Background
Chesnutt was born in Athens, Alabama, and earned academic degrees at University of Alabama (1962), Auburn University (1967) and the University of Georgia (1973).
Chesnutt was born in Athens, Alabama, and earned academic degrees at University of Alabama (1962), Auburn University (1967) and the University of Georgia (1973).
University of Alabama. Auburn University.
Chesnutt was in the History Department at the University of South Carolina for 35 years as Research Professor. As part of that project he was influential in moving the scholarly editing project to digital technologies, which was ground-breaking at the time. Foreign more than two decades Chesnutt served on the South Carolina Historical Records Advisory Board.
He was an important figure in the foundation and early development of the Text Encoding Initiative and active in the Association for Computers and the Humanities.
Chesnutt died in Hardwick, Vermont, on December 15, 2014, of throat cancer.
The Distinguished Service Award (with Charles Cullen (editor)) from the Association for Documentary Editing, 1985. The Lyman H. Butterfield Award from the Association for Documentary Editing, 1990, The Julian P. Boyd Award from the Association for Documentary Editing, 1995. The Order of the Palmetto from the Governor of South Carolina 2005.
