Drew E. VandeCreek
28 Founders Memorial Library
Northern Illinois University
DeKalb, IL 60115
o: (815) 753-7179
drew@niu.eduEducation
Ph.D. American History, The University of Virginia, 1996B.A. American Studies, The College of Wooster, 1986
Employment
Director, Digitization Unit, Founders Library, Northern Illinois University (January 2001 - present)Project Director, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project (April, 1998 - present)
Instructor, Department of History and University Library, Northern Illinois University (Spring, 2000); Summer 2005
Visiting Research Faculty, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Libraries (1998 - 2000)
Associate for Research and Technical Development, "The Valley of the Shadow" Civil War History Project, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia (June 1995 - January 1998).
Online Curriculum Developer, Teaching and Technology Initiative, Department of Information, Technology and Communication, University of Virginia (June 1994-January 1998)
Instructor in American History, Department of History, University of Virginia, "Viewing America: The United States since the New Deal" (fall 1997); American History Survey, 1865- present (summer 1994); "The Varieties of Progressive Experience", senior research seminar (fall 1993).
Instructor in American History, Department of History, Mary Washington College, History of the American Civil Rights Movement (spring 1995).
Editor-in-Chief "Essays in History" publication of the Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia, 1993-4. I initiated and supervised the journal's transition from a print publication to online publication.
Publications
American History
American History - Scholarly Audience/Peer Reviewed"Solomon Huebner and the Development of Life Insurance Sales Professionalism, 1905-1927" Enterprise and Society v. 6, no. 4 (December, 2005)
"Geographic Information Systems Technology and Digital Humanities: The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" with Tara L. Dirst and Ben Kinney, Storiadelmondo n. 33, v. 21 Marzo, 2005 (http://www.drengo.it/sm/33/vandecreek.gis.pdf)
"Unseen Influence: Lucretia Blankenburg and the Philadelphia Mayoral Campaign of 1911" in We Have Come to Stay: American Women and Political Parties, 1880-1960, University of New Mexico Press, 1999.
American History - Scholarly Audience/Non-Peer Reviewed
"The `Illinois During the Gilded Age' Web Site" Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Newsletter, November, 2007.
American History - Entries in Encyclopedias and Other Reference Materials
"The Gilded Age" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition New York: Macmillan Reference/Thompson Gale, 2007.
Digital History
Digital History - Scholarly Audience/Peer Reviewed"`Webs of Significance': The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, New Technology, and the Democratization of History" Digital Humanities Quarterly, v. 1, no. 1 (April, 2007).
Digital History - Scholarly Audience/Non-Peer Reviewed
"Featured Resource: Lincoln/Net (http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu)" D-Lib, January, 2007 (http://www.dlib.org).
"Geographic Information Systems Technology and Digital Humanities: The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" with Tara L. Dirst and Ben Kinney, Storiadelmondo n. 33, v. 21 Marzo, 2005 (http://www.drengo.it/sm/33/vandecreek.gis.pdf).
Digital History - General Audience
"Surfing for Lincoln: The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project" Illinois Heritage 9 (1) January/February, 2006, 23-25.
Manuscript
"`Make it National:' The Construction of Economic Expertise and the Progressive Economic Policymaking System, 1881-1933."
Prizes and Awards
2007 e-Lincoln Prize, awarded by Civil War History Institute at Gettysburg College, April 30, 2007, for Lincoln/Net (http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu), for "significant application of the electronic media to Civil War studies."
Digital Materials
Free Use Materials
The Southeast Asia Digital Library Web site (http://sea.lib.niu.edu) presents text, image, sound, and video materials from Southeast Asia in collaboration with the University of Hawai'i; Khon Kaen University (Thailand); The Living Memory Project (Darwin, Australia); Ohio University; the University of Michigan; Thammasat University (Thailand); the University of Washington; and Yale University and funded by the United States Department of Education's Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) Program (2005-2009 support), this project also performs research on the development of digitization standards and processes for resources as yet largely unexamined by western librarians. This project was developed in conjunction with Greg Green, Southeast Asia Curator, Cornell University Libraries and Hao Phan, Southeast Asia Curator, Northern Illinois University Libraries.
