The Antebellum Magazine Edition Project publishes student-produced scholarly editions of articles originally published in antebellum magazines. It is the pilot production of undergraduate students in the upper-division honors English course, “Networking the Antebellum Archive,” taught by Professor Paul Hurh at the University of Arizona in Spring 2015. The three periodicals selectively treated in this pilot project are The Broadway Journal, The Knickerbocker, and The Pioneer.
Each article in the project has been edited, annotated, and given an explanatory “editor’s note” by a student editor after extensive research. The editorial apparatus aims to clarify obscure references in the text, to provide historical and cultural context for the work, and to suggest possible avenues for future study. Student editors have sought to recover and update these texts for a modern audience of scholars and students, and have pointed out, in some cases, speculative frames of inquiry that could inspire new interest in the recovered pieces.
As an instrument of applied learning, this project seeks to introduce student editors to 19th-century periodical culture, digital humanities, and media theory. To be pedagogically expedient, the editions, though fact-checked and made uniform as much as possible, have not been subject to lengthy peer-review and rigorous copy editing. We hope that this produces quick and accessible editions, retaining some of the originality and individuality of the student editors’ readings while not closing off further or more advanced study. This project aims not to give the final word on these pieces, but the first.
The first semester of this project was completed with the support of a grant from the College of Humanities. The pilot project concluded in Spring 2015, but depending upon interest and support, it could be extended in the future.
Comments or Questions? Contact Paul Hurh at jphurh@email.arizona.edu