NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Department of History

G57.1012 Historical Editing

Wednesday, 4:55-7:35Prof. Esther Katz

KJCC 602

SEMINAR IN HISTORICAL EDITING:

INTERPRETING MARGARET SANGER

This seminar in historical editing is designed to introduce students to the theories, practices and problems in editing and publishing historical documents. Students will apply lessons from readings in the development of an edited collection drawn from the Margaret Sanger papers. ]Students will be organized into groups and submit mini-editions of a selection of Sanger papers, complete with all prefatory material, transcriptions, annotation, and other non-textual elements .

Required TextsMary-Jo Kline, A Guide to Documentary Editing, 2nd ed (Johns Hopkins, 1998)Michael E. Stevens and Steven B. Burg, Editing Historical Documents: A Handbook Practice (Altamira Press, 1997)Optional ReadingEsther Katz, Cathy Hajo and Peter Engelman, The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger, Vol. 1 The

Woman Rebel, 1900-1928 (Illinois University Press, 2003) - paperback

All other assigned readings will be on Blackboard.

Photocopies of documents to be used in student projects will be distributed in class. Students may, if necessary, use the documents and other reference material located in the Sanger Project offices (53 Washington Square South, Room 501) for their research. For background on Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement, students may wish to examine:Esther Katz, et al., The Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger. Vol 2 Birth Control Comes of Age (2007)

Ellen Chesler, Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America (1992)

Linda Gordon, The Moral Property of Women (2003)

James Reed, From Public Vice to Private Virtue: The History of the Birth Control Movement and American Society since 1830 (1978)Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography (1938) All research undertaken in the Sanger Project offices under the supervision of one of the project editors. Such research may be done using the Sanger Project resources on Friday afternoons between 2-5 pm or by appointment.Grades will be determined as follows:Individual participation in class discussion .. . 10%

Individual selection criteria . 15%

Accuracy of individual transcriptions ... 25%

Accuracy and scholarly merit of each overall group project .. 50%

Week 1 (Sept. 5)Introduction

Historical Editing - Definitions

Introduction to the Margaret Sanger Papers

Selection and Arrangement

Required Reading: Kline, chap. 1

Stevens, chap. 1

Lester Cappon, "A Rationale for Historical Editing Past and Present," William and

Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., 23 (1966): 56-75.

Laura Miller Coles, "'Two Souls with but a Single Thought'?--The Evolving

Relationship Between Archivists and Editors," Documentary Editing 16:2 (June 1994): 43-46, 50.

Philip B. Eppard, The Archivists Perspective: Implications for Documentary

Editing,Documentary Editing 16:2 (June 1994): 47-50.

Constance B. Schultz, "Do Archivists Need to Know How to be Editors? A

Proposal for the Role of Documentary Editing in Graduate Archival Education," Documentary Editing 16:1 (March 1994): 5-9.

Richard Cox, Messrs. Washington, Jefferson, and Gates: Quarreling About the

Preservation of the Documentary Heritage of the United States, First

Monday (1997)

John Y. Simon, "The Canons of Selection," Documentary Editing 6:4 (December

1984): 8-12

Barbara Oberg, Selection and Annotation: Deciding Alone, Documentary Editing

2:1 (1980): 6-9.

Metterling List

*****Students receive group assignments and packets of documents for selectionWeek 2 (Sept. 12) No Class - Work on Selection Week 3 (Sept. 19) Defining and Organizing Documentary EditionsThe Search for DocumentsChoice of Format: Microfilm, Print and Electronic Editions

Discussion of Student Selection Criteria Required Readings:

Kline, chap. 2, no. IV and chap. 3

Stevens, chap. 2

Herbert S. Bailey, Jr., Einsteins Collected Papers: Planning and Development,

Scholarly Publishing 20 (July 1989): 202-217.

Patricia G. Holland, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony:

Reconstructing The Record, Documentary Editing 6 (Sept. 1984): 9-13

Kate Culkin, Organization, Outreach, and Optimism: Getting a Project Up to Full

Speed, Documentary Editing 26:1 (Spring 2004): 1-8.

Barbara Oberg, "Documentary Editing as a Collaborative Enterprise: Theirs,

Mine, or Ours?" Documentary Editing, 17:1 (March 1995): 1-5, 15

**Each student will prepare a list of documents he or she thinks should be included in their groups mini-edition and a 1-2 page essay on the criteria for selection**Each group will hand in a final list of documents selected for their mini-edition and the documents to be transcribed by each group memberWeek 4 (Sept. 26)Transcription **Students Receive Transcription Style Sheets .Required Readings:Kline, chaps. 4-7

Stevens, chaps. 3-5

Don L. Cook, "The Short Happy Thesis of G. Thomas Tanselle," Documentary

Editing 3 (February 1981): 1-4.

