The University of Virginia takes notice of Encyclopedia Virginia today:

EV also embraces the interdisciplinary nature of its entries. For instance, the entry for the “Wreck of the Old 97″ – which relates the story of the 1903 crash of a Southern Railways freight train in Danville – connects topics under transportation with music, folk life, and law. The train wreck captured wide attention in newspapers as a terrible disaster but then spawned a folk ballad that became the focus of the first major copyright lawsuit.  To top it all off, a link to Vernon Dalhart’s 1925 recording of the ballad that led to this lawsuit adds depth and richness to the resource, according to [Managing Editor Matthew] Gibson.

“You begin to see links between different aspects of Virginia history that you never would have imagined,” he said.