Blogs

Dana Dorman is the project manager of two HSP digital history projects: the William Still Digital History Project, focused on the Underground Railroad, and the Greenfield Digital Project, a documentary editing project focused on the early years of the Great Depression. She is also a researcher for HSP's Research by Mail service, and previously served as project archivist for the Digital Center for Americana pilot project. A Certified Archivist, Dana earned a BA in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a M.A. in public history from Temple University, where she wrote her thesis about the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies.

This Author's Posts

The Path to the Civil War

Though I'm now working with more recent materials, I couldn't resist one last Civil War-related post as we approach the 150th anniversary of the war.

Much attention will be placed on the anniversary of the start of the war: April 12, 1861, the date that Confederates opened fire on the federal Fort Sumter in South Carolina. But obviously tensions had been rising for years before that final breaking point.

Fondly, Pennsylvania
12/1/10
19th century, Civil War, Digital Center for Americana, James Buchanan papers, Politics, Varina Davis
A New Digital Project About 20th-Century History

I recently began work on a new digital history project here at HSP that will highlight one of our flagship collections related to the history of Philadelphia in the 20th-century: the Albert M. Greenfield papers (collection 1959).

Fondly, Pennsylvania
11/10/10
20th century, Albert M. Greenfield, Bankers Trust Company, Business, Depression, digitization, Greenfield Digital Project, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Text Encoding Initiative
Women's Views on the Civil War

Our processing work for the Digital Center for Americana pilot project is winding down. Over the last year, we’ve processed, conserved, described, and selectively digitized 51 collections at HSP that have ties to the Civil War.

Fondly, Pennsylvania
9/1/10
20th century, Civil War, Digital Center for Americana, Jeannie L. Field Musgrave, Wister and Butler families papers, Wister family papers, Women
More on Confederate Prisons

Archaeologists in Georgia announced yesterday that they have found the site of Camp Lawton, a Confederate prison camp near Millen, Georgia. You can read more about the project at Georgia Southern University's Camp Lawton web site.

Fondly, Pennsylvania
8/19/10
19th century, Civil War, Confederate prisons, Digital Center for Americana, graphics collections, hidden collections, Robert K. Sneden
Dueling For Honor

I’ve been working on processing a collection of Wister family papers – now known as the Wister and Butler families papers (collection #1962) – that contain papers of Pierce Butler, his former wife Frances Anne (Fanny) Kemble, their daughters Sarah Butler Wister and Frances Butler Leigh, and many other family members.

Fondly, Pennsylvania
8/9/10
19th century, Digital Center for Americana, Fanny Kemble, William Henry Rawle, Wister and Butler families papers, Wister family papers
Comments: 2
Government Waste, Circa 1863

I recently finished processing the Citizens’ Bounty Fund Committee records, another Civil War-era collection that we are working on as part of the Digital Center for Americana project.

Fondly, Pennsylvania
7/6/10
19th century, Citizens' Bounty Fund Committee, Civil War, Digital Center for Americana, Philadelphia