The Mark Twain's Mississippi project web site (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/twain) presents a multimedia database of historical materials shedding light upon the Mississippi Valley, 19830-1890, a milieu that Mark Twain made famous in a series of novels and reminiscences including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In addition to these works, it presents fully searchable texts of over one hundred travelogues, gazetteers, emigrants' guides, and other accounts and descriptions of the Mississippi Valley in this period. The project also features over one thousand images depicting the Mississippi Valley, and a database of sound recordings of songs describing the region, made from period sheet music. Mark Twain's Mississippi was developed with a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services' National Leadership Grants Program (2003-7).
The American Archives Digitization Project web site (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/amarch)contains over 12,000 pages of primary source materials from the American Revolutionary era that were collected by Peter Force, a printer and mayor of Washington, in the 1830s. Many of these resources are lost in all other forms but the American Archives. This project was proposed and developed in collaboration with Professor Allan Kulikoff of the University of Georgia and developed with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities' Division of Preservation and Access (2002-4).
Lincoln/Net (http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu), the product of the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, is a free-use online resource that uses Abraham Lincoln's life in Illinois as a lens to illuminate his social and political context on the frontier. It includes over fifteen million words of text, over 1500 images, sound and video materials in a fully searchable, free-use database. In addition, Lincoln/Net presents interpretive historical materials discussing Lincoln's biography in light of national events and eight major historical themes. This resource first became available on the World Wide Web in August, 2000. This project was developed with grants from the Illinois State Library.
Getting the Message Out! (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/message) is a free-use online resource that presents primary source materials from national political campaigns of the antebellum era (1840-1860). These materials include official campaign biographies of candidates, the period's distinctive campaign songbooks, posters and broadsides. In addition, this site provides original interpretive materials prepared by Michael F. Holt, an eminent American historian. This project was developed with a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services' National Leadership Grant Program.
Prairie Fire (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/prairiefire) is a free-use online resource that presents searchable primary source materials describing life in the Illinois Country in the years between first white settlement and statehood in 1818. In addition to text and image material, Prairie Fire also provides original interpretive materials discussing Native American life and American political development in the region. This resource first became available on the World Wide Web in July, 2002. It was developed with a grant from the Illinois State Library.
Illinois During the Civil War (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/civilwar) is a free-use online resource that presents searchable primary source materials describing society and politics in Illinois, 1861-1865. This World Wide Web site also provides original narrative and interpretive materials. It first became available in July, 2002, and was developed with a grant from the Illinois State Library.
Illinois During the Gilded Age (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage) is a free-use online resource that presents searchable primary source materials describing society and politics in Gilded Age Illinois (1866-1896). It also provides original narrative and interpretive materials. It first became available on the World Wide Web in August, 2002, and was developed with a grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education. .
Taming the Wild Prairie (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/dekalb) is a free-use online resource that presents searchable primary source materials describing society and politics in De Kalb County, Illinois, 1836-1900. This project features materials drawn from Northern Illinois University Regional History Center, Sycamore (IL) Public Library Local History Room, and Ellwood House Museum, and was developed with funds provided by the Northern Illinois University Foundation, the Illinois State Library, the DeKalb County Community Foundation, and the Ideal Industries Foundation.
Commercial Materials
"The Gilded Age" - online database project in development 2005-6 with Alexander Street Press (see http://www.alexanderstreetpress.com/products/gild.htm) Released June, 2008. Served as Project Director, and contributed sets of primary source/interpretive materials entitled:
a) Credit Mobilier and the Transcontinental Railroad
b) The Great Strike of 1877 and the Labor Question
c) The Presidential Campaign of 1896
d) The Rise of the Media and the Fall of Boss Tweed
Public Humanities Programs
National Endowment for the Humanities "Landmarks of American History" workshop for history teachers, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois, July 11-5, 18-22, 2005. Organized and presented two one-week workshops for a total of 100 educators.
