Leveraging linked data and digital humanities tools and methods provided a rich opportunity to showcase Milner digital collections and digital scholarship in a Fall 2024 project completed by an intern in the Special Collections department.
Milner Library at Illinois State University is accepting applications for the 2025 Circus and Allied Arts Collection Fellowship.
Milner Library is proud to announce the publication of the P.T. Barnum Letters and Ephemera, a digital collection drawn from Special Collections’ world-class circus holdings.
Children’s literature offers a window into the social and cultural values of a given time and place by revealing what children were meant to learn. Sometimes the messages conflict with one another, giving us a glimpse into the varying ideals that circulated (and of the adults who were vying to spread their version of ethical behavior to the younger generation). Children’s literature produced during the Abolitionist movement provides an excellent example of these schisms in values.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show had an extraordinarily diverse cast, including Cody’s friends and family, Native Americans, and immigrants from all over. Instead of focusing on the well-documented Buffalo Bill himself, my supervisor and I decided to find a way to showcase the many other people involved.
Our copy of the novel Zézette is part of the Circus & Allied Arts Collection and is unique in the most incredible ways, including page after page of marginalia in the form of original watercolor illustrations—96 in total.
Images can grip us with differing stories of people, places, and events depending on their content, but also depending on their context and placement. This is a particularly appropriate moment to look at parallels from the past.
The Digital Scholarship Lab at Milner Library will be offering workshops this summer on engaging students with online primary sources and on creating digital exhibits and digital publications with Scalar and Omeka.
Queer Coalition, Illinois State University’s LGBTQIA+ faculty, staff, and graduate student affinity group, will be partnering with cultural heritage collections across campus this summer to explore queer history through an intersectional lens. Attendees can expect a 30-minute presentation followed by a Q&A. All are welcome to attend.
Topics will range from representing texts in digital forms using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) to using data analysis and visualization tools to curating digital collections and exhibits using the Omeka platform.
