Bibliographies
Related Organizations
- Group for Literary Archives and Manuscripts.
- Manuscript Repositories Section. Society of American Archivists.
- Special Interest Section on Personal Archives. Association of Canadian Archivists.
- Section for Archives of Literature and Art. International Council on Archives.
- Diasporic Literary Archives Project: Questions of Location, Ownership and Interpretation.
Teaching
Union Catalogues
- Location Register of 20th Century English Literary Manuscripts. Web-based register for manuscripts held in repositories in the UK.
User Study
Copyright Resources
- WATCH File. Database of copyright contacts for writers, artists, and prominent figures in other creative fields.
- Copyright Slider.
Digital Records
- Making and Maintaining Digital Materials: Guidelines for Individuals. International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES).
- Preserving Digital Records: Guidelines for Organizations. International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems (InterPARES).
Paleography
British
- Paleography: Reading Old Handwriting 1500-1800. A Practical Online Tutorial. Tutorial by the National Archives of Great Britain. Good examples and a handy “Quick reference guide” to such matters as calendars and money.
- English Handwriting 1500-1700: An Online Course. An outstanding site, particularly strong in examples with accompanying transcriptions and notes.
- Online Tuition in the Paleography of Scottish Documents, 1500-1750. Note that this site covers down to 1750.
- Introduction to English Paleography. Created by Dave Postles of the West Sussex Record Council.
French
- French Paleography to 1789. Archive of an extensive course in French Early Modern handwriting. In French. Excellent examples and accompanying transcriptions.
German
- Read Suetterlin/Read Blackletters. Wonderful site for Suetterlin and earlier German scripts generally.
- Alphabetisierung und Schriftkultur in die Frühen Neuzeit.
Not really a paleography website, but contains scores of examples of German signatures ca. 1800 accompanied by transcription. Great practice.
Spanish and Latin American
- Curso de Paleografía Latino-hispano-americana. Mostly medieval (but try the examples in the “Neografia” section).
Miscellaneous
- The English Calendar. Does ecclesiastical calendar, regnal years in England; also converts Old Style to New Style and does days of the week. Particularly useful for those “Tuesday, February 10” dates on familiar letters.
- The Perpetual Calendar: A Helpful Tool for Postal Historians. Toke Norby’s site. Not just for postal historians—also good for the French Republican calendar. If you ever have to decode “19 Frimaire, an.8” you will be grateful to him.
- Old Handwriting. A very basic site for American genealogists. Has links to some useful handlists of name abbreviations, etc.
- Early Modern Resources. Maintained by Sharon Howard; fairly recent site, covers “roughly 1500-1800.” Good links to eprint articles, online resources, etc.
- Jack Lynch’s Eighteenth-Century Chronology. The long eighteenth-century (year by year). Useful but tends to be fuller for post 1750.
- Romantic Chronology. Can be searched by year or by topic. Has an expansive enough view of “Romantic” to be quite useful for the eighteenth-century as well.
- The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835. In progress. Can be amazingly useful.
- La Crosse Public Library History (Chronology) Resources. A list of timelines on the Web.
The above list of paleography resources was compiled by Diane Ducharme, archivist at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript library.
Group for Literary Archives and Manuscripts (North America) 