Associated Products
“Persistence: From Archive to Digital Edition--The Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters Project.” (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: “Persistence: From Archive to Digital Edition--The Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters Project.”
Author: Lucinda Damon-Bach
Author: Alyssa Carrizales
Abstract: Our presentation will address the recovery, mission, materials, and methods for our growing digital archive of the letters of Catharine Maria Sedgwick, to be published through the Massachusetts Historical Society's new Primary Source Cooperative (MHS PSC). A National Endowment for the Humanities Scholarly Edition and Translations Grant has enabled us to launch our work, and an Andrew Mellon/National Historical Records and Publication Commission grant awarded to the MHS is helping us develop editing processes, tools, and ultimately a platform that will become open source materials for future editors and publishers of digital editions. A glimpse of our behind-the-scenes editorial materials and workflow will provide context for an illustrated case study, aimed to orient others interested in archival digital editing.
Date: 01/10/2021
Primary URL:
https://mla.confex.com/mla/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Session/9689Primary URL Description: Online conference program
Conference Name: Modern Language Association Convention
"The Vision and Personal References of the CMSOL Digital Edition" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "The Vision and Personal References of the CMSOL Digital Edition"
Author: Patricia Kalayjian
Abstract: After giving a brief overview and history of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters (CMSOL) NEH-funded project, I will discuss the challenges and value of creating personal references (pers refs) for a digital publication. In Sedgwick's case, challenges include her very large family -- over 100 individuals when we include first cousins -- many of whom were active parts of Sedgwick's life and some of whom share names (e.g., there are three "Catharines" just among Sedgwick's nieces). Sedgwick also abbreviated names, e.g., Mrs. C or Captain W, and identifying these vague references can take extensive cross-referencing and may ultimately prove impossible. In terms of value, as part of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Primary Source Cooperative project, we commit to provide precise information about all persons mentioned in Sedgwick's letters. The intent is to build new knowledge by adding to existing resources such as the Library of Congress Name Authority (LCNA) and Social Network and Archival Contexts (SNAC) records. Where such identifications do not already exist -- as is common for less well-known men and most women and persons of color -- we work to find sources that provide accurate information, thus building out and democratizing these resources. I will share our prosopography data sheets and our self-created family "tree."
Date: 07/08/2021
Primary URL:
https://americanliteratureassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Boston-2021-Formatted-Program-for-Printing-FINAL-1.pdfPrimary URL Description: see page 6 of conference program
Conference Name: American Literature Association annual conference 2021
"After Transcription: Subject Headings and Explanatory Notes for the CMSOL Edition (and any other edition)," (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "After Transcription: Subject Headings and Explanatory Notes for the CMSOL Edition (and any other edition),"
Author: Lucinda Damon-Bach
Abstract: Each letter in the CMSOL edition will make new knowledge possible, and each will be made more accessible to readers in several key ways. Not only will the letters be typed and the people mentioned within them identified to the best of our ability, they will also be tagged with subject headings, and illuminated with explanatory notes. Both of these steps require editorial team-effort to generate, and both require agreement and collaboration to complete. What information would be helpful? How much is too much, and distracting? Subject headings, in particular, are taking us into new territory. What search terms will be most helpful to future users of our archive? For instance, while developing our CMSOL Subject list we realized that we did not want to use the phrase "Separate Spheres" as a subject--a term being used by one of the other founding editions in the PSC--preferring instead the phrase "Gender Roles." And if we included "motherhood" on our list, we also wanted to add "fatherhood" and "childcare," especially since Sedgwick frequently took care of her nieces and nephews but was never a mother herself. How do we account for the fact that we have not yet read every letter, and in the future may not have the exact subject headings we need? Given that we cannot predict every subject, we are attempting to identify terms that future searchers will be able to combine, such as Health/Illness, Domestic Duties, and Gender Roles, in order to surface letters about Sedgwick's role as a visiting nurse for family members, or Legal Issues and Marriage/Marital Relations to find letters that address women's property rights. My portion of the roundtable will provide examples and raise issues and questions to consider in making these kinds of editorial judgments.
Date: 07/08/2021
Primary URL:
https://americanliteratureassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Boston-2021-Formatted-Program-for-Printing-FINAL-1.pdfPrimary URL Description: see page 6 of the conference program
Conference Name: American Literature Association annual conference 2021
“Documentary Editing in the Graduate Digital Humanities Classroom,” (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: “Documentary Editing in the Graduate Digital Humanities Classroom,”
Author: Ashley Reed (CMSOL Advisory Board)
Abstract: Each letter in the CMSOL digital edition begins with a hand-written manuscript, which must be converted into a typed transcription. Though the project editors review and verify this work, students can be the first to view, format, and initiate encoding of original manuscripts. During my portion of the roundtable, I will address students’ experiences of transcribing and editing letters for the CMSOL digital edition. Students in my Master’s-level Introduction to Digital Humanities course acquired hands-on experience with an ongoing DH project by transcribing Sedgwick’s letters for the CMSOL collection
and found it to be a frustrating but rewarding experience. Sedgwick, like other 19th-century writers, often fills every available space in her letters, finishing a sentence from the fourth page, for instance, by writing sideways in the margin on the first page, or writing over the previous text. For students who rarely read non-typewritten documents (and may not have learned cursive themselves), deciphering her handwriting was a challenge, and the wealth of personal references (discussed in Kalayjian’s paper for this roundtable) only complicated matters. Nevertheless, students reported that generating Initial Transcriptions was fascinating and even fun. In this paper I will discuss my students’ experience of transcribing Sedgwick’s letters and share images of original manuscripts, the Initial Transcription template, the CMSOL Transcription Guidelines, and sample student transcriptions.
