Internships for Virtual Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park

National Park Service

Background: The National Park Service is working on a new (and first) Virtual Park Map Program at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  This program is being developed as a prototype for the entire National Park Service.  The first component of this program, Virtual Fredericksburg, focuses on the battlefield of Fredericksburg and the town as it existed in 1860.  Virtual Fredericksburg will be an interactive, 3-D map with an underlying database that will be activated by clicking on specific sites (“hotspots), virtual exhibits, or troop location markers.  Eventually the map will feature probably 500 hotspots, each with underlying “assets” accessed by activating the site.  Assets will include photographs, sketches, primary source material, video and audio files, digital architectural models, and virtual exhibits.   Some sites will have only one or two assets associated with them; others may have upwards of a dozen.  The database will serve as both an interpretive resource for users and an archive for researchers.  Its goal: to be the most vivid and complete repository of material relating to mid-19^th Century Fredericksburg in the world.

Internships: Virtual Fredericksburg offers interns the opportunity to work closely and extensively with primary source material.  The amount of material available and the opportunities to shape that material into interpretive form are almost endless.  Some examples of individual projects that might be undertaken by interns (an endless list is possible; additional suggestions are welcome):

–          Assemble and organize documentation for individual sites within a specific geographic area.

–          Assemble and organize documentation for specific units engaged in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

–          Research and organize documentation relating to specific themes, like sites related to slavery, hospitals, sites that related to the experience of children, etc.

–          Document and photograph structures in the Fredericksburg area that suffer from interior and exterior battle damage.

–          Research and document antebellum schools, churches, or other community organizations.

–          Produce virtual exhibits that illuminate any of the above.

–          Produce short (two-minute) videos or audio clips that interpret specific sites, military units, people, or thematically linked groups of sites.

–          Research, gather, and associate images of local residents or soldiers to sites or military units on the map.

Minimum Commitment: The National Park Service requires a minimum commitment of 120 hours for this project.

Contact: John Hennessy: john_hennessy@nps.gov