Center for Digital Research in the Humanities: Recent Episodes
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The Center for Digital Research in the Humanities (CDRH) advances interdisciplinary, collaborative research, and offers forums, workshops and research fellowships for faculty and students in the area of digital scholarship. This is a life-changing experience for students and faculty alike, leading to new ways of thinking about the humanities. Through the CDRH, faculty and students create research sites and tools that push our understanding of history, literatures, languages, and culture. Visit the CDRH online at: http://cdrh.unl.edu/
To celebrate the launch of Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924, a launch event was held on September 6 on the UNL city campus.
Viola Romero is the Great-Great Grand-daughter of Lucía Martínez, whose story is just one of many highlighted in Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924 (https://petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu). Viola's great-great- grandmother leveraged a habeas corpus petition in July 1871 against her former captor, who was trying to keep two of her daughters from her. Lucía Martínez's remarkable petition documented Indigenous women’s resistance to coercive legal regimes and her historic measures are featured in a number of scholarly publications. It is her petition that sparked the Petitioning for Freedom project, prompting inquiry into the thousands of habeas petitions other marginalized people filed to challenge interpersonal confinement as Lucía did, in addition to carceral and institutional detention. Drawing on Katrina Jagodinsky’s historical research, Martínez's relatives nominated her to the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame and she became one of few Native women honored in that venue.
Ethan Clinchard interviews US Air Force veteran Raymond Kelley about this history of Danbury, Nebraska and his experiences with German POWs during World War II.
Interview with Pam Messinger and Candy Simmons, children of Holocaust Liberator Melvin Thielbar.
Library of Congress Veterans History Project interview with Holocaust survivor Kitty Williams.
University of Nebraska UCARE student Ethan Clinchard interviews the family and friends of holocaust liberator Roy Long.
Interview with Senator John and Rita Stinner of Gering, Nebraska regarding their friendship with Holocaust survivor Irving Shapiro.
A scholarly discussion of digital humanities tools and approaches uniquely suited to community-engaged projects drawing on archival legal materials.
Interview with Dr. Tom Williams, son of Staff Sergeant Clarence Williams, Liberator of Dachau concentration camp, 42nd Rainbow Infantry Division WWII May 17, 2021
A video depicting the functionality of the map on Civil War Washington (http://civilwardc.org)
It's simply a good story it appeals to people because of its success. Lewis and Clark did the job set before them. They have this phrase in the journals: 'we proceeded on', and that reverberates through their journals. I think it means more than forward motion, 'we got from here to there each day.' I think it also has a sense about it that 'we went on in spite of whatever difficulties were in front of us.'
I feel that I have a public responsibility to do this, as well as just someone who's interested in Lewis and Clark, I think that it's important for someone like myself to carry the torch for Lewis and Clark so that OK, this wasn't just an academic/scholarly endeavor and now it's done and I'm done. That I continue to have an active role and I respect the people who are working to have this Lewis and Clark commemoration and I want to be a participant in it.
The Lewis and Clark project, that is the project to edit the journals of the expedition, came to the state of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska because Nebraskans had interest. The University of Nebraska Press, the Center for Great Plains Studies, the University of Nebraska, and the state of Nebraska supported the project financially for 20 years. So it was a great commitment by the state, by the center, by the university that made it happen. I think in later years, as the project was going on, people in Missouri and Oregon and Washington and Montana wished they'd had that idea. Because now the glory comes to our state and our university and our publishing house.
