Digital Collections provide access to a wealth of primary source materials. Collections of note include the papers of Wyatt T. Walker, the Richmond Daily Dispatch during the Civil War, and the proceedings of the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861.

Who We Are

The Digital Scholarship Lab is part of Boatwright Memorial Library at the University Richmond. Our projects emerge from the collaboration of a team with strengths in American history, cartography, design, web development, and digital humanities.

Robert K. Nelson

Director

Robert K. Nelson directs the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. He earned his PhD in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, beginning his career with work on slavery and antislavery in the nineteenth century. His more recent research has focused on race, inequality, and urban history, reflecting a career-long interest in the ways race has shaped American life. In addition to leading the Lab, Nelson is deeply involved in the coding and development of its projects, where his scholarship is expressed as much in programming as in prose.

Riley D. Champine

Associate Director

Riley D. Champine is the Associate Director for the DSL. He spent seven years making maps for National Geographic Magazine and served as its Manager of Digital Cartography. Riley graduated from the University of Oregon, where he studied geographic information science and urban planning. His maps have covered a wide variety of topics including animal migration, soccer, climate injustice, and international boundary disputes.

Chad Devers

Full Stack Library Solutions Engineer

Chad Devers is the Full Stack Library Solutions Engineer for the DSL and Digital Engagement. He’s enjoyed contributing to a wide variety of University projects, as both designer and developer, since 2011. Chad is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts.

Nathaniel Ayers

Visualization and Web Designer

Nathaniel Ayers is the Digital Scholarship Lab’s visualization and web designer, serving as the head of the Lab’s design work and providing technical assistance to faculty and students. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts, Nathaniel has done programming and visualization work for the University of Virginia.

Nicole Sackley

Research Fellow

Nicole Sackley is Associate Professor of History and American Studies at the University of Richmond. She is a cultural and intellectual historian of the United States in the World with emphasis on the Cold War era and the histories of international development, capitalism, and philanthropy. She has published in Agricultural History, Diplomatic History, History & Technology, The Journal of Global History, Modern Intellectual History, and multiple edited collections. She is the co-PI on the digital humanities project (with Tim Barney), Mapping the Ford Foundation, a collaboration with the DSL about the role of private philanthropy in the second half of the twentieth century. She is currently completing Co-op Capitalism, a monograph about U.S. cooperatives and global development in the twentieth century.

Timothy Barney

Research Fellow

Timothy Barney is a professor of rhetoric and communication studies at the University of Richmond. He studies geopolitical and visual rhetoric, particularly the politics of cartographic representations in U.S. history, and is the author of Mapping the Cold War (University of North Carolina, 2015). He is the co-PI on the digital humanities project (with Nicole Sackley), Mapping the Ford Foundation, a collaboration with the DSL about the role of private philanthropy in the second half of the twentieth century. His current book project looks at the rhetorical and political implications of Vaclav Havel’s presidency in the Czech Republic in the 1990s.

Edward L. Ayers

Senior Research Fellow

Edward L. Ayers is Senior Research Fellow at the DSL. He is president emeritus and a professor of history at the University of Richmond. A scholar of the American South, he is the author of numerous books, including Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790–2020, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction, and The Thin Light of Freedom, and is co-editor of the Freedom, and is co-editor of the Valley of the Shadow digital archive. He is the co-primary investigator on “Visualizing Emancipation.”

Contact

Digital Scholarship Lab

Boatwright Memorial Library
261 Richmond Way
University of Richmond, VA 23173