For the Spring 2024 semester, students in Dr. Jeffrey McClurken’s Digital History class have been hard at work creating their website-based projects. This week (4/29-5/3) marks finals week for University of Mary Washington students, and with that the conclusion of final projects. Therefore, it is time to give a public promotion of the website Mary Washington During WWII.
Created by students Savannah Alexander, Neonya Garner, Haley Gosman, John McDowell, and Eliza Vegas, this group of five have been working diligently to create the product seen today. All interested in how Mary Washington College (MWC) students dealt with the Second World War on campus and in the greater Fredericksburg community, the group got paired together and split up the roles to equally cover all aspects of the website.
The group decided to split their content by Student Life, Assisting in the War Effort, and the Fredericksburg Flood of 1942 to cover a wide array of WWII materials found at UMW’s Special Collections. Some of these materials include a video about the flood produced by Jim R. Gaston for the Fredericksburg Area Museum, oral histories from MWC alumni that were students before the war or veterans, and photographs of war bond rallies and campus events.
The website is open to the public and includes accessibility tools and alternative text for screen readers so that everyone can enjoy learning about Mary Washington College during World War II. The materials are also placed in the website’s archive so individuals can utilize the materials curated to conduct their own further research on what campus was like during war time. Learn More: https://mwcwwii.umwhistory.org/.