Abraham Lincoln Papers

Abraham Lincoln Papers: Acknowledgements


The generous support of Donald G. Jones, Terri L. Jones, and the Jones Family Foundation made possible the realization of the project.

The presentation of the Abraham Lincoln Papers collection online represents the collaborative efforts of a number of individuals and divisions in the Library of Congress and other institutions. Library of Congress National Digital Library Program staff collectively worked on design, digitization, programming, and presentation. The Library's Manuscript Division provided significant guidance on content. Preservation Resources, a division of Online Computer Library Center, Inc., located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, digitized the collection from microfilm. The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, edited the database of the Abraham Lincoln Papers and transcribed and annotated more than half the collection's approximately twenty thousand documents. The contributions of individuals from these divisions and institutions are detailed below.

Carl Fleischhauer was responsible for constructing and bringing to completion the original contract with the Lincoln Studies Center. Library of Congress Contracting Officer Kaye Klinker provided important guidance.

The Abraham Lincoln Papers project was completed in January 2002. Nancy Eichacker, operations manager of the National Digital Library Program Conversion Group, oversaw the contract with the Lincoln Studies Center and provided consultation on project organization and issues throughout. As coordinator of production for National Digital Library Program collections, Martha Anderson provided important technical expertise and advice on conversion of transcriptions to SGML, production, and other matters.

Project coordinator Laura Graham provided specialized guidelines for digitization from microfilm and wrote transcription guidelines for the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College. She acted as contracting officer and technical representative for the contract with the Lincoln Studies Center for much of the project. She wrote specifications for digitization of the collection from microfilm, coordinated quality review of digital images and database content, and was responsible for conversion of transcriptions into SGML, coordination of work with the Lincoln Studies Center, and for achievement of release deadlines.

Ruth R. Nelson, Library of Congress Contracting Officer, provided guidance throughout the length of the project.

Lincoln scholars and editors Rodney O. Davis and Douglas L. Wilson directed the database and transcription work at the Lincoln Studies Center, Knox College, in Galesburg, Illinois. They were assisted by Matthew Norman, project leader, Terry Wilson, researcher, and Joel Ward, transcriber. Incoming transcriptions and annotations were researched and written by Terry Wilson and Bonnie Laughlin (who worked during the project's pilot phase). Biographical annotations were researched and written by Rodney O. Davis and Matthew Norman. Lincoln transcriptions were done by Rodney O. Davis, Matthew Norman, Joel Ward, Douglas L. Wilson, and Terry Wilson. Davis and Wilson were responsible for all Lincoln transcription annotations. Norman was responsible for all database corrections.

John R. Sellers, Manuscript Division subject specialist for the Abraham Lincoln Papers provided guidance on content and participated in the project's early planning. He wrote the special presentations "The Emancipation Proclamation," and "The Lincoln Assassination."

Elizabeth Madden provided significant expertise in designing and maintaining the Abraham Lincoln Papers database. She has been responsible for major revisions to it throughout successive releases. In addition, she acted with Martha Anderson as production liaison for the project to staff in the Library of Congress's Information Technology Service. In this latter role, she was responsible for design and delivery of data to ITS staff.

Emily Lind Baker and Jurretta Jordan Heckscher, NDLP editors, edited contextualizing materials and provided significant editorial guidance throughout.

Andrea Dillon created graphics and HTML coding for the framework material design. She was responsible for Web site design and final production.

Christopher J. Pohlhaus and David Brooks tracked receipt of digital images and were responsible for image diagnostics.

David Woodward, of the Library's Information Technology Services, was responsible for programming of indexing and for display of documents. The Library is grateful for his expertise.

Marla Thomas Banks, computer specialist in the Library's Information Technology Services, provided a customized Omnimark 5.0 program for conversion of transcriptions to SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). She also provided important consultation and several updates to the conversion program throughout the project.

Tamara Swora coordinated digitization of the Abraham Lincoln Papers with Preservation Resources. She acted as liaison for the project to Preservation Resources and provided guidance on a number of digitization and production issues. She provided technical and editorial consultation on "Digitizing the Collection," "About the Collection," and other contextualizing materials on the Abraham Lincoln Papers Web site.

Preservation Resources, a division of Online Computer Library Center, Inc., digitized the Abraham Lincoln Papers from Library of Congress microfilm. The project benefited greatly from the expertise and enthusiastic interest of Meg Bellinger, president of Preservation Resources, and her staff, especially Lynn Wagner, manager, New Products and Marketing; Louis Squillace, department manager of Scanning; and Greg LeMar, project manager; and the scanning team.

The Contracting Officer for the microfilm scanning activity was Helen Mathura, who provided important contracts guidance and support.

NDLP legal advisors Michael Hughes and Melissa Smith-Levine provided guidance on permissions and copyright for the Abraham Lincoln Papers.

Emily Howie, program specialist/librarian, coordinated copyright and permissions research and provided guidance.

Digital conversion specialist Herbert Y. Ohta performed quality review of the Abraham Lincoln Papers database and transcriptions. He performed copyright and permission research under Emily Howie's guidance.

The Prints and Photographs Division provided invaluable assistance.


Abraham Lincoln Papers