Documentary Films
Producer - "Abraham Lincoln and the Black Hawk War of 1832" - collaboration with Northern Illinois University Professor of Communications Jeffrey Chown; 2005; aired by WTTW Channel 11, Chicago (PBS) November 12, 2006. Available online at http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/aboutbiovideo.html
Producer - "Mark Twain and the American Steamboat" - collaboration with Marcus Leshock, Independent Film Maker, screened at Midwest Popular Culture Association Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, October 14, 2005. Available online at http://dig.lib.niu.edu/twain/video.html
Producer - "Abraham Lincoln and the Legacy of Emancipation" (in production 2008) - collaboration with Northern Illinois University Professor of Communications Jeffrey Chown.
Conference Presentations
Digital History"The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project" Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, New York, N.Y., March 29, 2008; panel organizer for "New Directions in Digital History" also including presentations by Philip Ethington, University of Southern California, and Lisa Snyder, University of California, Los Angeles, with Scot French, University of Virginia, chair and comment.
"The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" (live demonstration) Illinois State Historical Society Annual Meeting, Bloomington, IL, February 17, 2007.
"The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" (poster presentation) Digital Humanities 2006 - Association for Computers in the Humanities/Association for Linguistic and Literary Computing Annual Meeting, Paris, France, July 7, 2006.
"The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" (poster presentation) International Conference on Rivers and Civilization: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Major River Basins, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, June 26 and 27, 2006.
"World Wide Web Sites as Hubs for Integrated Public Humanities Programs" American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 8, 2006. Paper presenter and organizer of panel also including presentations by Lisa Snyder (University of California, Los Angeles); Anne Rubin (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) Chair; Steven Mintz (University of Houston) Commentator.
"The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project: A Tool for the Study of Illinois History" (live presentation) Illinois State Historical Society Annual Meeting, Springfield, Illinois, December 8, 2005.
"Humanities Data and the Geographical Imagination: The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" Midwest Popular Culture Association Annual Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri, October 14, 2005.
"The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project" (poster presentation) Digital Humanities 2005 - Association for Computers in the Humanities/Association for Linguistic and Literary Computing Annual Meeting, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, June 17, 2005.
"Geographic Information Systems Technology and Digital Humanities: The Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" with Tara L. Dirst and Ben Kinney, Internet e Storia, Third Forum (online conference administered by Quaderni del Medioevo Italiano Project, Drengo, Roma) March 15, 2005.
"The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project" Digital Resources for the Humanities, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, September 7, 2004.
"Using New Technology to Teach the Gilded Age in American History" Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, Memphis, Tennessee, April 5, 2003.
"Libraries as Centers of Knowledge Production" Library Research Seminar, College Park, Maryland, November 2, 2001 (with Tara Dirst and Leanne Lauer).
"Envisioning the Civil War: Virtual Reality Modeling and the Historical Discipline" Society for Literature and Science Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 21, 1997.
American History
"Beyond Statebuilding: Simon Patten, Joseph Willits, and the Politics of a `Voluntary Socialism,' 1879-1931" Policy History Conference, St. Louis University, June, 2008.
"Simon Patten and the Search for Civil Society in America, 1883-1917" Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, April 3, 2005, San Jose, California. Paper presenter and panel organizer.
"The New Deal System of Economic Expertise: George Taylor and the Philadelphia Textile Industry, 1928-1940" Organization of American Historians Annual Meeting, April 23, 1999, Toronto, Canada. Paper presenter and panel organizer.
"Women's Clubs and the Philadelphia Mayoral Election of 1911" American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., January 9, 1999.
"Solomon Huebner and the Tools of Expertise" American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 8, 1996.
"Solomon Huebner and the Rhetoric of Expertise" presented at the conference "Markets and Morals" hosted by the Department of Economics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, October 8, 1995.
"Joseph Willits and the United States Coal Commission of 1923-4" Economic and Business History Association Annual Meeting, Boulder, Colorado, May 21, 1995.
Invited Presentations and Workshops
"Northern Illinois University Libraries' Online Digital Resources for American History" Northern Illinois University College of Arts and Sciences Extension Program, Huntley, Illinois, April 22, 2008
"Northern Illinois University Libraries' Online Digital Resources for American History Teachers" Illinois Teaching American History Grant Conference, Rockford, Illinois, March 15, 2008.
