UNL center honored by National Humanities Alliance

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Digital Research in the Humanities was one of nine institutions nationally invited to display information about its National Endowment for the Humanities-supported projects last month at Humanities Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. The projects are the "Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online" and the "Walt Whitman Archive."

Humanities Advocacy Day is an annual event organized by the National Humanities Alliance to promote awareness of and support for the humanities. Visiting members of Congress interact with representatives from each university and learn about each of the highlighted projects funded by the NEH.

"It was gratifying for UNL and its digital humanities projects to be among these select universities to receive such prestigious recognition," said Katherine Walter, professor of libraries.

The "Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition Online" is funded by the NEH Division of Public Programs and is based on the award-winning edition of the journals, edited by UNL historian Gary E. Moulton and published by the University of Nebraska Press. The online edition (http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu) blends the original 13-volume set, provides online searching capability, and adds significant content including information relating to the experiences of Native peoples.

The second digital project recognized is "The Walt Whitman Archive" (http://www.whitmanarchive.org), an ambitious thematic research collection that has received awards from a number of agencies for various aspects of its site. The NEH has funded the editing of Whitman's poetry manuscripts and has recently awarded UNL an NEH Challenge Grant to support the ongoing operation of the archive as a whole. Kenneth M. Price, Hillegass chair in American literature and a faculty member in the UNL English department, and Ed Folsom, professor of English at the University of Iowa, lead a collaborative, multi-institutional research team.

CONTACT:Katherine Walter, UNL Libraries Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, (402) 472-3939