Date: 07/08/2021
Primary URL:
https://americanliteratureassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Boston-2021-Formatted-Program-for-Printing-FINAL-1.pdfPrimary URL Description: see page 6 of conference program
Conference Name: American Literature Association annual conference
"The Vision and Personal References of the CMSOL Digital Edition" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "The Vision and Personal References of the CMSOL Digital Edition"
Author: Patricia Kalayjian
Abstract: After giving a brief overview and history of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Online Letters (CMSOL) project, I will discuss the challenges and value of creating personal references (pers refs) for a digital publication. In Sedgwick's case, challenges include her very large family -- over 100 individuals when we include first cousins -- many of whom were active parts of Sedgwick's life and some of whom share names (e.g., there are three "Catharines" just among Sedgwick's nieces). Sedgwick also abbreviated names, e.g., Mrs. C or Captain W, and identifying these vague references can take extensive cross-referencing and may ultimately prove impossible. In terms of value, as part of the Massachusetts Historical Society's Primary Source Cooperative project, we commit to provide precise information about all persons mentioned in Sedgwick's letters. The intent is to build new knowledge by adding to existing resources such as the Library of Congress Name Authority (LCNA) and Social Network and Archival Contexts (SNAC) records. Where such identifications do not already exist -- as is common for less well-known men and most women and persons of color -- we work to find sources that provide accurate information, thus building out and democratizing these resources. I will share our prosopography data sheets and our self-created family "tree."
Date: 11/07/2021
Primary URL:
https://whova.com/embedded/event/ssoaw_202111/?utc_source=emsPrimary URL Description: program website for this session
Conference Name: Society for the Study of American Women Writers
"Editorial Citizenship and the CMSOL Project" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Editorial Citizenship and the CMSOL Project"
Author: Deborah Gussman
Abstract: In his essay “The Ends of Editing,” Peter M.W. Robinson compares scholarly editing to citizenship: “Being a good textual editor is not so different from being a good citizen: one ought to listen, ought to try to understand what is actually being said, then ought to try to help others understand too.” (DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly Vol. 3, No. 3, 2009.) This, in a nutshell, characterizes the editorial ethos of the CMSOL project. In my brief remarks for this roundtable, I will explain what this process and conversation comprises, what some of the challenges of listening, understanding and helping others to understand have been, and what our practices for transforming this conversation from Word into XML have entailed.
Date: 11/07/2021
Primary URL:
https://whova.com/embedded/event/ssoaw_202111/?utc_source=emsPrimary URL Description: program session
Conference Name: Society for the Study of American Women Writers
"Beginning the Documentary Editing Journey: Transcription from a Student's Perspective" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Beginning the Documentary Editing Journey: Transcription from a Student's Perspective"
Author: Chantelle Escobar-Leswell
Abstract: Each letter in the CMSOL digital edition begins with a hand-written manuscript, which must be converted into a typed transcription. My introduction to documentary editing began with this task, one of several I was assigned as a (paid) graduate research assistant. Though the project editors review and verify my work, I am the first person to view, format, and initiate encoding of the original manuscript. Sedgwick, like other 19th-century writers, often fills every available space in her letters, finishing a sentence from the fourth page, for instance, by writing sideways in the margin on the first page, or writing over the previous text. And her handwriting can be very challenging to decipher, even when it is not cross-written. That said, generating Initial Transcriptions turns out to be both fascinating and frustrating, but ultimately very satisfying work. During my portion of the roundtable I will provide a glimpse of the joys and challenges of transcribing, sharing images of original manuscript as well as materials such as our Handwriting Guide for Sedgwick's script, our Initial Transcription Template, and the Transcription Guidelines used during this process.
