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January 12, 2015 Join us for a talk on the exciting William Dorsey Scrapbook Collection. Africana Reserach Center Luncheon Series January 27 at noon, 217 Willard Bldg for a talk titled "Assessing the William Dorsey Scrapbook Collection"

December 18, 2014 Two new digital collections were just added- the diaries of a minister and a Union Army nurse. Creekside Digital is wrapping up the first phase of our database of PA army deserters. Look for that this spring.

December 1, 2014 We have just finished a draft of an NEH grant to digitize the Dorsey Scrapbook collection. See our Research Projects page to learn more about this amazing collection.

August 30, 2014 Our first Digital History Graduate Assitant is getting started. Katie Falvo is interested in women Quakers and is writing her dissertation on Vegeterianism in the 19th century. The focus of her work with our project will be digital mapping. She will be working with us to build and plan several online maps.

July 21, 2014 Essays added....Four new scholarly essays have been prepared and will be added to the website on the next week. "Politics and Government" by Robert Sandow is online now. Read his work which includes a lengthy and up to date biblography of scholarship on the subject.

May 1, 2014 Look for a new dataset this Christmas! Our project will be partnering with Creekside Digital to transcribe the records from the Descriptive List of Deserters (nearly 38,000) into an online database. The records will be searchable by name but users will also be able to analyze them in terms of time and geographic location. In addition we are starting our summer surveying and have high hopes for the season. First on our list is Boalsburg Heritage Museum and the Phildalephia Union League.

March 4, 2014 We are thrilled to announce that the People's Contest will have its first digital humanities history fellow starting Fall 2014. Katie Falvo has been named as the first project fellow, supported by the Richards Civil War Center. Katie is interetsed in digital mapping. She got started with our project and mapping two years ago when she worked with us to create geographic data spreadsheets from the Lytle Diary. Katie is currently working on her own mapping project which follows Quaker women. She will be building exhibits using Neatline and working with the Deserters Roster.

January 13, 2014 Happy New Year! We are thrilled to announce that we have just launched a blog dedicated to our work with the Dorsey Scrapbook Collection. Here you can follow our work as we describe, preserve and digitize items from this monemental collection. Visit the Dorsey Scrapbook Collection Blog here!

December 12, 2013 We are excited to announce that we have finailized our digitization queue for the 2013/2014 year. The collections are: Reverend Samuel Davis Diaries, Bushong Family Diaries, James Buchanan Papers, Ira Cliff and William Dorsey Scrapbook, Ladies Aid Society of Hartsville Minutes, Lancaster Alms House Record Book, Washington and Cresson Literary Society Papers, Saraha Chamberlain Diary, and the Sun Fire Company Papers. These are exciting collections and we hope you will keep checkingback with our site throughout the year.

September 25, 2013 Do you have questions about using Omeka? You can check out our blog as we launch our new site and along the way we share tips and explore what we've learned about taking digital collections online. Maybe you have something to share with us? Join in the conversation!

September 5, 2013 Fall means the start of a new digitization queue for the project and the first collection we will be working on is the Reveernd Samuel Davis Diary Collection. This collection is on loan from the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh and should make a nice addition to our collections. The diaries include a detailed account of sermon topics as well as a volume of sermons and a diary which may have been written by Davis's wife. Check back in October to see if the collection is online.

July 3, 2013 Look for our new Omeka site this fall. We are currently installing an Omeka instance that will add enhanced content to our site such as exhibits and maps. We are particularly excited about the new transcription tool that we will be launching in early Winter. It will allow users to help us transcribe collections so we can provide text searchable collections to our researchers.

May 1, 2013 Would you like to receive updates on new collections that are added to our digitized collection? Then visit the collection homepage where you will find an RSS link.

