CWPT’s CivilWar.org Promises To Be
CWPT president James Lighthizer said, “This is a significant milestone in our efforts to promote 19th century history using 21st century technology.” The new design is meant to better integrate CWPT’s wealth of information on Civil War history with its preservation mission. Lighthizer said the site will help a teacher in search of classroom resources, a buff looking for book recommendations or a casual student of history wanting to learn more about a battle or commander. Author and History Associates senior historian Garry Adelman was an advisor for the redesign project. He said it presents a whole new way to learn about and personalize the Civil War. CWPT’s entire collection of signature battle maps is online as are articles by top historians from the pages of Hallowed Ground, the membership magazine. “We’ve expanded and improved our lesson plan content, reaching out to students and teachers across the country. We have fully integrated our huge catalog of modern photos and videos of Civil War sites,” Lighthizer said. The new Web site is organized around battlefields. From a central page dedicated to each of the war’s most significant battles, visitors can locate scholarly articles, pictures, maps and other related content. Readers can then learn about the current state of the battlefield, including what land has been protected and any ongoing preservation efforts at the site. Lighthizer said the site offers a dynamic experience for visitors, with many opportunities to become more involved in preservation efforts. Beyond offering a fast, secure and convenient means to donate financially, the Web site also gives visitors a variety of options for action, from signing petitions to writing to elected officials. They can also sign up for e-newsletters and other means of electronic correspondence to stay on top of the latest preservation news. “Our preliminary uses of this interactive outreach method, notably our advocacy effort surrounding Walmart’s controversial plan to build a supercenter on the Wilderness Battlefield, have been tremendously successful,” said Lighthizer. He expressed confidence that CWPT can “harness this new technology to generate more interest than ever in saving out civil war battlefields.” CWPT previously piloted several aspects of the new site, including the animated map series and videos. These successful aspects are now more prominently featured and greatly expanded, integrating social networking ventures and other resources. Threespot, a Washington, D.C.-based interactive communications firm designed the new CivilWar.org using the Convio CMS content management system.
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