"Digital Projects at Northern Illinois University Libraries" DeKalb County Historical Society, DeKalb, IL, September 12, 2007
"The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project" Lifetime Learning Institute, Northern Illinois University, July 18, 2007
"Planning and Administering a Digitization Project" National Louis University, Lisle, Illinois, March 12, 2007
"Lincoln/Net in the Classroom" Teaching American History Grantees' Workshop, Northern Illinois University, February 28, 2006
"The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project," Elderhostel, Northern Illinois University College of Arts and Sciences, Department of External Programming, July 6, 2005
"Lincoln/Net in the Classroom" Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois, October 3, 2003.
"Digital Materials in Higher Education" Honors Program Luncheon, Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, Illinois, April 12, 2002
Panelist, Digital History Workshop, Illinois State Historical Society Annual Meeting, Springfield, IL, December 1, 2001
Chair, "Digital Community Projects" panel, Midwest Archives Conference Annual Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, October 19, 2001
"Database Development in Digital Projects" Library Information Technology Association Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, October 13, 2001
"Grant Writing for Librarians" Illinois Cooperative Collection Management Committee Bibliographers' Meeting, Normal, Illinois, November 10, 2000
"Database Development in Collaborative Library Digitization Projects" Illinois Academic and Research Libraries Association Annual Meeting, Matteson, IL, April 14, 2000.
"Managerial and Technical Aspects of Collaborative Digitization Projects" Illinois Library Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, October 19, 1999.
"Digitization Projects: Techniques and Procedures for Getting Started" Workshop, Lincoln Trail Library System, Champaign, IL., March 17, 1999.
Panelist, Illinois State Library Digitization Videoconference, September 23, 1998.
Reviews
"The United States Senate Historical Office World Wide Web site (http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/ common/generic/Senate_Historical_Office.htm)" Journal of American History Spring, 2004.
Grants, Awards, and Fellowships
Northern Illinois University, Division of Research and Graduate Studies - Subvention for Research Equipment - ($25,000) - August, 2007 award
National Endowment for the Humanities - Division of Education Programs - "The Mississippi Valley in the Nineteenth Century Curriculum Project" - ($155,000) - March, 2007 award
Illinois State Library - "Northern Illinois University Regional History Center Materials" - ($20,250) - October, 2006 award
Illinois State Library - "Cultural Encounters in the Illinois Country and Old Northwest, 1809-1855" - ($20,000) - October, 2005 award
United States Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary Education, International Education Programs - Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access Program - Southeast Asia Digital Library Project, 2005-2009 (co-Principal Investigator with Gregory Green, Curator of Southeast Asia Collection, Northern Illinois University Libraries, October, 2005 - June, 2006; sole Principal Investigator July, 2006 - ) - ($790,000) May, 2005 award
National Endowment for the Humanities - Division of Education Programs - "Abraham Lincoln, Society, and Politics in Antebellum America, 1840-1861" - "Landmarks of American History" Professional Development Workshops for American History Teachers - ($150,000) - December, 2004 award
Illinois State Library - Illinois Civil War Newspaper Digitization Project - ($10,000) - October, 2004 award
National Endowment for the Humanities - Division of Education Programs - Abraham Lincoln Curriculum Project - ($79,622) - March, 2004 award
DeKalb County Community Foundation - DeKalb County Historical Digitization Project - ($2,000) - November, 2003 award
Illinois State Library - DeKalb County Historical Digitization Project - ($10,000) -October, 2003 award
Institute for Museum and Library Services - National Leadership Grant - "Mark Twain's Mississippi Project" - ($211,595) - September, 2003 award
Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, Illinois - Michel Civic Education Grant Program - Congress and Great Issues of the Gilded Age - online lesson materials ($5,000) - June, 2003 award
Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation - Illinois During the Civil War World Wide Web site project - ($20,000) - October 2002 award
National Endowment for the Humanities - Public Programs Division - Mark Twain's America Project Planning Grant ($40,000), April 2002 award
National Endowment for the Humanities, Preservation and Access Division - American Archives Digitization Project ($165,541), April 2002 award
Northern Illinois University Foundation - Northern Illinois Cultural Heritage Database Project, ($10,000) November 2001 award.