February 6, 2013 William Blair was awarded a Research Grant from the Penn State University Africana Research Center to assess and describe the William Dorsey scrapbook collection. This monumental collection is a unique lens through which to view the second half of the nineteenth century as it appeared to an educated and affluent black man living in Philadelphia. The collection is owned by Cheney University and the purpose of the grant is to assess the condition and contents of the collection with the hopes that we might be able to digitize and preserve this monument at a later date. The scrapbooks date from 1840-1904 and were hand made and compiled using clippings from a variety of papers as well as programs and pamphlets. Many are thematically arrange and document crime, fine arts and politics within the AFrican American communities of the day. Work will be carried out by the project team assisted by the PSU Libraries and students from the History department.

January 21, 2013 The People's Contest is excited to be partnering with Anvil Academic Press in their Built Upon Series. If you are a scholar and are interetsed in using our collections to produce digital scholarship read more about Anvil and their Call For Proposals.

January 7, 2013 New Website Look! Our original website was reshaped over the Fall to allow for the addition of more digital collections, easier access to our database and future digital projects. How do you like it! Also, look for new collections in our catalogue of collection in late January. They inlcude collections from Lancaster, Muncy and Heinz Historical Center. Our team plans to visit Bedford county in the next few weeks and continue to look for more digital collections as we are digitizing daily.

Sept. 27, 2012 The project team completed surveying collections at the Lancaster County Historical Society. The society has an online catalogue and finding aids. They house several interesting collections related to James Buchanan, account books from a relief fund that he established and correspondence. The Bushong diaries record a family attending seances on a regular basis! During the period of her first diary (1859-62), her young son Frank becomes ill and dies. The second volume of her diary begins with a seance in which Edith communicates with her deceased cousin (Mary Bushong), who assures her that Frank is near his parents always. Edith writes, "The thought that our loved one still is with us, altho unseen, is a beautiful and happy one to us. To know that his pure spirit is ever hovering round his home and friends would make me almost satisfied with my ever earthly sorrow and pain, but I so often doubt, and I want so much to believe."

July 2, 2011 Digitization and Preservation at Penn State completes work on two digitized collections. The Pickel Diary documents the experiences of a Pennsylvania soldier during the Battle of Gettysburg and his subsequent death due to a bullet wound. The Lytle Diaries are a truly unique 9 volume set that records the life of Milton S. Lytle, student, soldier, lawyer and author.The Milton S. Lytle Civil War Era Diaries consist of nine manuscript pocket diaries: the first four describe his studies at The Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania (1860-1861), now Pennsylvania State University; the following five recount his experiences as a soldier in the American Civil War. Milton Scott Lytle (1842-1915) of Spruce Creek, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, graduated from The Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania in 1861, served in the Army of the Potomac and Army of the Cumberland (1862-1865), and after discharge, was a lawyer, editor, and author of History of Huntingdon County (1876).

March 28, 2012 In partnership with the Heinz History Center, the project will begin the process of digitizing the papers of John Covode. Covode was a prominent PA politician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the mid- nineteenth century. His papers consist mainly of incoming correspondence from his constituents. This undertaking is part of the project's effort to digitize more collections of papers by prominent Civil War Era PA politicians. The tram hopes to have the images available online by late summer 2012.

February 13, 2012 The project has announced they will begin digitizing collections this month. The team hopes to add as many as fourteen new collections to the website by the end of summer 2012. This will include several civil war diaries, the papers of two prominent Pa. politicians, letters of two young women, and legislative documents. The first collection to be digitized is the Milton S. Lytle Civil War Era Diaries. The set of nine pocket diaries describe his schooling at the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania and subsequent service in the Union army. Additional collections include the letters of young Anna Baker and Annie Porter which are housed at the Blair County Historical Society, the papers of politician John Covode, the correspondence of James Addams Beaver, correspondence of Simon Cameron from Dauphin County Historical Society, diaries of medical surgeon Theodore Christ from Union County and several boxes of legislative proceedings.