G. Thomas Tanselle, "The Editing of Historical Documents," Studies in

Bibliography, 31 (1978): 1-56.

Gregory D. Massey, The Papers of Henry Laurens and Modern Historical Editing,

The Public Historian 27:1 (2005):39-60

Students should meet in groups to proof in teams.

Transcriptions should be handed in on Wednesday, Oct. 10Week 5 (Oct. 3)Computers and Editing: Document Control

Required Readings:

Kline, chap. 2, nos. I-III and nos. V-VII, and chap. 3, no. III

Cathy Moran Hajo, "Computerizing Control Over Authority Names at the

Margaret Sanger Papers," Documentary Editing 13 (June 1991): 35-39.

Leigh Johnson, Annotation Control on Computers: A Case Study of the Salmon P.

Chase Project, Documentary Editing (June 2000): 34-38.

Week 6 (Oct. 10)Varieties of Editions ***Students should consult two published volumes of historical documents available in Bobst Library.

Suggested Editions: The Papers of:

William Livingston

George Washington

Henry Laurens

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thomas Jefferson

Woodrow Wilson

The Documentary History of the First Federal Congress In the School of Slavery: The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. AnthonyThe Diary of Elizabeth DrinkerPapers of Emma GoldmanIn examining these volumes, students should first read the editor's statement with respect to principles and method and then examine the edited text to evaluate the result. Be prepared to provide summaries of your evaluations in class.

Students hand in transcribed documents.Week 7 (Oct. 17) Annotation: Principle and Practice

Required Readings:Kline, chap. 8

Stevens, chaps. 6 and 7

Charles Cullen, "Principles of Annotation in Editing Historical Documents; or, How

to Avoid Breaking the Butterfly on the Wheel of Scholarship," in Vogt and Jones, Literary and Historical Editing, pp. 81-95.

Barbara Oberg, "Interpretation in Editing: The Gallatin Papers," Documentary

Editing 4:2 (May 1982): 7-9.

Robert Hudspeth, Margaret Fullers Silences, Documentary Editing 20:1 (March

1998): 8-12

Carolyn De Swarte Gifford, What About the Twenty-Year Gap? Documentary

Editing (March 1998): 18-20

Week 8 (Oct. 24)Discussion of Annotation Points

***Each group will provide copies of one of the transcribed documents which they are annotating with notes on what will be annotated.

Week 9 (Oct. 31) No Class Meeting - Work on AnnotationWeek 10 (Nov. 7) Digital Editions

Guest Lecturer: Cathy Hajo, Assistant Editor, Sanger Project

Required Reading:

Kline, chap. 9, no. III

Daniel I. Cohen & Roy Rosenzweig, Becoming Digital, chap. 3, Digital History (2006), 81-95

Alan Morrison, et al., Creating and Documenting Electronic Texts (2000), chap. 2:1

What is Document Analysis? and Chap 4.1 What is Markup?

Charles Cullen, Authentification of Digital Objects: Lessons from a Historians

Research, Authenticity in a Digital Environment (May 2000), 1-7

Papers of George Washington Digital Edition

Week 11 (Nov. 14) Progress Reports from Student Groups***

****Discuss Preliminary Drafts of annotations***Each group will provide copies of one of the transcribed documents with preliminary annotation Week 12 (Nov. 21)No Class Meeting - Work on AnnotationWeek 13 (Nov. 28) No Class Meeting - Work on AnnotationWeek 14 (Dec. 5) Front Matter and Back Matter

Calendars and Indexing

Publishing the Edition Required Readings:

Kline, chap. 9, nos I-II, IV-IX.

Stevens, chaps. 8-9

Beth Luey, "Publishing the Edition," Documentary Editing 13 (June 1991): 40- 45.

Week 15 (Dec. 12) Funding Documentary Editions

Historical Editing and History ***Completed Projects Due in ClassRequired Reading:Kendrick A. Clements, "Using the Papers of Woodrow Wilson: A Scholar's View,"

Documentary Editing 15:2 (June 1993): 34-37.

Esther Katz, "The Editor as Public Authority: Interpreting Margaret Sanger," The Public

Historian 17:1 (Winter 1995): 41-50.

Marc Rothenberg, AIlluminating the Edison Papers, Documentary Editing 18:2

(June 1996): 29-31.

Constance B. Schultz, "'From Generation Unto Generation': Transitions in Modern

Documentary Historical Editing," Reviews in American History 16:3 (September 1988): 337-50.