The new collections are part of the Library's American Civil War Digital Collections, which will include future additions.
Newly added are three collections of Civil War letters: the Edward A. Fulton Collection; the David Lilley Letters; and the Thomas J. Reynolds Letters to Louisa J. Seward. All the letters are from Union soldiers and were written to family members and others living in Delaware. The original letters are available in the Special Collections Department in the Morris Library.
“Providing electronic access to primary resources is a goal of the University of Delaware Library, and it is especially meaningful when those historic documents relate to Delaware,” said Susan Brynteson, May Morris Director of Libraries.
Two views are available for each letter: a scan of the original letter (the default view) and a transcription prepared by library staff members using the “pull down menu,” which makes the handwritten text of the original letter easy to read. The digital collection also allows magnification of the scanned letters for easy viewing.
The project involved University of Delaware Library staff in the Preservation Department, the Special Collections Department, Library Computing Systems, and the Bibliographic Control Department.
Additional electronic resources that include materials related to the American Civil War are available only to University of Delaware students, faculty and staff because of licensing agreements. Included among those resources are American Civil War: Letters and Diaries at [http://www2.lib.udel.edu/database/acwld.html] and HarpWeek at [http://www2.lib.udel.edu/database/harpweek.html].
The electronic library of the University of Delaware Library, which is available 24/7 at [www.lib.udel.edu], provides access for faculty, students and staff of the University of Delaware to a rich array of online library resources including DELCAT, databases, full-text information, electronic journals and newspapers, Subject Guides to the Internet, the Institutional Repository and much more.
Holdings of the Special Collections Department of the University of Delaware Library include books, manuscripts, maps, prints, photographs, broadsides, periodicals, pamphlets, ephemera and realia from the 15th-21st century. The collections complement the library's general collections with particular strengths in the subject areas of the arts; English, Irish and American literature; history and Delawareana; horticulture; and history of science and technology.
The University of Delaware Archives are separately administered and are comprised of University records and history of the institution.