With support from an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Digital Humanities grant, and from the College’s Research and Development Committee, Jim Gerencser (College Archivist), Susan Rose (Professor of Sociology, Director Community Studies Center), and Malinda Triller Doran (Special Collections Librarian) have spent this summer working with a team of four interns to digitize materials relating to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School held at the National Archives in Washington, DC. In the past two months the three undergraduate interns, along with Kacee Cooke (Friends of the Library Intern), have scanned 2101 student files, comprising roughly 18,200 page images. In addition, Pierce Bounds photographed twelve bound ledgers, totaling roughly 2000 pages: “Registers of Pupils (1890-1906),” “Consecutive Record of Pupils Enrolled (1905-1918),” “Attendance Books (1884-1891),” “Enrollment Status Book (1898-1902),” “Data Concerning Former Students (1898),” “Registers of Outings (1881-1887, 1912-1918),” and “Register of Visitors (1909-1917).”

Along with the materials from the National Archives, the interns scanned items from the college’s special collections, which include 20 letters written between Richard Henry Pratt and Dr. Cornelius Rea Agnew, 6 commencement programs and invitations, and 3 souvenir programs. At this time, at least half of the student files from the National Archives records have been placed online. To learn more about the project and the materials uploaded, check out the website: http://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/

Matthew J. Kochis (kochism@dickinson.edu)