Announcement of Collection Update on American Memory

[Danna Bell-Russel]

The National Digital Library and the Manuscript Division are proud to
announce additions to one of the American Memory collections currently
online: Words and Deeds in American History. This collection was created
to celebrate the centennial of the Library’s Manuscript Division and its
continued work protecting and providing access to the primary resource
material that documents the people and organizations that shaped our
country.

The first addition to the Words and Deeds collection is a Civil War
Photograph Album that is part of the James Wadsworth Family Papers. This
album of two hundred, autographed cartes de visite (miniature portraits
used as calling cards) is believed to have been compiled by John Hay, a
personal secretary to Abraham Lincoln and later a noted political figure
in his own right. Included in this leather-bound album are images of
military officers, politicians, and cultural
figures. People of note include Abraham Lincoln, Montgomery Blair,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Edwin Booth, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and
Salmon P. Chase. The work of twenty photographers or photographic firms
is represented, including such notables as Mathew B. Brady, Alexander
Gardner, the Whitehurst Gallery of Washington, D.C., and Black and Case
Photographic Studios. Patrons can flip through each page of the album or
view each image individually. They can also select images to view from
two lists: a list of individuals appearing in the album and a list of
photographers represented.

The second addition to the collection is a draft of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton’s The Woman’s Bible. Stanton, who is best known as a suffragist,
participated in a number of reform initiatives with her focus on
insuring women’s rights in all areas not just in the polling place. One
of her most controversial stands was on the Church’s role in limiting
women’s progress. In the late 1880s, Stanton began a through study of
the Bible. Her work, along with the contributions made by a committee of
academic and church women brought together for this project, led to the
creation of volume one of The Woman’s Bible. Focusing on only those
passages that mentioned women or
erroneously omitted women, The Woman’s Bible reproduces the original
text followed by a reinterpretation or commentary. The 151 pages of
material made available online as part of Words and Deeds contains
Stanton’s handwritten text for the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers
published in the first volume of her Bible and the book of Matthew
published in volume two.

“Words and Deeds in American History” can be found at the following URL:

<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/mcchtml/>

Please direct any questions about the additions to the Words and Deeds
online collection to NDLPCOLL at loc.gov