Lorraine Lanius, Head of Technical Services for the Vermont Department of Libraries, and VTDNP Project Management Group member, is retiring as of Sept. 30, 2011. Lorraine was part of the VTDNP Project Management Group from the beginning, and brought enthusiasm, reason, humor, and wisdom to the VTDNP.  Lorraine compiled critical documents for the project, participated in vital decisions, and promoted the VTDNP’s work. Lorraine has been an integral part of the VTDNP, and its structure and success are a credit to her work here. She will be greatly missed!

Vermont State Librarian Martha Reid and Lorraine Lanius at Lorraine’s retirement send-off, Sept. 21, 2011.

Good luck Lorraine!

– Tom McMurdo

Hurricane Irene all but dashed the VTDNP plans to attend the yearly NDNP meetings at NEH and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. The meetings took place on Aug. 29-31, 2011. Birdie MacLennan and Chris Kirby were prevented from attending, but I managed to make the trip because I left well before the hurricane struck and returned well after it. It was difficult to be away from home while Irene wreaked havoc on our state. The scenes of destruction and ruinous loss made it difficult to contextualize the NDNP meetings, but as the lone Vermonter there, I felt a responsibility to represent us as well as I could.

As a first-time attendee, it was nice to reconnect with old colleagues from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, and friends from the Kentucky NDNP Project. I also met many people I knew only from their emails or as voices on the phone, and met members of the new projects from Indiana, North Dakota, and West Virginia.

Work on the NDNP creates a unique set of problems and solutions. The NEH and Library of Congress sponsors arranged the meetings so that we not only got a top-down policy driven overview, but also encouraged work and discussion between state projects. In this regard, the meetings successfully modeled the structure of innovation and communication that exists in the day to day functioning of the national program.

Here is a photo of Errol Somay from the Virginia project, and Andrea Vanek from California presenting at the meetings:

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Between meetings I checked out the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, one of America’s great treasures:

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The NEH is housed in the Old Post Office Building, which is pretty awesome and worth a visit if you are in D.C.:

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Tom McMurdo

VTDNP members Prudence Doherty, Birdie MacLennan, and Tom McMurdo will be part of the Fleming Museum’s “PechaKucha” benefit for victims of Hurricane Irene. The benefit event takes place this Thursday evening, September 15, at 6:00 PM. More information about the event can be found here.

Prue, Birdie and Tom will be giving a “pechakucha” style presentation about the VTDNP. Pechakucha presentations are 20 slides allotted 20 seconds per slide. The program, including the VTDNP presentation, promises to be informative and fun! We hope to see you there!

An article about the VTDNP is in today’s edition of the Burlington Free Press. The Free Press is the long-running daily newspaper here in Burlington, VT. You can read the article here.

We are very pleased by the positive press! If you have any questions about the project that the article raises, or any questions or comments about the project in general, please feel free to contact me at tmcmurdo@uvm.edu. You can also comment on blog posts by using the “Leave a comment” link after the end of this (and every) post. We look forward to hearing from you.

Tom McMurdo

We continue highlighting Vermont newspapers now available on Chronicling America this week with some highlights from mid-August 1861 and 1836. You can find full, free access to these newspapers here.

The Burlington Free Press published letters from Vermonters on the front lines serving in the 1st Vermont Brigade for the duration of the Civil War,  “which saw action in nearly every major engagement in the Eastern Theater from the First Battle of Bull Run to Appomattox Court House.”(1) Mid-August finds our soldiers encamped, on guard, and awaiting their next engagement in the wake of the Battle of Bull Run.

The August 16th edition contains two letters from Vermonters in the 2nd and 3rd Regiments. In the first, a soldier known as “M.P.” describes the circumstances of the 3rd Regiment, encamped south of Washington. He describes defenses against confederate forces just a few miles away at Falls Church and Vienna, and the guarding of the reservoir “from which Washington draws its principal supply of water.” W.P. goes on to state “Could the rebels gain this point, Washington would easily fall into their hands. They are aware of this, and may, in their present state of assurance, make the attack; to succeed would be another thing.”

The second letter from “W.” in the 2nd Vermont Regiment, clarifies the actions of Lieutenants Sharpley and Weed at Bull Run. It seems the newspaper accounts were inaccurate:

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Both letters in their entirety can be read on the page available here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84023127/1861-08-16/ed-1/seq-1/

The August 16, 1836 edition of the Rutland Herald contained details of the completion of the Utica to Schenectady railroad, where the 160 mile trip was completed in a remarkable 7 hours and six minutes:

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The page and entire issue of the Rutland Herald can be seen here.

These newspaper pages and many others are available on Chronicling America. See our Vermont newspapers here: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/newspapers/?state=Vermont .

Tom Mcmurdo

1: See article here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_in_the_Civil_War .