DeKalb County Community Foundation - Northern Illinois Cultural Heritage Database Project, ($10,000), November 2001 award.
Illinois State Library, Library Science and Technology Act (LSTA) award, Illinois Native American History Digitization Project, ($30,800), 2001-2002.
Illinois Humanities Council, "Abraham Lincoln and the Legacy of Emancipation" Film Project, ($10,000) October 2002 award.
Illinois Board of Higher Education, Higher Education Cooperation Act (HECA) award, Illinois Historical Digitization Project, Illinois in the Civil War and Gilded Age, 2001-2202 award, ($45,000).
Illinois Humanities Council, "Lincoln's Illinois" film project, October 2001 award ($10,000).
Illinois Board of Higher Education, Higher Education Cooperation Act (HECA) award, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, ($45,000) 2001-2001 award
Institute for Museum and Library Services - National Leadership Grant - "Getting the Message Out: Antebellum American Political Campaign materials, digital repository and World Wide Web site, ($138,000) 2001-2002 award.
National Endowment for the Humanities, Regional Humanities Center Planning Grant, 2000-2001 award ($50,000).
DeKalb County Community Foundation, "Taming the Wild Prairie: DeKalb County, Illinois in the Nineteenth Century" digital repository and World Wide Web site, April 2000 award ($3,500).
Illinois Humanities Council, "The Black Hawk War in Illinois" digital repository project, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, October 1999 award ($10,000).
Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, "The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858" digital repository project, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, October 1999 award ($12,500).
Illinois State Library, Library Services and Technology Assistance Grant, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, 1999 award ($205,000).
Illinois State Library, Educate and Automate Grant, Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, 1998 award ($50,000).
Geilfuss Dissertation Fellowship, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1993-4 award. ($10,000)
University of Virginia dissertation research grant, 1994 award.
Rockefeller Archive Center Research Grant, 1994 award.
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library Research Grant, 1992 award.
Media Appearances
"Extension 720" (The Milt Rosenberg Show) February 12, 2001, WGN Chicago, 9-11 PM; appeared with Steven Hahn and Michael Perman
Honors and Distinctions
Marquis Who's Who in America, v. 58 - (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
Committees and Service
Provost's Select Committee on Scholarly Communication and Technology - Northern Illinois University - 2008
Gettysburg College e-Lincoln Prize Selection Committee, 2008.
Unpaid Consultant, Hinckley (IL) Historical Society, October, 2007.
Member, Northern Illinois University Libraries' Dean's Search Committee, 2007-8.
Reviewer, Tara Baillargeon doctoral project, Planning, Creating, and Evaluating eMuseums: A Step-by-Step Handbook for Information Leaders, Department of Educational Leadership, Kansas State University, June 2007.
Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities, Digital Humanities Challenge Grant Program Competition, Summer, 2007.
Judge, National History Day Competition, Northern Illinois University, March 3, 2007
Member, Friends of Northern Illinois University Library, Board of Directors, 2006-2007; Program Committee, 2006-77; Program Committee Chair, 2007-8; President-Elect, 2007-9.
Referee, National Historic Publications and Records Commission grant competition, 2005
Referee, Northern Illinois University Summer Stipend Selection Committee, 2004
Unpaid Consultant, The Field Museum, 2003-4
Referee, Northern Illinois University Summer Stipend Selection Committee, 2003
Referee, National Historic Publications and Records Commission grant competition, 2003
Referee, Economic and Social Research Council (U.K.), Research Grants Board, 2003
Panelist, National Endowment for the Humanities, Preservation and Access Division Grant Competition, 2002
Northern Illinois University Libraries, Internet Committee,1999-2000; Exhibit Committee, 1999-2000.
Referee, Illinois State Library "Educate and Automate" Digitization Grant Competition, 1998.
References
Brian Balogh, Mayo Professor of American History, Department of History, University of Virginia and Co-Director, American Political Development Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs, 2201 Old Ivy Road, PO Box 400406, Charlottesville, VA 22904- 4406; (434) 243-8971; balogh@virginia.edu