Record Details
Digital Humanities and the History of Science: Retrofitting Old Collections for New Purpose
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Digital Humanities and the History of Science: Retrofitting Old Collections for New Purpose |
| Names |
Bahde, Anne
(creator) |
| Date Issued | 2014-09-26 (iso8601) |
| Note | Presented at the 55th Annual RBMS Preconference, Las Vegas, NV, June 25, 2014 |
| Abstract | History of science collections offer unique possibilities for data visualization, data mining, and social involvement. This paper will discuss an Oregon State University Libraries project involving the records of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS), a group founded by Einstein in 1946 to educate the public on the dangers of nuclear war and the peaceful uses of atomic science. This project creates an integrated tool that combines the digital humanities capabilities of multiple discovery platforms, enabling crowdsourced transcription, visual exploration of the digitized correspondence, and manipulation of collection metadata to reveal geographic concentrations, demographic patterns, donation trends, and more. These facets allow fresh insight into microhistorical questions about the successes and failures of the ECAS, but also enable exploration of larger questions about how Americans grappled with the new atomic reality. |
| Genre | Presentation |
| Topic | digital humanities |
| Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/52396 |
