RELEASE ON RECEIPT






"VALLEY OF THE SHADOW" SELECTED AS ONE OF
NATIONUS BEST WEBSITES FOR HUMANITIES EDUCATION

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 29 -- The National Endowment for the 
Humanities on Monday announced that a University of Virginia website 
documenting the Civil War experience of two communities is among the first 
included on its new "EDSITEment" site, which provides links for anyone 
searching for reliable, high-quality instructional materials in the humanities.
	"The Valley of the Shadow Project: A Digital Archive of Northern and 
Southern Community Life in the Era of the Civil War," directed by U.Va. 
history professor Edward L. Ayers, is among 20 sites selected by review 
panels of humanities specialists from hundreds of submissions seeking 
inclusion in the EDSITEment site, which debuted Monday. The panels will meet 
twice yearly to add other sites, based on quality of content, effectiveness 
of design and potential for positive impact in the classroom.
	EDSITEment is the product of a public-private partnership uniting the 
National Endowment for the Humanities, MCI Communications Corp., and the 
Council of the Great City Schools. Located at http://edsitement.neh.fed.us, 
it is a user-friendly website offering educational assistance in three ways: 
listing and providing links to top sites in the humanities; proving on-line 
learning guides to the materials; and suggesting activities to reinforce 
learning through the Internet.
	"We're delighted to be selected by EDSITEment and hope that it sends 
many students and teachers into the Valley," Ayers said.
	The "Valley of the Shadow" project  is an electronic archive of 
diaries, newspapers,military records, tax lists, church records and other 
primary sources that document life in two communities divided by a few 
hundred miles and the Mason-Dixon line -- Franklin County, Pa. and Augusta 
County, Va.-- before, during and after the Civil War. It is available over 
the Internet at http://jefferson.village.virginia.EDU/vshadow2/. The first of 
three interactive CDs and an accompanying book, on the years leading up to 
the war, are scheduled for release in the spring by W.W. Norton and Company.
	The NEH awarded the "Valley of the Shadow" project a $215,000 grant 
last fall as one of 12 educational software projects nationwide in its 
"Teaching With Technology" program. The project was developed at U.Va.'s 
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.

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                                                      October 28, 1997


	For additional information, Edward Ayers may be reached at 
(804) 924-7585, or via e-mail at ela@virginia.edu. Television reporters 
should call the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.

	Jim Turner of the National Endowment for the Humanities' Media 
Relations Office can be reached at (202) 606-8671.