primary sources

• 
• SOURCE: Washingtonian
  4/25/2022
  

  Library of Congress will Acquire Neil Simon's Papers

  Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden expressed gratitude to Simon's widow Elaine Joyce Simon for the donation, which enhances the library's holdings in performance arts and ensures future researchers will be able to access his work. 

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  4/5/2022
  

  Two of Darwin's Journals Mysteriously Reappear After 20 Years

  One of the notebooks contains the naturalist’s “Tree of Life” sketch from 1837, which sought to map out evolution and the relationship between species. Above the sketch are two words: “I think.”

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  4/1/2022
  

  The 1950 Census was a Last-of-its-Kind Treasure Trove of Information

  by Dan Bouk

  "As we celebrate the release of the 1950 Census records, it is an opportune moment to think again about the role the census has played — and may still play — in preserving the nation’s past by preserving a substantial accounting of each of us."

• 
• SOURCE: San Francisco Classical Voice
  3/20/2022
  

  Preserving the Past in the Digital Age Still a Headache

  "Our information and cultural history may not be as secure as we believe it to be."

• 
• SOURCE: WTOP
  2/21/2022
  

  Howard University Gets $2M Grant to Digitize Archive of Black Newspapers

  The project will create the largest and most accessible archive of historical Black newspaper content in the world. 

• 
• SOURCE: Cincinnati Enquirer
  2/5/2022
  

  Amplifying Voices on the Margins: Researching Cincinnati's Black History

  Howard University's Nikki M. Taylor explains that the primary sources are often rife with racist perspectives, but can still offer insight into how local Black communities have worked for self-determination. 

• 
• SOURCE: Slate
  2/10/2022
  

  Teaching Slavery to Middle Schoolers Raises Emotions. It's Not a Bad Thing

  by Mary Niall Mitchell and Kate Shuster

  A new digital project helps teachers use advertisements seeking the return of enslaved people who escaped as a way of understanding the people whose self-liberation forced those stories into the printed record.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/24/2022
  

  Yizker Bikher Books Commemorate Holocaust Deaths – but also Celebrate Jewish Communities’ Life

  by Jennifer Rich

  There is another way to honor those 6 million murdered: remembering the ways they lived, not only the ways they died.

• 
• SOURCE: The Metropole
  12/14/2021
  

  Introducing “Disciplining The Nation”

  by Matt Guariglia and Charlotte Rosen

  "Rooted in racial slavery, settler colonialism, and U.S. empire, policing and incarceration in the United States were slowly and meticulously built over time for the purpose of subordinating, punishing, and exploiting populations –and historians have the documents to prove it."

• 
• 12/12/2021
  

  Are Historians Too Credulous of the Single Culprit Explanation of the Reichstag Fire?

  by Benjamin Carter Hett

  Did Marinus van der Lubbe act alone in setting the Reichstag Fire? Historians who accept that theory – including giants in the field like Richard J. Evans – should recognize conflicts of interest in the sources supporting it and dig in to newly available archives to make sure. 

• 
• SOURCE: Virginia Tech
  12/6/2021
  

  New Website to Offer View of Uncensored GI Opinion about World War 2

  "So much of what we know about the everyday experiences of Americans who served in the war comes from such sources as letters that were censored, memories recorded later, or films,” says historian Edward Gitre of the American Soldier in World War II Project. 

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  11/29/2021
  

  What Can 19th Century Whaling Diaries Tell Us About Climate Change?

  Whaling ships' logbooks contain detailed navigational notes and descriptions of wind and weather, which can help construct a picture of climate patterns on distant stretches of ocean. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  11/4/2021
  

  Expanding the Digital Black Atlantic

  by Roopika Risam

  Scholars who are bringing digital humanities work to the study of the African diaspora and the connections between Black people in Europe, Africa and the Americas are also mindful of the need to avoid perpetuating the gaps and omissions about historical Black experiences that characterize traditional archives.

• 
• SOURCE: Philadelphia Tribune
  11/1/2021
  

  African American Museum in Georgia Honors Forgotten History

  "It all goes back to when I was a child growing up in White Plains," said Mamie Hillman, executive director of the museum. "I always wanted to know — how did I enter into history?"

• 
• SOURCE: KUT
  10/28/2021
  

  Structural Racism Hinders Efforts to Preserve History of Texas "Freedom Colonies"

  Dr. Andrea Roberts of the Texas Freedom Colonies Project says that the history of Black settlements during Reconstruction and Jim Crow is hindered by rules about what sites qualify as "historic."  

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/1/2021
  

  The Most Ambitious Diary in History

  by Benjamin Anastas

  The playwright and classicist Claude Fredericks kept 65,000 pages of a journal, likely the longest record of one American life ever kept. Is it valuable as a documentary record, or as a demonstration of the self-mythologizing work of the diarist? 

• 
• SOURCE: Forward
  10/7/2021
  

  Anne Frank's Complete Manuscripts Available Online for First Time

  "In addition to providing historical context, the digitized edition delves into the material details of the manuscripts, from the writing materials Frank used to the annotations and photographs she added to her diary."

• 
• SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
  10/1/2021
  

  Scientists Decipher Marie Antoinette's Redacted Love Notes

  “It’s always exciting when you discover that you can know more about the past than you thought you could,” said historian Rebecca L. Spang, who studies the French Revolution at Indiana University and was not involved in the study.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  8/16/2021
  

  What an Englishwoman’s Letters Reveal About Life in Britain During the American Revolution

  by Julie Flavell

  "Jane was convinced that her husband had embarked on a humanitarian errand. She believed the British war machine that carried him to New York was not intended to drive the Americans to desperation, but to force them to the negotiating table."

• 
• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  7/6/2021
  

  You are Only as Good as Your Sources

  by Bobby Cervantes

  Can researchers reexamine the boundary between journalism and historiography while maintaining the integrity of both? A researcher with a background in both explains how.