Digitization is a core action of the Center for Digital Scholarship. The Digital Library houses approximately 160,000 items, including audio, video, text, images, and datasets. Access to these collections is also supplied through the manuscript finding aids and book catalogs.
Center for Digital Scholarship
The Center for Digital Scholarship promotes the use of American Philosophical Society Library & Museum collections through digitization, digital humanities initiatives, and the development of innovative library software.
The Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS) develops large-scale, public-facing, digital projects designed for providing universal and open access to the holdings of the APS Library & Museum. It is staffed by experienced professionals that bring with them an expert knowledge of current standards for digitization, digital project development, and digital preservation.
We explore what digital scholarship means in a small, independent research library. We partner with scholars, institutions, and students from across the country.
Selected Digital Galleries
Digital Collections
The Revolutionary City
The Revolutionary City: A Portal to the Nation's Founding is a one-stop shop for students, teachers, scholars, and lovers of history to learn about diverse stories of the American Revolution from the perspective of early residents of America's revolutionary city.
Download
The Rev City Model (127097 B)
Open Data Initiative
The Center for Digital Scholarship has an active Open Data Initiative. Under this initiative, we (1) identify content in the APS Library that is conducive to being reconfigured as datasets; (2) encourage the use and reuse of the data by opening the data to all, and by easing access to the data.
These datasets are available for anyone to evaluate, share, reuse, and remix as they wish under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. They are ideal resources for use in college classrooms and digital humanities projects like mapping and text analysis to reveal new insights.
Available Datasets
Eastern State Penitentiary Records of Admissions, 1838-1850
These three admissions books were created upon the incarceration of individuals in the Eastern State Penitentiary between 1838 and 1850, and contain many social and demographic details authored by the institution's "moral instructor." Data includes inmate name, crime, sentence, place of origin, race/ethnicity, time in and time out, and comments on moral and educational condition. Some also include notes on previous convictions or progress made while incarcerated.
Available in the APS Library: Volume A; Volume B; Volume D
Available on GitHub
Featured digital gallery using this data: Eastern Apps: Visualizing Historic Prison Data
Benjamin Franklin's Post Office Records: Post office ledgers, lists, and records ranging from 1737-1768
Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, and a long and fruitful career in the postal service followed. The records created during his tenure, however, have not been objects of much study. These reveal a wealth of previously untapped information about colonial correspondence. Further datasets concerning Franklin's postal affairs will be available soon.
Available in the APS Digital Library: Post Office Book, 1748-52; Post Office Record Book No. 3, 1743; Post Office Accounts, 1748; Post Office Book (letters received), 1767-68
Available on GitHub
Featured digital gallery using this data: Franklin's Philadelphia Post Office Ledgers: A Glimpse into Colonial Correspondence Networks
Records of Indentures and Apprenticeships in the Port of Philadelphia, 1771-1773
This volume contains between 4,000 and 5,000 contracts for indentured servitude and apprenticeship at the Port of Philadelphia in the two-year span of 1771-1773. The entries provide demographic, economic, and social information regarding bound individuals and their employers.
Available in the APS Digital Library
Available on GitHub
Featured digital gallery using this data: Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences of Colonial America
Benjamin Franklin's Accounts: Business and personal financial account books and transactions ranging from 1730-1787
Benjamin Franklin and his wife Deborah Read Franklin operated a print shop and general store in Philadelphia for many years. Of the many financial documents of the Franklins' held in the APS, three account books/ledgers details transactions in the shop from 1730-1748.
Available in the APS Library: Ledgers A & B, 1730-1740; Shop Book, 1737-1739; Ledger D, 1739-48
Available on GitHub
James Madison's Montpelier Meteorological Records, 1784-1793
Meteorological observations were recorded at James Madison's Virginia plantation, Montpelier, from 1784 to 1793. These volumes show daily weather and notes of plant sowing, harvesting, bird migration, and other seasonal phenomena.
Available in the APS Library
Available on GitHub
Upcoming Datasets
Historic Meteorological Observations
Astronomical and weather observations recorded by David Rittenhouse.
Tools
The Center for Digital Scholarship develops tools and software to meet the challenges of contemporary librarianship.
PAL
The Center for Digital Scholarship is using circulation data to automate recommendations. This tool, which we’re calling PAL, for "People Also Liked," offers recommendations for manuscript material in the APS Library collection. Learn more about PAL here.
Work with Us
Digital Humanities Fellowships
Two one-month fellowships are open to scholars who are comfortable creating tools and visualizations, as well as those interested in working collaboratively with the APS technology team.
For more information, please see the Digital Humanities Fellowship page.
Digital Library Internships
Two internships, 140 hours each, are open to current students, or recent graduates, in library science, public history, and related fields. Intended for those interested in digital librarianship and digital scholarship, this internship offers hands-on experience with digitization, digital repository management, and metadata creation.
Partners: Scholars and Libraries
We work with scholars and libraries around the country to promote the APS collections. If you’re a scholar interested in working with APS material for a class or a digital project, or if you’re at a library with similar holdings and want to talk about collaborative projects with the APS, we hope that you’ll reach out and let us know your idea.
