{"id":2180,"date":"2013-11-19T17:13:36","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T17:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/drp\/?p=3918"},"modified":"2013-11-19T17:13:36","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T17:13:36","slug":"exploring-pioneer-lives-ui-libraries-and-rhetoric-students-partner-on-new-digital-collection-and-crowdsourcing-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/2013\/11\/19\/exploring-pioneer-lives-ui-libraries-and-rhetoric-students-partner-on-new-digital-collection-and-crowdsourcing-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring pioneer lives: UI Libraries and Rhetoric students partner on new digital collection and crowdsourcing project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DIY<\/a><\/p>\n

This November, as Thanksgiving brings thoughts of pilgrims, the University of Iowa Libraries is exploring a later period of American history with a new digital collection, crowdsourcing initiative, and curriculum project based on pioneer-era documents.<\/p>\n

Featuring more than 2,500 pages of letters, diaries, and photographs dating from the mid-to-late 19th century, the Pioneer Lives collection is available for browsing at the Iowa Digital Library:\u00a0digital.lib.uiowa.edu\/pioneers<\/a><\/p>\n

The documents have also been added to DIY History — diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu<\/a>–\u00a0the Libraries\u2019 crowdsourcing site, where the public can help with historical research by providing transcriptions for handwritten texts.\u00a0Earlier this fall, the collection got a test run from rhetoric students participating in a curriculum pilot project developed by IDEAL<\/a> (Iowa Digital Engagement & Learning) to incorporate digital humanities in the undergraduate classroom.<\/p>\n

Documenting Iowa\u2019s early settlers, the Pioneer Lives collection lends immediacy to this historic period through the first-hand accounts of ordinary citizens. This is particularly true of the correspondence, with its descriptions of new lives written for loved ones left behind:<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Father, I am in a place which at my coming here was very strange, but I have got acquainted and very contented, much more than I expected. I will give you a short sketch of what life I live here\u2026\u201d \u2013 Henry Eno letter, 1813<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMy Dear Cousin, I thought I would write to you as it is my birthday. I am 11 years old\u2026 I go to school now\u2026 We have three boarders. I am going to learn to scate [sic] this winter\u2026\u201d \u2013 Emma Ward letter, 1866<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDear Brother McCormick, Yours received, some time since, asking a sketch of my career as an M.D. during the past year, which\u2026 I must admit has far exceeded my hopes\u2026\u201d \u2013 Dr. Mila Sharp letter, 1885<\/a><\/p>\n

Students in honors Rhetoric taught by Tom Keegan, faculty member and co-director of IDEAL, explored the collection during a four-week assignment that involved transcribing historic correspondence, conducting background research with primary source materials, performing rhetorical analyses of the documents, and presenting findings via screencast videos uploaded to YouTube.<\/p>\n

In addition to learning new skills and information, many of the students enjoyed themselves along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a fun time analyzing my document which is rare because homework is almost never fun for me,\u201d wrote one student in a class blog post. \u201cI thought this was one of the first projects that I actually felt like I was making a legitimate discovery and that was a really unique experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This November, as Thanksgiving brings thoughts of pilgrims, the University of Iowa Libraries is exploring a later period of American history with a new digital collection, crowdsourcing initiative, and curriculum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}