Date: 11/07/2021
Primary URL:
https://whova.com/embedded/event/ssoaw_202111/?utc_source=emsPrimary URL Description: online conference program
Conference Name: Society for the Study of American Women Writers
"After Transcription: Subject Headings and Explanatory Notes for the CMSOL Edition (and any other edition)" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "After Transcription: Subject Headings and Explanatory Notes for the CMSOL Edition (and any other edition)"
Author: Lucinda Damon-Bach
Abstract: Each letter in the CMSOL edition will make new knowledge possible, and each will be made more accessible to readers in several key ways. Not only will the letters be typed and the people mentioned within them identified to the best of our ability, they will also be tagged with subject headings, and illuminated, when needed, with explanatory notes. Both of these steps require editorial team effort to generate, and both require agreement and collaboration to complete. What information would be helpful? How much is too much, and distracting? Subject headings, in particular, are taking us into new territory. What search terms will be most helpful to future users of our archive? How do we account for the fact that we have not yet read every letter, and in the future may not have the exact subject headings we need? For instance, while developing our CMSOL Subject list we realized that we did not want to use the phrase "Separate Spheres" as a subject--a term being used by one of the other founding editions in the PSC--preferring instead the phrase "Gender Roles." And if we included "motherhood" on our list, we also wanted to add "fatherhood" and "childcare," especially since Sedgwick frequently took care of her nieces and nephews but was never a mother herself. Given that we cannot predict every subject, we hope that future searchers will combine terms, such as Health/Illness, Domestic Duties, and Gender Roles, in order to find information about family-provided healthcare, or Legal Issues and Marriage/Marital Relations to learn about women's property rights. My portion of the roundtable will provide examples and raise issues and questions to consider in making these kinds of editorial judgments.
Date: 11/07/2021
Primary URL:
https://whova.com/embedded/event/ssoaw_202111/?utc_source=emsPrimary URL Description: online conference program
Conference Name: Society for the Study of American Women Writers
“The Cultural Work of Letters in Catharine Sedgwick's Redwood.” (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: “The Cultural Work of Letters in Catharine Sedgwick's Redwood.”
Author: Lucinda Damon-Bach
Abstract: Bryant identified Redwood as the "first American novel, strictly speaking." And he considered the novel an "hazardous experiment" because it focused on contemporary society. Twenty-first-century critics have claimed that Redwood is Sedgwick's "second best novel" (Fetterley), and possibly the first to challenge slavery twenty-five years before Uncle Tom's Cabin (Karcher). While not an epistolary novel, interpolated letters by multiple characters are vital in forwarding the novel's action and providing the reader with diverse perspectives. This essay argues that Sedgwick's epistolary interludes function as models of the kinds of introspection and questioning that would serve her readers as they navigate their own roles and responsibilities in civic and spiritual life, and they demonstrate the efficacy of letter writing itself as an agent of change. In addition to examining how the cultural work of the novel is advanced through its letters (particularly related to developing religious tolerance and increasing female agency) I will introduces several private, unpublished letters by early readers of the novel that not only shed light on 19th-century responses but also illuminate Sedgwick's historical influences and writing processes.
Date: 03/04/2021
Primary URL:
https://www.societyofearlyamericanists.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/SEA_2021__Virtual__Biennial_Conference-PROGRAM__final_.pdfPrimary URL Description: See page 24 of conference program
"Epistolary Experiments: The Cultural Work of Letters in Catharine Sedgwick's Redwood" (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: "Epistolary Experiments: The Cultural Work of Letters in Catharine Sedgwick's Redwood"
Author: Lucinda Damon-Bach
Abstract: In her second novel Redwood (1824), Catharine Maria Sedgwick interpolates 24 letters and notes by 15 different characters within the book's 27 chapters. These letters are situated in 8 scenes of letter writing (in which a character is actually writing a letter) and 19 scenes of letter reading. Sedgwick's privileging of these epistolary elements, which include her bookending of the volume with long missives penned by two individuals who are opposites in many ways--Henry Redwood, the eponymous hero, a twice-widowed, wealthy Southerner, and Deborah Lenox, a never-married Vermont farmwoman--demands further consideration. As Caroline Karcher has noted, Sedgwick's narrative experiment in Redwood to "share authorship with her characters by letting them narrate parts of the story through interpolated letters . . . allows [her] to present multiple perspectives on events and to give voice even to marginal or evil characters" (10). But in her brief essay aimed at repositioning Sedgwick in American literary history, Karcher did not delve into particulars.
This essay builds on and interrogates Karcher's observation, considering how Sedgwick's epistolary experiments make the novel a bridging text between the completely epistolary novels of the eighteenth century and works published after hers, and examines how her interpolated letters function as models of the kinds of introspection and questioning that could serve her readers as they navigated their own roles and responsibilities in civic and spiritual life. How does Sedgwick use letters to give voice to the voiceless (particularly female characters)? How is the cultural work of the novel advanced through its letters? How might Sedgwick's use of letters demonstrate the efficacy of letter writing itself as an agent of change? This essay will address these questions and others, and likely integrate several letters by Sedgwick and others that shed light on 19th-century responses to the novel and illuminate some of Sedgwick's histo
Date: 11/05/2021
Primary URL:
https://whova.com/embedded/session/qe+4KC3ylbJuXX9uphuswYo6094Y18XKT5mVgSi/0mQ=/2006267/?widget=primaryPrimary URL Description: Online program link to session "Gender and Genre in the Early Nineteenth Century"