January 12, 2012 The project added 230 new records to the archive database this month, bringing the total number of bibliographic records searchable via the website to over 500. This addition reflects the surveying work conducted between June and November of 2011. During this time Richards Civil War Center Managing Director Dr. Matt Isham and Project Coordinator Dr. Sabra Statham surveyed collections in Union Co., Columbia, Marietta, Schuykill Co., Lycoming Co., Montour Co., the Germantown Historical Society, and added new records from Penn State Special Collections and the Heinz History Center. Team members were assisted by doctoral students Sean Trainor and Antwain Hunter, and Richards Center post-doctoral fellow Tim Wesley. Among the collections added were a number of rich Civil War era diaries. Lycoming Co. Historical Society holds four diaries written by soldiers. One includes letters home to a wife and another records the iron ore industry during the early war years in Centre Co. To read more search for Lycoming Co. in the database. Union Co. holds the Theo Christ diaries which were written by a Union Army medical surgeon. The first volume of the two volume set records his pre-war experiences in medical school and travelling throughout the northeast and mid-west. Columbia Historic Preservation Society has rescued documents that record the burning of bridges over the Susquehanna in 1863 and Marietta Restoration Associates hold one of the few surviving town council minute books from the era that records the daily preparations of the town militia and the death of Abraham Lincoln. The project plans to continue surveying over the summer of 2012 so look for more additions next year!

January 1, 2012 The People's Contest launches a Civil War Era Newspapers discovery project. In an effort to make newspaper content more accessible to users, the project will be creating a database of article citations that will be accessible via our website. Articles will be catagegorized by subject and theme and will link directly into the current newspaper database. It is hoped that the new database will make terms and topics that are normally hard to locate using the word search mechanisms provided by the current database more accessible. It should be especially helpful to researchers and students who are new to the software and to the Civil War era. The work will be conducted by three students from the History department and will be supervised by History subject area librarian, Eric Novotny.

December 1, 2011 The project announces the addition of a newly digitized collection. The Philip C. Shaffner and Robert H. Ward 1862 Civil War diary, and 1869 accounts, 1862-1869 was prepared and digitized by the Penn State Libraries' Digitization and Preservation Department in conjunction with the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State's University Park Campus.This bound volume is a diary which dates from 1862, with additional cash accounts entered in 1869. From 6-29 June 1862 the Union soldier, Philip Shaffner, wrote of his regimental activities beginning in Washington, D.C., and continuing near Fredericksburg, Virginia, until he was killed on 30 June. Confederate Brevet Second Lieutenant Robert H. Ward continued the diary on 30 June 1862, writing sporadically of the activities of his regiment until daily entries from 19 September through 31 December in Virginia (Martinsburg, Harpers Ferry, Winchester, Staunton, Fredericksburg). Of note are the entries about sociability between Confederate and Union pickets, destruction of railroad tracks, and building of military defenses. The 1869 cash entries detail receipts for a variety of legal services and cash payments for board and to women for services.

Oct 7, 2011 Two digitized collections were added to the project website in October. Both the Emilie Davis Diaries and the Descriptive list of deserters have been available via the Penn State digitized collections but until now have not been directly accessible from the People's Contest website. The Emilie Davis Diaries document the life of a free black woman living in Philadelphia during the war years. This amazing document is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and has been digitized in partnership with them. The roster of deserting men was discovered at the Bellefonte Historical Museum and is the most complete document of its kind listing nearly 280 pages of Union army soldiers who were cited for desertion between 1861 and 1865 in Pennsylvania. To learn more and view these collections visit the Resource page.

Aug 15, 2011 The project team has made plans to intensify its efforts to locate and catalogue primary source material related to the lives of African-Americans in Pennsylvania between 1851 and 1874. Initiating this effort, surveyors plan to visit the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia later this Fall. Originally established as the African Church, The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas was founded in 1792 by and for persons of African descent to foster personal and religious freedoms and self-determination. The original African Church was an outgrowth of the Free African Society -a mutual aid organization established in 1787 by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and others -to assist the Black population in Philadelphia. The early religious services were held in private homes and in a school. Within the congregation were many who -because of growing racial tension and insults -had followed the lay preachers, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, in an historic walkout from St. George's Methodist Church. Affiliation with the Episcopal Church was ratified in 1794. The Reverend Absalom Jones became the first Episcopal priest of African American descent and the first rector of St. Thomas' Church.

