Tag: Documentary Editing
Benjamin Franklin and the Adams Family: Editing the Founders
Katie Blizzard
Reading Charles Francis Adams diary entry for May 9, 1850 in the editor in chief’s office at the Adams Papers made me smile. With three brief sentences Charles Francis Adams perfectly described what we strive to do as documentary editors.
Finding the Missing Pieces: Uncovering the Story of Mrs. Lucia Grattan
Katie Blizzard
The digital edition of The Papers of George Washington not only provides wider public access to our research, but also gives the editors the opportunity to revise and extend our work as more or better information becomes available. A smaller effort of that ability recently unveiled a human interest story that reminds us again that George Washington encountered many interesting characters besides the powerful and famous men celebrated as the founders of our country and that The Papers are a resource for cultural and social as well as political and military history.
The Flight of the Navigator: Charting the Course of George Washington’s Voyage to Barbados
Katie Blizzard
Perhaps it’s not too much to say that editors live for those moments when all the pieces come together and the proverbial mental light bulb goes off. Not long ago when I was examining digital images of the Barbados diary one more time from my laptop at home (this intriguing diary exerts its pull even beyond office hours), I experienced just such an “aha!” moment. A detail long overlooked in the manuscript, so tiny it hardly merited notice, suddenly spoke volumes. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
George Washington Forgeries at Mount Vernon
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Among the special collections owned by the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon are nearly 500 documents written by George Washington. And not surprisingly, there are also some known forgeries, one of which is attributed to Robert Spring, and another of which is likely the work of Joseph Cosey.
Transcription: Looking Back 200 Years
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By Prajeeth Koyada January 10, 2015 Prajeeth is a first year chemistry major at the University of Virginia. He currently transcribes documents for the Financial Papers Project. Transcribing documents for the Papers of George Washington has been both an enlightening and mystifying experience. For every “Caleb Gibbs” I uncover, a multitude […]