Why This Website Was Made
This website was created as a capstone project by students in History 428: Adventures in Digital History, a class at the University of Mary Washington, during the Spring of 2022. It was designed as a companion to a mural that the University installed in Jepson Science Center, celebrating the life of Dr. Venus Jones and commemorating her as the University’s first Black female graduate. The focus of this website is to expand upon the information on the mural and to act independently as a repository of additional resources on the life of Dr. Venus Jones, including research, oral histories, and image collections.
Meet The Team
Jenna Gilbert (Class of 2022) is a Historic Preservation major, minoring in Digital Studies and Museum Studies.
Timbila Kabre (Class of 2022) is a History major and interim office manager for the History Department.
Logan Kurtz (Class of 2024) is a History major and is pursuing a teaching license in the College of Education.
Kelly Pedigo (Class of 2022) is a Historic Preservation major and Digital Studies minor, and a Student Aide for the Historic Preservation Department.
Jamie Van Doren (Class of 2023) is a History major and a Women’s and Gender Studies major, as well as a Student Aide in the Digital Archiving Lab at UMW’s Simpson Library.
Acknowledgements
The students who worked on this project would like to thank many parties for their support of this project. Leading this list are Dr. Jeffrey McClurken and Carole Garmon for their crucial help and advice throughout this project.
Dr. Josephine Antwi, Dr. Andrew Dolby, Valerie Ebenki, Dr. Theresa Grana, Albert Jones, Dr. Melanie Szulczewski, and Wilma Willard were a part of the incredible committee which made this entire project possible.
Dr. Erin Devlin conducted valuable interviews, and Albert Jones, Chip Cartwright, Carmencita Stewart, and Lillie Cannon Williams for providing amazing stories in these interviews.
Dr. Erin Devlin, Dr. Stephen Hanna, and Dr. Andrew Dolby provided useful feedback in the editing process for the written content of this project.
Angie Kemp and Sarah Appleby from UMW Special Collections helped the students gain access to photos and the oral histories which this project is based upon, and helped edit the transcripts of the oral history interviews.
The students of the HIST300ZZ Intro to Public History class started crucial groundwork for this project, and the Writing Center helped us improve the text.
The Image 360 company completed great work on the design and production of the mural.
And finally, we would like to thank the Jones family for entrusting us with the story of such an incredible woman.
