Franco American Digital Archives/Portail franco-américain: Digitizing Franco-American History Collections for Open Access

FAIN: PW-290475-23

University of Maine, Orono (Orono, ME 04473-1513)
Susan Pinette (Project Director: July 2022 to present)

The digitization and description of over 35,000 pages of personal papers, social club records, publications, and artwork, as well as 58 oral histories, for inclusion in the Franco American Digital Archive/Portail franco-américain (FADA/PFA). 35,523 digitized Maine noncitizen registration records from 1940 would receive enhanced description and be added to FADA/PFA as well. 

The University of Maine, representing Franco American Collections Consortium, proposes to digitize nearly 36,000 pages of French-language and bilingual French-English family correspondence, scrapbooks, manuscripts, diaries, and personal papers, as well as 58 oral history sound recordings from French-Canadian diaspora communities in the U.S. This project will also describe 35,523 Maine noncitizen registrations from 1940 that have already been digitized but lack complete metadata. These materials show–in French and English–150 years of struggles and triumphs of Franco Americans from across New England. All materials will be discoverable through Franco American Digital Archives/Portail franco-américain, the NEH-funded open-access, bilingual discovery tool for Franco-American materials in North America. This project responds to NEH's special encouragement to develop innovative approaches to sustaining and preserving the historical record by working across multiple institutions.