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By Ali MacDonald February 04, 2020

You Just Had to Be There? Thoughts on Transcription, Inventories, and Materiality in Understanding Carlton House

Last month I took a day out of my research trip to visit George IV: Art & Spectacle, currently on display at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace (Nov 15, 2019 – May 3, 2020). In a sense this exhibition seeks to rehabilitate our long-standing conception of George as a bad son, bad father, bad husband, and bad… Read More

Georgian Papers Programme 13 min read
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By oieahc January 23, 2020

VCEA Meeting 1/25/2020

We are delighted to announce that the Virginia Consortium of Early Americanists (VCEA) will hold its annual meeting on Saturday, January 25th, 2020. Our good friends at the University of Richmond will serve as our hosts for what promises to be another exciting day of conversation and scholarship.  Please find below the program for this year’s meeting: 9:00am – 10:30am… Read More

conferences 5 min read
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By Liz Covart December 16, 2019

Tea Party Playlist

Courtesy American Antiquarian Society On November 29, 1773, a group of concerned Bostonians met in Boston’s Old South Meeting House to discuss how to deal with the ships just arrived from London laden with tea to be sold by the East India Company under the terms of Great Britain’s Tea Act. The act sought to accomplish three objectives. First, the… Read More

Ben Franklin's World 9 min read
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By oieahc December 13, 2019

Meet the OI apprentices

As the fall semester at W&M winds to a close, we at the Omohundro Institute are particularly grateful for the work of the OI Editorial Apprentices. The decades-long program introduces entering graduate students to the practices of scholarly publishing and historical editing. Each year, students participate in… Read More

apprentices 11 min read
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By Janine Yorimoto Boldt November 19, 2019

When the Past Still Hangs in the Parlor

“My Will is that none of the Pictures of what Sort Soever be Removed out of my Dwelling Hall.” With those words, Henry Custis (ca. 1677-1733) of Northampton County, Virginia clearly stated his intention that the family portraits (and any other pictures) should remain with his house in perpetuity. Custis would be disappointed that neither his house nor his… Read More

12 min read
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By oieahc November 04, 2019

Update on the Georgian Papers Programme

The Georgian Papers Programme (GPP) is a 10-year transatlantic collaboration to digitize, share, and interpret more than 425,000 pages relating to the Georgian period (1714–1837) from the Royal Archives and Royal Library at Windsor Castle. The ultimate goal of the Programme is to provide… Read More

Georgian Papers Programme 8 min read
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By Emily Sackett October 28, 2019

“By the Meanes of Women”: Jamestown on the Vanguard of English Women’s Settlement

Emily Sackett was awarded an OI–Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation fellowship in spring 2019. She spent the month of September 2019 in residence at the Omohundro Institute and conducted extensive research in the collections at Jamestown Island. The OI offers numerous short-term fellowships for scholars—from advanced graduate students… Read More

fellowships 9 min read
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By Jim Ambuske October 24, 2019

An invitation to collaborate

Learn more about our new fellowship collaboration with The Washington Library Read More

fellowships 4 min read
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By Lauren Duval October 22, 2019

Domestic Tranquility: Privacy and the Household in Revolutionary America

Today’s post accompanies “Creating the Fourth Amendment,” episode 261 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of Doing History 4: Understanding the Fourth Amendment. The image of a victorious and weary George Washington retiring to Mount Vernon after eight long years of battle and war is… Read More

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By Molly O'Hagan Hardy October 10, 2019

Reflections on “Archives-Based Digital Projects in Early America”

Molly O’Hagan Hardy’s article “Archives-Based Digital Projects in Early America” appeared in the July 2019 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly. If this article succeeds, it is because the composition of it, like the projects it describes, are the result of back and forth, give and take, what we often call “collaborative” production but which often feels more… Read More

digital projects 10 min read
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By Gautham Rao October 08, 2019

Friends in All the Right Places: The Newest Legal History

Today’s post accompanies “American Legal History and the Bill of Rights,” episode 259 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of Doing History 4: Understanding the Fourth Amendment. In 1965 a lawyer named Malcolm S. Mason wrote an article for the Journal of Legal Education with a simple problem: legal history was boring. For Mason, who… Read More

10 min read
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By Joshua R. Greenberg September 30, 2019

Introducing Commonplace.online

By Joshua R. Greenberg, editor of Commonplace.online What is it like for a scholar to read the entire back catalog of a publication without a specific research or teaching agenda in mind? For me, it has been like assembling a very complicated jigsaw puzzle. Let me explain. As of September 30th, Commonplace: the journal of early American life has… Read More

7 min read
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