July 14, 2011 - Penn State Special Collections recently launched a new Flickr site. The current image exhibit draws from items in the exhibit "Home Front to Battlefront: Celebrating the Civil War Legacy," featured in the Eberly Family Special Collections Library from 23 June - 07 October, 2011 on the University Park campus of Penn State University.

In conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War the Eberly Family Special Collections Library will feature a special exhibition chronicling the Civil War Era and its legacy. Drawing upon an rich array of unique primary source materials - including family letters, diaries, photographic images, historical lithographs and broadsides, official government records - the exhibition explores themes of slavery and abolitionism, sectionalism, the battlefield experience of the common soldier, health and medical conditions during the war, Penn State and the Civil War, and the construction of cultural memory of the epic conflict.

June 1, 2011 The project team announced that they have begun their summer survey of regional and local historical societies. The team will consist of Dr. Matt Isham, Dr. Sabra Statham and two doctoral assistants from the Penn State History Department. The team plans to survey at least ten archives over the summer and hopes to have these collections in the database by early Fall. To date they have visited the Lycoming, Clinton and Schuykill County Historical Societies and made a second visit to Heinz History Center. The team has schedule additional June visits to Columbia and Marietta, Pa. and they hope to visit the Railroaders Museum in Altoona in the next few weeks. Also on their agenda are visits to several Philadelphia area archives including the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Germantown Historical Society. If you would like to talk to the team about visiting your archive send them a note via the Contact page.

March 11, 2011 The People's Contest Project team would like to thank all of those who participated in our survey of primary source material related to the study of the Pennsylvania Homefront during the Civil War. Special thanks goes out to the Historical Societies of: Centre County, Dauphin County, Adams County, Franklin County, Bucks County, Huntingdon County, Juniata County, Tyrone Area, Heinz History Center, Colonel Crowther Foundation and Penn State Special Collections. The survey produced bibliographic records for over 300 primary sources. Thirteen collections warranted further description and examination.

Nov. 1, 2010 - The People's Contest has scheduled visits to the Dauphin County, and Tyrone and Huntingdon area Historical Societies. Tyrone and Huntingdon Historical Societies are located in the rural central PA mountains near historic Camp Crossman. The societies are closely affiliated with the Colonel Crowther Foundation. Dauphin County encompasses the state capital in Harrisburg and holds significant collections documenting the Democratic party, teachers' schools and African-Americans during the Civil War era.

October 18, 2010 Project team members spoke at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, addressing representatives from over 50 historical heritage associations that had come together to discuss HSP's new history affiliates program. The team also conducted a survey of Philadelphia region archives and identified 16 repositories with significant Civil War era homefront collections to be included in future database surveys.

August 1, 2010 - The Richards Center announced the publication of the Richards Classics Series. This series consists of reprints of out-of-print classic texts related to the Civil War era with new introductions by leading scholars. The series anchors itself on the north during the Civil War era, with specific interest concentrated on Pennsylvania, women, and African Americans. While the initial focus of the series will be on the north and Pennsylvania, in particular, the series will look to broaden its scope to include texts dealing with the Civil War experience in general.The first reprint will be a compendium of three short texts by women on the Battle of Gettysburg: Tillie Alleman's, At Gettysburg: Or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle (1889), Sarah Broadhead's, Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg (1864), and Fannie Buehler's, Recollections of the Rebel Invasion(1900). The book is scheduled to be in print spring 2011. The series is a collaboration between the Richards Center, Penn State Press and the Office of Digital Scholarly Publishing at the University Libraries at Penn State. Karen Fisher Younger is serving as the series editor.

November 1, 2009 The Pennsylvania and the Civil War Homefront announced that they have been awarded a planning grant by the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services.) The grant which is scheduled to last a year will allow the project team to: assess the state of scholarship in the field; conduct a high level inventory of collections related to the study of the homefront; and investigate the readiness of historical heritage associations to participate in the project. The primary investigators will be Mike Furlough and William Blair. The grant will be jointly administered by the Penn State Libraries and the George and Anne Richards Civil War Era Center.