It’s been awhile since we’ve featured interesting digital collections. This time we’ll go international and even into space – come along for some browsing fun.
Our first venture, in a nod to Davidson’s Scots-Irish heritage, is to travel across an ocean and back in time to Scotland from 1235 to 1707. Reseachers in the School of History at the University of St. Andrews spent ten years working to make the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland available. Their work included transcribing, so the entries are easily read and searched. I have a particular interest in dancing – but the government did not – I found only one reference from 1700 in a “representation from the general assemby” that included this provision:
thirdly, that Protestants be prohibited to take into their families popish persons to teach their children French or music or dancing, or for other service;
With a Davidson alumnus, Tom Marshburn, headed to the International Space Station –if the weather and the space shuttle will cooperate– our next stop is the moon – via Arizona State University’s Apollo Image Archive. Still a work in progress, the site offers over 7000 close-up views of the moon’s surface.
Now we’ll head back to 18th century Wales for tales of pirates and rigged elections and the demands of everyday farm life. Bangor University Archives is home to the Bulkeley Diaries written by William Bulkeley, a minor squire and father-in-law to Fortunatas Wright, a brewer and pirate.
We’ll wrap up our wanderings just down the road in Chapel Hill with the North Carolina Postcard site. Be sure and check out their Davidson postcards and then you find more at our postcard database. The image below is from our collection chosen to highlight the NBA draft coming up later this week.
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