We have journals from four other enlisted men: Charles Floyd, who was a sergeant on the expedition; his journal is very short. He died. He was the only member of the party to die on the expedition; his journal starts like everyone else's, on May 14, 1804, when they set out on the Missouri River, it only lasts until mid-August when he became ill and died; he was buried near Sioux city, Iowa; two sergeants John Ordway and Patrick Gass; Ordway is the most complete. He wrote an entry for each of the 863 days they were out, so he is the most faithful journal-keeper. Patrick Gass isn't altogether satisfying because we don't have the original journal, all we have is a copy that was published and has been reprinted over the years. The original has been lost over the years, so we have to deal with a heavily-reprinted copy from 1807. Joseph Whitehouse is the only private whose journal has come down to us, and it isn't complete so we only have incomplete versions of it. The enlisted men's journals, although they vary in completeness, are still an important link to the writing as a whole because they provide not necessarily additional information but different kinds of information. There may have been other people keeping journals. Lewis and Clark are ambiguous about how many people were keeping journals, so people are always looking for the "lost journals" of Lewis and Clark.
That's hard to say. Lewis, when he wrote, was a more engaging writer. He had a literary flare, and that's probably one reason Jefferson chose Lewis. Jefferson always thought of it as the Lewis expedition; it was Lewis who chose Clark. Clark's writing is more blunt, more matter-of-fact. His is shorter. His entries are more direct and to the point. Lewis can go on and on about something and sometimes that's very appealing. Other times you want to say 'get to the point.' When Clark's writing you beg for more so it's a sort of different way of writing. Lewis was a very inconsistent journalist. There are great gaps in his writing. The greatest was at the start. From May 14, 1804 to April 7, 1805, from the time they left to go up the Missouri from the time they left their winter encampment at North Dakota, Lewis made only sporadic entries, so we have Clark almost exclusively to deal with for our information about the expedition.
Basically what I did was work with original materials, mostly on microfilm and some printed materials the holding depositories sent me or loaned me. I transcribed those, trying to be as accurate as possible bringing the written word to print. In the early days we did it with an IBM electric typewriter. I got into computers very early and used an old-fashioned dedicated word processor first, so I was able to bring everything over into computers and then we would update it from time to time and kept it up so it's compatible with modern machines. I would transcribe the materials and had clerical help, and go to Philadelphia or St. Louis where the journals were kept; and check my transcriptions. Not every word. It took 20 years as it was, but those parts that were questionable or difficult to read on the microfilm. It was a real thrill working with the original journals because they would pull these diaries out that Lewis and Clark had kept and the enlisted men kept over the years of the expedition, and I got to work right there with the originals. For a historian or someone interested in Lewis and Clark to touch the original materials is a real thrill.
The public is fascinated partly because they have had some great literature and some good documentary film come out. Stephen Ambrose's book sold over a million copies and it was on the New York Times best-seller list and the tragic story of Lewis, the fallen hero, is appealing to people. It's accessible. It's not people that are so distant from us. It's not a George Washington or Roman or Greek heroes. Lewis and Clark don't seem that far away. They seem like people you could understand or relate to. There were just average people on the trip, hunters and privates, a woman and a child and sort of a bumbling Frenchman. These are appealing to people. People come to it for different reasons. They like the scientific work. Some people like the adventure of Lewis and Clark, the raging river, the encounters with grizzly bears, the insurmountable mountains. People like to get out on the trail and see where Lewis and Clark were and find the lands somewhat like Lewis and Clark saw them. The lands that were similar to today, the low, low trails, the Bitterroot Mountains, the scenic white cliffs of Missouri and Montana. You can follow Lewis and Clark. You can get in your van or your RV and get a sense of where they were. You can take your journals or a guidebook and see they camped near here although so much has grown up with cities and towns and pastures and wheatfields and cornfields and cattle ranges, there are still parts of it that seem similar to the way Lewis and Clark saw it. It's just a great story.
America poem animation generated by Brian Pytlik Zillig, using his Indigo software, with audio by Jeremy Wurst. Created in collaboration with Brett Barney.
Abbot is a tool designed to convert dissimilar collections of XML texts into a common interoperable form. Abbot's key feature is the ability to read an XML schema file and output procedures to convert source files into a valid form that is consistent with the target schema. Abbot's schema-harvesting procedures focus on TEI, but is extremely flexible and format agnostic. Abbot makes no particular judgment or demand concerning the type of interoperability sought. It can transform texts into any XML schema.
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