Publishing primary resources

1. Adding new documents: 1 letter or 1,000 letters . . .

The structure and principles of EE makes it easy to incorporate individual or small groups of letters, which will appear properly contextualized and linked — by people, dates, location and topics — into this definitive scholarly resource. You may also wish to discuss collaborative development of a larger, born-digital edition not previously published.

Publishing letters in EE — from a handful of letters to thousands . . .

For an example of the kinds of primary resources being published by the Electronic Enlightenment Project, please see our list of —

☞ Born digital collections

☞ Born digital editions

2. Addressed to everyone: a translation programme from EE:

The structure and principles of EE makes it easy to incorporate new information about documents or individuals.

3. Adding new information

The structure and principles of EE makes it easy to incorporate new information about documents or individuals.

Biographical information

Identify or extend our knowledge of people who appear in EE. For example:

tell us more about Bethia (1757–1839) and Christine Alexander (1762–1845), daughters of the Scottish banker and secret agent William Alexander (1729–1819);
identify the otherwise unknown Francis Atkins, who calls himself the "entire Friend" of John Locke around 1656.

Dating documents

Help fix the date of documents that previous editors could not determine. For example:

can Daniel Defoe's letter to Robert Harley be more precisely dated than "October 1712"?
was Alexander Pope's letter to Allen Bathurst, simply dated "Aug. 9th", written in 1739, as editors have presumed, or was it written in another year?

Geographical locations

You may be able to identify or refine the location for the writing or receipt of letters:

where a street address is given, often no town is provided;
many letters indicate neither the author's nor the recipient's address.