Last spring, the university announced it would support additional research to learn more about the lives of individuals whose gravesites were discovered during the construction of the Baldwin Hall annex. Vice President for Research David Lee is coordinating that research, which includes two facets.
The first is being led by professor Marguerite Madden, director of UGA’s Center for Geospatial Research, to construct a GIS database of the evolving UGA campus from the late 1800s to present. Lee reports that Madden has made “significant progress” on this database, which is being used to create a series of digital time-series maps with interactive capabilities, including historic photos, stories and other media to reveal insights into the lives of the individuals. Madden has engaged with the community by including local high school students on her research team.
In the second component, an expert at the University of Texas is preparing nuclear DNA libraries from samples of the remains of individuals buried at the Baldwin Hall site.
These libraries will be analyzed by a researcher at Harvard University with unique expertise in working with ancient DNA. The Texas collaborator hopes to have this work completed by the fall, Lee reports.
The university plans to provide more details once the research is completed.
