Tomorrow during class we will be visiting the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem (virtually, alas!) to learn a bit about where the documents are housed that we will be working with semester. The Archivist, Dr. Paul Peucker, has kindly agreed to show us the Archives, talk about the kinds of materials that are kept there, and show you the originals of the documents we will be working with digitally. We will be meeting as usual in Coleman 220 at 2pm. We will be continuing our discussions of archives and the digital after our conversation with Dr. Peucker. These discussions will be important for your first proper blog post this Friday.
You will also be acquainting yourselves with the historical context of the materials in your readings this week. First, you will read James Merrell’s canonical account of Shamokin in the Colonial period; and then you will be reading the as yet unpublished introduction to the translation of the manuscript diary that I have been working on. On Friday I will be talking more about the documents you will be working with and we will start to divide up the images for transcription. Prior to Friday, have a look at the digital image gallery on the site to familiarize yourself with the documents.
Don’t forget that the Readings page is password protected.