Virginia Consortium of Early Americanists

The third annual conference of the Virginia Consortium of Early Americanists meets this coming Saturday, January 28, at the Library of Virginia in Richmond. All are welcome. Founded in 2014 in order to provide a forum for the wealth of scholarship focused on early American history in Virginia, the group meets at least once a year. Graduate students… Read More

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The OI Guides to #VastEarlyAmerica

Over the life of the Omohundro Institute, the staff here in Williamsburg produced resources with the aim of helping scholars to navigate the early American field. Like the Carnegie Guides I discussed in a previous post, these inevitably reflected a contemporary understanding of “the field” as well as the communication capacity and technology of… Read More

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OI colloq series begins February 7

The Omohundro Institute’s colloquium series resumes February 7 with a presentation by Greta LaFleur (Yale University) entitled “The Complexion of Sodomy.” The OI’s colloquium series convenes up to six times per semester to discuss projects in progress. Papers are pre-circulated and available by request. Although only postdoctoral work is presented, graduate students at all levels are warmly encouraged… Read More

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Finding Calm amidst Chaos, or, Zen and the Art of Conference Attendance

With the 2017 meeting of the American Historical Association convening this week in Denver, Associate Editor of Books Nadine Zimmerli and Senior Project Editor Kathy Burdette share their thoughts on the experience of the fabled exhibit hall from the perspective of the exhibitors. NADINE: Ask anyone in our profession about attending AHA, and your query will… Read More

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Report from #VastEarlyAmerica, 2017

Welcome to 2017, where the past is always urgent.  There are times when the present and future seem like all we can handle, but to paraphrase Santayana repeating the past is not the real danger of neglecting history.  It is that our understanding or misunderstanding of history is always, explicitly or implicitly, even when it’s out of our direct… Read More

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Clarifying the purposely obscure

Today’s post comes courtesy of Gabriel Cervantes, author of “Learning from Stephen Burroughs: Republication and the Making of a Literary Book in the Early United States” in the October 2016 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly.   by Gabriel Cervantes When I first started working on Stephen Burroughs’s Memoirs, I realized that the narrative uses poetry in clever ways. Read More

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The Year in Publications

Today’s post comes from our interim Editor of Books, Paul W. Mapp. From an editor’s point of view, and, I suspect, from the reading public’s point of view, the exciting feature of 2016 for the Books program here at the Institute was the publication of a good number of excellent titles. Equally heartening are the numerous and strong volumes… Read More

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Pay it Forward: The OI’s Digital Collections Fellowship

by Karin Wulf   It’s clear that #VastEarlyAmerica includes not only an expansive conceptual, geographical, and chronological scope, but also new and exciting methodologies. The possibilities for doing digital historical scholarship, from research to publication platforms, have expanded exponentially over the last decade; I find this a tremendously encouraging sign about the vitality and future of our field. I… Read More

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R/O?

Today’s post is from Josh Piker, Editor of the William and Mary Quarterly.  There are certain little things about the Quarterly that I will never be able to change.  Some of those—like the journal’s cover—I wouldn’t change if I could.  Of course, Karin Wulf has made it very clear that, forced to choose between the journal’s cover and its Editor,… Read More

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Garter Day in the Archives

Today, Georgian Papers Programme fellow Rachel Banke writes about her experience while conducting research in the Georgian archives at Windsor Castle’s Round Tower. Applications for the next round of GPP fellowships are due February 20, 2017. Scholars at all levels—graduate students, junior and senior faculty, and independent scholars of all ages—are eligible for the award. Apply here. Read More

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Jamestown, Peru?

Today’s post comes from Christopher Heaney, Assistant Professor, Penn State, 2016-2018 Barra Postdoctoral Fellow, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and WMQ author (October).   “Do we really need a ‘Peruvian Atlantic’ … ?” asked Reader B. For the sake of my argument, I couldn’t help but agree. The original subtitle of what became my essay in this fall’s issue of the… Read More

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The Notes You Don’t Play

Some Reflections on Vastness and the Word Count by Samuel Fisher, WMQ author (October 2016) I suppose it’s safe to say that the vastness of early America is a bit of a preoccupation in these parts. Big, expansive frameworks are the norm now; that much we know. The hard part comes when we try to actually put them to… Read More

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