This past Monday saw the official launch of the Digital Center for Americana project (DCA).  Only a small number of people were able to attend in person, so I thought it would be nice to share with you some of what those present were able to see.

The longer I work processing manuscript collections, the more I realize that it is not the big events in these materials that get me excited, but the texture and circumstances of people's lives and how they integrated monumental events into their everyday.  I love sifting through old receipts to see what people were buying, what they ate, and how much they spent.  I like to read their letters to each other about major events, and see how those events impacted them.  I enjoy looking at these collections to get a sense of the people who created them, and when I don't get that sense, the colle

On this day in 1890, hundreds of Lakota people were massacred at Wounded Knee creek in South Dakota by the 7th Cavalry of the United States military, commanded by General Miles and Brigadier General John Rutter Brooke, whose papers I recently processed.  Brooke is rarely associated with Wounded Knee in the way that General Miles is, but Brooke worked on the ground from the Pine Ridge Agency, and fed Miles much of the information upon which his policy was based.