Tag: Katie Blizzard
Going Digital: The Process of Adding a New Volume to our Digital Edition
Katie Blizzard
Every volume that The Washington Papers produces, we publish in print and digital formats. Our subscription-based digital edition, which is published by the University of Virginia Press’s electronic imprint Rotunda, is one of several online resources that result from our work. Used by thousands of people every year, the Papers of George Washington Digital Edition (PGWDE) is an especially valuable tool since it includes a cumulative index, which spans all volumes and series. The PGWDE also links readers directly to any document referenced in an annotation or editorial note, making it easy for users to discover other pertinent information. The nature of digital publication furthermore enables authors—or, in our case, documentary editors—to emend material after publication.
Exploring the “Blank Space” of Washington’s Youth: An Interview with Young Washington Author Peter Stark
Katie Blizzard
Stark’s work on Young Washington began with a satellite image of the eastern American seaboard. He had been looking for “blank spaces” in the United States—those areas without light, and thus without people—and found to his surprise a large swath of such space in western Pennsylvania. During preliminary research of the area, Stark was introduced to someone who had already explored that mountainous and thickly forested backcountry: “I kept running into young [George] Washington.”
“[A] clear & comprehensive view of facts”1: Editing the Volume of Addendum and Omitted Materials
Katie Blizzard
These special materials, which we refer to as addendum and omitted materials, total in the hundreds. A large fraction concerns items intentionally omitted by editors, but others—nearly 100—are documents previously believed to be lost. We plan to publish all the addendum and omitted items in a separate volume on our digital edition in order to make the Papers of George Washington as comprehensive as possible.
What I Learned from Camp Edit: A Glimpse into the Practice of Documentary Editing
Katie Blizzard
In June of this year, two of my Washington Papers colleagues (Kim Curtis and Dana Stefanelli) and I attended the Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents (IEHD), sometimes affectionately referred to as Camp Edit. The five-day workshop, held each year prior to the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE) conference, introduces new editors to a mix of technologies and strategies for creating a scholarly edition. And so, in an effort to provide a glimpse into documentary editing, I would like to share what I learned at Camp Edit.
Confronting the Complexities of Digital Publication: A Glimpse into the ADE Seminar on Critical Issues
Katie Blizzard
In late June, numerous textual-editing scholars will travel to Olympia, Washington, to attend the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE) Annual Meeting. This year, the ADE Seminar on Critical Issues will discuss the difficulties of digital publication of documentary editions, which can be exacerbated by limited financial and technological resources. As the moderator of this seminar panel, I have begun to consider what insights might result from this much-needed conversation.
The Washington Papers Welcomes New Director Jennifer E. Steenshorne
Katie Blizzard
“Why is this nation like this? These structures, these institutions—how did we get here?” These are questions that Jennifer E. Steenshorne wants to address in her new position as director and editor in chief of The Washington Papers, a role she assumed in January 2018. “There’s this sort of sense that the nation emerged fully formed, but it didn’t,” she explains. “There was a process of becoming.” Some insight can be found, of course, through examining the papers of George Washington and his family. But for Steenshorne, these questions of “becoming” guide more than just historical inquiry.
“The ablest of all our diplomatic Corps”: George Washington and John Quincy Adams
Katie Blizzard
In 1789, while touring New England, George Washington stopped in Newburyport, Massachusetts. There, he met a bright young law student who would soon play a larger role both in Washington’s life and in the public arena: John Quincy Adams.
Rick Britton: Portrait of the (Map) Artist
Katie Blizzard
In Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard’s take on Hamlet, Rosencrantz tells Guildenstern that he doesn’t believe in England. Guildenstern shoots back, “Just a conspiracy of cartographers, you mean?” Here at The Washington Papers, we may not have the makings of a conspiracy, but—amazingly—we do have a cartographer.
Interrogating the Text; How to Annotate a George Washington Document
Katie Blizzard
Moderating a panel on public engagement at the 2017 meeting of the Association for Documentary Editing, Washington Papers communications specialist Katie Lebert observed that content that explores the basic practices of documentary editing is often received favorably by and connects with a wide audience. Taking the cue from Katie, I devote this blog post to annotating documents that appear in The Papers of George Washington.
George Washington and the Storming of the Bastille (Part II)
Katie Blizzard
In the fall of 1789, George Washington was inundated with information regarding the storming of the Bastille. He received five letters about a revolution occurring in France; most of these letters enclosed articles from international papers. He also received official intelligence through the U.S. minister to France, Thomas Jefferson. And American newspapers began publishing information about the event as early as Sept. 25.1 By early October, Washington likely knew a good deal about the outbreak of the French Revolution.