📣 New historical data visualization! "How Fast Was the Mail?" is an interactive map showing how long information took to travel across the US between 1882-1908: cblevins.github.io/mail-time/ +
Applications are open for the 2026 Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Creativity in Digital History, the signal prize in the field. Due May 15. www.historians.org/award-grant/...
Paul Ford and Rich Ziade on why good software needs design and product thinking, not just functionality. Applies to DH projects too—we need to think beyond CRUD apps around a database.
I've benefitted a great deal over the years from Kieran Healy's guides to doing scholarship in plain text, so it's fun to see his discussion of laying out his Data Visualization book (a book I've taught before and will teach again.)
Congratulations to my colleague Jessica Otis and her project team for winning the Renaissance Society of America's Digital Innovation Award for Death by Numbers, one of the data-driven social history projects at RRCHNM.
In the most recent issue of the "Working on It" newsletter, I wrote about realizing I was behind on agentic coding, my rethought Data Analysis for History syllabus, and John Turner's Joseph Smith biography. Read and subscribe:
The abstract for the Equity Docket, available in full at the link in the post.
Tom Schmidt isn’t on socials, and I rarely post—not great for coining a term, but we hope you’ll give the Equity Docket a try anyway!
A historical way of evaluating what the Supreme Court does with most of its time now: More equity, less shadow, not so interim.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
A few months ago I realized my rare and valuable skill—writing code as a historian—was still valuable but no longer rare. Now I'm thinking about what it means when the technical barriers to digital history drop away.
Another brilliant design, well executed, from Robin Rendle. My own tastes tend to the straightforward, not to say boring. But I love the whimsy of this one.
I absolutely adore the design of V. H. Belvadi's scholarly website. It's not a design I'd adopt for myself, but it's a wonderful idea, flawlessly executed.
This essay asks why RSS readers look like email clients, and argues that the borrowed interface creates a phantom sense of obligation.
The AHA/Roy Rosenzweig Prize went to Envisioning Seneca Village this year. RRCHNM's founder also wrote about Seneca Village, and Alexandra Miller dug into the Rosenzweig papers to trace the connections.
My colleague John Turner's biography of Joseph Smith is a riveting portrait of America's most successful religious entrepreneur—and he's paired it with thirty detailed podcast episodes. lincolnmullen.com/blog/john-tu...
My colleague Stephen Robertson’s incredibly detailed and thoughtful digital monograph, Harlem in Disorder, has won the 2025 Ángel David Nieves Book Award for Best Monograph from American Studies Association.
drstephenrobertson.com/news/awards-...
My colleague @jasonheppler.org talking with our partners at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library about the Denig illuminated manuscript project.
www.youtube.com/watch?si=l3T...
Some reflections on changing the approach on my syllabus for Data Analysis for History.
lincolnmullen.com/blog/this-se...
Today #HistoryInFocus starts a bonus series we're calling "Historians On," hosted and produced by historian @davidtrowbridge.bsky.social. This first installment is "Historians on AI." @historians.org #historypodcast #ai
At @rrchnm.bsky.social, we partnered with the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library to create a digital edition of a fascinating illuminated manuscript from eighteenth-century Pennsylvania. A beautiful website by @jasonheppler.org for a beautiful historical source. denigmanuscript.org
A graduate student at @rrchnm.bsky.social, Rachel Whyte, put together an introductory video about the Religious Bodies censuses conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and the work that we are doing to turn them into a dataset for scholarly and public use. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNgJ...
Apparently there are people on Bluesky now?
Congratulations to Christopher Marsh, Angela McShane @angelamcshane.bsky.social, Andy Watts, and the team behind 100 Ballads (Digital Humanities Inst., 2023) for being awarded this year's Roy Rosenzweig Prize for creativity in digital history! Check out their work here: www.100ballads.org
We've got a great webinar coming up featuring a conversation among @xroadproj.bsky.social fellows about their projects.
The Connecting Threads team is launching their project website October 11 at the Victoria and Albert Museum! This event will explore the history and culture of Madras textiles in India and the Caribbean with a line up of speakers. Register to join in person or online: www.vam.ac.uk/event/YGVBDZ...
Hosted by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, there will be a "Religion and Antisemitism" online panel discussion on September 19 at 3pm ET, with Britt Tevis, Sarah Imhoff, John Turner and me. Please consider joining us!
iu.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
I can't tell you how many digital documents I open on my phone which have a QR code and no URL and no hyperlink. How exactly am I supposed to scan the QR code when looking at it with my only device with a camera?
People at RRCHNM's all staff meeting
We had a full house for @rrchnm.bsky.social's first day of the academic year. Over fifty students, staff, and faculty are a part of RRCHNM.
Book cover of Computational Humanities Debated in Digital Humanities volume
It’s here! In paperback! Soon also online with other Debates in DH vols: dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/projects/com...
www.upress.umn.edu/978151791598...
Can’t wait to revisit all the chapters from amazing colleagues. Thanks Lauren, David and Jessica for being wonderful editors during difficult times.
Have enjoyed the last 3 days at #DH2024 hosted by @rrchnm.bsky.social & seeing so many friends, often for the 1st time in person since COVID. Also chaired an interesting hybrid session on mapping/visualization. Sorry I haven’t been able to see everyone & that I won’t be able to make the last day.
