Digital Scholarship Lab
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| Digital Scholarship Lab | |
|---|---|
| Name | Digital Scholarship Lab |
| Formation | 2005 |
| Type | Research center |
| Location | University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia |
| Leader title | Director |
| Leader name | Robert K. Nelson |
Digital Scholarship Lab The Digital Scholarship Lab is a research center at the University of Richmond that produces digital cartography, interactive mapping, and historical data visualizations. It occupies a position at the intersection of public history, digital humanities, and historical geography while engaging with institutions such as the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the American Historical Association. Its outputs include geospatial reconstructions, pedagogical tools, and scholarly publications used by museums, libraries, and cultural organizations across the United States.
Overview
The Lab develops projects that combine archival sources from the Smithsonian Institution, the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Library of Virginia with methods from historical GIS, spatial humanities, and data visualization. It collaborates with scholars affiliated with the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the American Antiquarian Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Outputs are used by curators from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, educators at the College of William & Mary, and researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
History
Founded in 2005 under the auspices of the University of Richmond, the Lab emerged amid increased grant support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Early projects drew on collaborations with the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the American Antiquarian Society. Leadership links include scholars with affiliations to the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the University of Virginia, and the Smithsonian Institution. The Lab’s trajectory reflects broader trends exemplified by initiatives at the Harvard University, the Stanford University Visual Analytics Lab, and the Newberry Library.
Research and Projects
The Lab’s signature projects include large-scale atlases, redistricting visualizations, and pandemic-era mappings used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and state health departments. Projects have integrated datasets from the US Census Bureau, the National Historical Geographic Information System, and the Geographicus collections. Scholarly outputs have been cited by historians associated with the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Social Science History Association. Project partners have included the Virginia Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the Library and Archives Canada, and the National Library of Scotland.
Notable digital publications and interactive atlases have been used alongside exhibits at the Museum of the City of New York, the New-York Historical Society, and the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. Research has drawn on primary sources from the National Park Service, the United States Geological Survey, and the Historic American Buildings Survey. The Lab has contributed to curricular materials used at the University of Chicago, the Columbia University, and the Yale University.
Technology and Methods
The Lab employs tools from historical GIS pioneered at the Pokress Center and incorporates software stacks used by teams at the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis, the Stanford Spatial Humanities Lab, and the University of California, Berkeley. Technical approaches use databases patterned after the National Historical Geographic Information System, mapping frameworks similar to those at the Esri community, and visualization libraries inspired by work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy. The Lab’s workflows intersect with standards advocated by the Digital Public Library of America, the DPLA, and the International Council on Archives.
Methodologically, the Lab applies practices common to projects at the Newberry Library and the British Library Labs, including georectification, cartometric analysis, and time-sliced visualization. It has adopted metadata conventions aligned with the Library of Congress subject headings, thesauri used by the Getty Research Institute, and preservation standards from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.
Collaborations and Partnerships
The Lab maintains partnerships with academic centers such as the University of Virginia, the College of William & Mary, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Duke University Digital Humanities Initiative. Cultural partners include the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Antiquarian Society. Funding and programmatic collaboration have involved the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and municipal cultural agencies like the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.
Internationally, the Lab has worked with the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the National Library of Scotland on transatlantic projects. Technical exchanges have taken place with groups at the Stanford University, the Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Impact and Reception
The Lab’s maps and visualizations have influenced exhibits at the New-York Historical Society, influenced scholarship published in journals associated with the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians, and informed public policy discussions in venues connected to the National Endowment for the Humanities and state cultural agencies. Reviews in professional venues have compared its work to digital projects from the Newberry Library, the British Library Labs, and the Stanford Spatial Humanities Lab. Awards and recognitions have included grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and have led to invited talks at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Antiquarian Society.