Boatwright Library’s Digital Scholarship Lab has had the great privilege of working with the East End Cemetery Collaboratory to develop an online map of the East End Cemetery . The East End Cemetery is an historic African American burial ground in Henrico County and the City of Richmond. For several years the Collaboratory—a collaboration between faculty, staff, and students at UR and VCU with the Friends of East End—have been working to reclaim the cemetery from nature and neglect and research the history of the people interred there and Richmond’s African American community more generally.
The online map is primarily aimed at the descendant community. Mapping thousands of headstones whose precise location has been recorded by the Collaboratory, the map allows descendants to easily find the gravesites of their grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents. The site also features some incredibly detailed drone and hillside imagery captured and produced by Stephanie Spera of the geography department.
~ Rob Nelson, Director of the Digital Scholarship Lab and Head of Digital Engagement