Nabb Center Receives Grant for Digital History Project 

SALISBURY, MD--The history of the Delmarva Peninsula is being placed at your fingertips as Salisbury University’s Nabb Research Center embarks on a cutting-edge project to digitize its vast archives and make them accessible on the Internet.  “American Origins” will serve as the basis for the Nabb Center’s activities for the next 10 years.  

“There is no mold for our digital history project,” said Nabb Center Director Rebecca Miller.  “This could revolutionize the study of the history of Delmarva.”

This ambitious project, using state-of-the-art Geographic Information Systems Technology (GIS), is made possible by a $266,000 federal appropriation sponsored by the Hon. Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) and administered by the national Institute of Museums and Library Services (IMLS).  The funds are allocated for a two-year period. 

The project reconstructs the history of the land, and thus the individuals who found it, through the use of public and personal records such as maps of early settlement areas, and the wills, inventories, court records, tax lists and land records of early Eastern Shoremen.

“One area where people were careful with their records was in ownership of land,” said Dr. Michael Scott of the SU Geography and Geosciences Department.  “By tracing the history of the land, we can reconstruct the sociology and economy of an era.”

The Nabb Center is utilizing GIS to create unique digital images of maps, which, with the click of a button, associate historical data with geographic locations.

“The use of GIS in digital mapping is simple, quick and can generate large amounts of information,” said Miller.   

Digitized tract maps are linked to a table containing data pertinent to the mapped area, such as the name of the tract, acreage, and the name of the patentees with the date and rent.  Transcripts or probated records such as wills or inventories of persons associated with the tract may be accessed as well.  The ultimate goal is the digitization of the entire Lower Eastern Shore, thereby making historical data more accessible to researchers including students, scholars, family historians, archaeologists, public planners and heritage preservationists.  The preliminary research is now complete and the Nabb Center hopes to have a pilot project on the Web by spring.

Maps created by John Lyon of Columbia, MD, with “DeedMapper,” a software program for mapping, are the foundation for the project.  He is allowing the Nabb Center access to his mammoth database of Old Somerset County land patents and his resulting tract mapping, which has been a decade in production.  Several members of SU’s Geography and History departments are collaborating as well.

For information on “American Origins” call 410-543-6312 or visit the Web site at http://nabbhistory.salisbury.edu.