American Athena reached two important milestones today. First, at 1:30pm, Christian Flores ’18, finished digitizing the final artifact from the JFA collection for Shared Shelf. After months of setbacks and technical issues, we’ve digitized 72 original documents, consisting of more than 1,600 pages as part of our project with the Council of Independent Colleges’ Consortium on Digital Resources for Teaching and Research.
Then, around 3pm came an e-mail with the subject line: “Consummatum est,” or “It is finished.” It was summer intern Naomi Niemann ’19 writing to say that she had completed the transcription of Edward Beecher’s 650(ish)-page, unpublished novel, Cornelia (a tale of love and faith in the time of Marcus Aurelius). There is still much to be done, but even in my seventh summer overseeing student work, I am in awe of the their enthusiasm and dedication. Working with students changes the nature and speed of my research. It means slowing down a bit and taking time to teach new skills. But it is so worth it. There is real joy in witnessing the emergence of expertise.
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