History @ CUL

Prof. Norton and the Founding Fathers

Last week the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced that it was funding the University of Virginia Press to create a web site that will provide free access to most of the papers of the Founding Fathers. The announcement also included news of the appointment of a new advisory board to guide the development of the initiative. Its three initial members are Edward L. Ayers, President of University of Richmond and a leading scholar on the Civil War and American South; David Hackett Fisher, Professor of History at Brandeis and a leading scholar on the colonial era; and Cornell’s own Mary Beth Norton.

The new website may not have an immediate impact on the Library. We have been able to subscribe to most of the American Founding Era collections as they have become available, in part thanks to a discount resulting from the History Dept.’s support of Melanie Randolph Miller and the Gouverneur Morris diaries documentary edition. (One would hope that the ready free availability of the bulk of the papers might lead to a drop in the price of the Rotunda subscription.) In the long run, the project might shape the development of all future documentary editing projects.

For more of my thoughts on the importance of this announcement, look here.

(Image from Rotunda Founders Early Access project: http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/img/icon_early_access.png)

Comments

Comments are closed.