The Center for Digital Editing would like to invite you to take part in forgingUS, a new project that brings together leading documentary editing projects, scholars, educators, and technologists to expand access to primary sources from the Founding Era and Early Republic. Centered on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, forgingUS aims to create a free, public website featuring curated, document-based exhibits, interactive maps and timelines, and more.

We’re already at work on several exhibits related to the Declaration of Independence, and we’ve tentatively identified future areas of interest, including the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Phillis Wheatley. That said, we’re very much open to new ideas discussing historical documents, individuals, and events between the dates of 1770 and 1812. We welcome any topics where your expertise can illuminate how documents were produced, circulated, revised, and remembered.

Participation in forgingUS is a paid opportunity. Content creators receive an honorarium of $1000 for their work on an exhibit. As an exhibit creator, you would be asked to:

• Propose a topic.
  • Successful exhibits will be framed around a central, compelling question like “Why did the founders edit Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence?” or “How did colonists respond to the Declaration of Independence?”
• Break the exhibit topic down into an outline of 3–7 short sections that contextualize the key topics, individuals, events, and documents related to the exhibit topic. Then, prepare the text.
  • Successful exhibits will include short, digestible segments written in language easily understood by the casual, history-loving public. Most importantly, it AVOIDS a “wall of text.”
• Suggest ideas for engaging or interactive elements to be featured within the exhibit, like timelines, maps, image hotspots, short videos or sound clips.
• Create a list of people, places, and events that you think readers might need to know to understand the exhibit.
• Identify essential external resources that readers may use to explore a topic further.

Throughout the content development process, our team will support you in thinking through engaging ways to frame and present your digital exhibit. We will also handle the technical build and integration, allowing you to focus on scholarly input rather than platform mechanics.

If you are interested in participating, we invite you to submit your exhibit idea(s) here: https://forms.gle/X1kBCakDnfUvpQ8a9. For more information on what a forgingUS exhibit may look like or what the content submission process entails, please visit: https://sites.google.com/virginia.edu/forgingus.