I went to a session in Alumni Hall at 10:45 am on Saturday, February 22, 2025. The session was on Building a Legacy for the 250th: Digital Humanities and the Challenge of Preserving a Commemoration. It was presented by Joseph M. Adelman, who’s a professor at Framingham State University and an Associate Editor at The New England Quarterly.
He spoke about how Congress approved around 200 copies of the Declaration of Independence by Dunlap (National Archives). In the New York Public Library, there’s a document that has all of the signatures on it. Then, Congress went backwards and did the Declaration of Independence in Calligraphy on parchment paper, that was signed in August of 1776. Adelman talked about how John Quincy Adams asked for a copper engraving of the original parchment paper, and that took a step back technology-wise with that. Adelman also talked about how paper is technology. Some early digitization projects involved the Digital Preservation: Microfilm and Microfiche. There’s a website called the Founders Online, that takes papers and projects of The Founding Fathers is cited to the original paper(s). There’s a place called “The Revolutionary City” in Philadelphia, that brings resources from five different archives and brings them into one place that are about The American Revolution. By putting records like this online, it makes it more accessible for everyone. Adelman also mentioned that you can reach audiences through podcasts, and there’s one really good one called, “Benjamin Franklin’s World.” They have collaboration at the state level with the Connecticut’s Archive Online. Adelman explained that the challenges to get sources are decentralization and money. He ended the presentation with the principles for the 250th: target audience, collaboration is key, inclusive stories are better, archive and secure whatever we can, and it’s hard to say anything about funding.
The part that I was confused about was when Adelman was talking about the project they were going to be working on in 2026, for The Semiquincentennial, called “A Tall Ships Portoflio.” I didn’t really understand what it was about. I’m curious how they’re going to get funding for the 250th and for other projects they want to work on. It was a great presentation and gave everyone an insight on how they preserve sources online and how much work goes into it.
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