Fellows, Interns, and Partners
Fellows
Joe Makuc, Temple University
Martin L. Levitt Fellow, 2020
Project: Historical Meteorological Records
Link: https://www.amphilsoc.org/museum/exhibitions/historic-meteorological-records-aps/have-you-ever-seen-rain-1791-droughts-damage
Molly Nebiolo, Northeastern University
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2020
Project: "Visualizing Early Colonial Philadelphia"
Link: https://mollynebiolo.com/digital-humanities/visualizing-colonial-philadelphia/
Experiential Fellow, 2020
Project: Historical Meteorological Records
Link: https://www.amphilsoc.org/museum/exhibitions/historic-meteorological-records-aps/locating-transatlantic-seed-trade-james
Bethany Farrell, Temple University
Digital Franklin Research Fellow, 2019-2020
Jessica Markey Locklear, Temple University
Martin L. Levitt Fellow, 2019
Project: Digitizing and Contextualizing Frank Speck's Lantern Slides Collection
Link: https://www.amphilsoc.org/museum/exhibitions/frank-specks-lantern-slides
Nicôle Meehan, University of St. Andrews
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2019
Project: "Investigating Indentured Servitude: Visualizing Experiences Of Colonial America"
Link: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/indenturedata/
Serenity Sutherland, SUNY Oswego
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2018
Project: “Visualizing 19th and 20th Century Women in Science”
Loren Michael Mortimer, University of California-Davis
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2018
Project: "'To Improve their Condition:' A Quaker's Journey through the Early American Borderlands, 1803"
Will Fenton, Fordham University
Elizabeth R. Moran Fellow, 2017-2018
Project: "Americanization: Then and Now"
Link: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/labs/americanization
Madalina Veres, University of Pittsburgh
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital History, 2018
Project: "In the Heart of Philadelphia: The Story of Library Hall"
Link: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/labs/Library-Hall
Project: "The American Philosophical Society: Celebrating 275 Years of Promoting Useful Knowledge"
Link: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/labs/timeline-275
Cynthia Heider, Temple University
Martin L. Levitt Fellow, 2017
Project: "Transforming Benjamin Franklin's 1748-1752 Post Office Book into Open Data"
Steve Marti, University of Delaware
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2017
Project: “Visualizing Admission: The Admission Book of Eastern State as Dataset”
Annette Joseph-Gabriel, University of Arizona
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2017
Project: “Mapping Marronage: Visualizing Transatlantic Networks of Freedom”
A.J. Blandford, Rutgers University.
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2016
Project: “Labor and the Visualization of Knowledge in American Geological Surveys, 1780–1860”
Sarah Ketchley, University of Washington
Digital Humanities Fellow, 2016
Project: “Visualizing ‘Golden Age’ Nile Travel: The Emma B. Andrews Diary Project”
Interns
Molly Shannon, Washington College
Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience Summer Intern, 2019
Project: Digitizing and Transcribing Structured Data from Benjamin Franklin's Postal Ledgers
Ben Weinstein, Washington College
Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience Summer Intern, 2017
Project: Digitizing and Data Stewardship of Indentured Records
Link: http://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/record-indentures-individuals-bound-out-apprentices-servants-etc
Chelsea Reed, Temple University
Digital Library Intern, 2016–2017
Project: Digitizing the William Parker Foulke Papers
John Giganti, Rutgers University
Digital Library Intern, 2016
Project: Digitizing the William Parker Foulke Papers
Robert Teel, Washington College
C. V. Starr Intern, 2015
Project: “Too Near Where History Is Being Made: Henry Howard Houston II In a Time of War”
Link: http://diglib.amphilsoc.org/labs/houston/
Grace DiAgostino, Temple University
Digital Library Intern, 2015
Project: Digitizing the Eastern State Penitentiary Collection
Link: http://www.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.365.P381p-ead.xml
Alina Josan, Drexel University
Digital Library Intern, 2014–2015
Project: “Joining the Fray: Mapping a World of Paine”
Link: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/labs/join-the-fray/
Stephanie Lampkin, University of Delaware
Digital Library Intern, 2014
Project: “Colonization in the Foulke Papers“
Link: https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/gallery-colonization-foulke
Partners
Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Library Company of Philadelphia
Project: "Revolutionary City: A Portal to the Nation's Founding"
Read the project's press release and follow the project's progress with Project Data Manager Sabrina Bocanegra's #RevolutionaryPHL blog updates.
Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Princeton University and The Center for Digital Editing, University of Virginia
Project: Historical Meteorological Records Project
PACSCL (Pennsylvania Area Consortium of Special Collections)
Project: “For the Health of the New Nation: Philadelphia as the Center of American Medical Education, 1746-1868”
Contribute material from the APS Library for this two-year CLIR-funded project to expose the history of medical education in Philadelphia through the end of the Civil War.
Project: “In Her Own Right: Women Asserting Their Civil Rights, 1820-1920”
Technical Advisory Committee
John Van Horne, Director Emeritus of the Library Company of Philadelphia
Project: “Reconstructing Philadelphia’s Earliest Museums, 1774-1827”
Technical consultants and hosts for a project that will document and reconstruct the contents of the Philadelphia museums of Pierre Eugène Du Simitière and Charles Willson Peale
DPLA (Digital Public Library of America) and PA Digital
Active contribution of digitized material and metadata to this open discovery resource.
University of Illinois Archives
Project: “The Cybernetics Thought Collective: A History of Science and Technology Portal Project”
The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia
Project: Institutional records digitization project
Haverford College Libraries
Project: Quaker Networks Explorer
Extend and generalize the open data platform developed at Haverford by including Quaker-related content from the APS Library.
Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site
Project: Prison-Related Open Data Share