First steps in DPLA-Europeana virtual exhibition

“We at the DPLA have spent the past few weeks searching for materials that may help us develop a joint digital collection and virtual exhibition that we’re building with Europeana on the migration of Europeans to the United States and vice-versa (read the official press release). The pilot project will tell the human story of European immigration and emigration by way of freely available digital material: genealogical records, diaries, correspondence, oral histories, photographs, ship manifests, naturalization paperwork, and more. While we’ve just begun the exploration process, we aim to launch an initial version of the project by the end of 2012, with potential additions or new versions in the future as we continue our ongoing partnership with Europeana. Included below are just a few of the collections that we’ve been exploring in recent weeks. 1. Library of Congress, American Memory/Prints and Photographs Online Catalog... 2. National Archives and records Administration (NARA) ... 3. New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Gallery ... 4. New Jersey Digital Highway... 5. Florida Memory... 6. Missouri Digital Heritage... While we hope to include as much digitized public domain material as possible, we also want to incorporate more than what’s already available in digital formats. Which is why we’re actively seeking analog (i.e., undigitized) public domain material to scan and incorporate into this new digital collection. Our research thus far has brought us into contact with a wide variety of physical and digital materials on the topic—from the federally funded to homespun—but we need your help. If you or someone you know manages analog or digitized public domain materials* on the subject of European immigration/emigration for your local cultural heritage institution, let us know in the comment section below or via our contact form. We’d love to see your local library or historical society contribute to the DPLA’s very first virtual collection!”