About the Archive

Project Staff

We invite you to send your comments to the Archive staff:

Ed Folsom, project co-director, is the Carver Professor of English at The University of Iowa. Since 1983, he has served as Editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review. He directed "Walt Whitman: The Centennial Project," which was funded by the NEH and the Iowa Humanities Board. He is the editor of Walt Whitman: The Centennial Essays (Iowa, 1994); co-editor of Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song (Holy Cow!, 1981, rev.ed., 1997) and Walt Whitman and the World (Iowa, 1996); and author of Walt Whitman's Native Representations (Cambridge, 1994). He recently co-authored with Kenneth Price Re-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and Work (Blackwell, 2005) and with Price and Susan Belasco co-edited Leaves of Grass: The Sesqui-centennial Essays (Nebraska, 2007). The Whitman Archive activities at Iowa are housed at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

Kenneth M. Price, project co-director, is University Professor and Hillegass Chair of American literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the co-editor of books on James Weldon Johnson, George Santayana, and nineteenth-century periodical literature. He is also the co-editor of Dear Brother Walt: The Letters of Thomas Jefferson Whitman (Kent State, 1984); editor of Walt Whitman: The Contemporary Reviews (Cambridge, 1996); author of Whitman and Tradition: The Poet in His Century (Yale, 1990) and To Walt Whitman, America (North Carolina, 2004). In addition, Price co-authored with Susan Belasco and Ed Folsom Leaves of Grass: The Sesquicentennial Essays (Nebraska, 2007), and with Ed Folsom Re-Scripting Walt Whitman: An Introduction to His Life and Work (Blackwell, 2005).

Brett Barney, Senior Associate Editor of the Walt Whitman Archive, is Research Assistant Professor in the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He co-edited Encyclopedia of American Literature, Volume II: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816-1895 (Facts on File, 2008) and is currently editing a comprehensive collection of Whitman interviews and recollections.

Susan Belasco is Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the editor of Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 by Margaret Fuller (Illinois, 1991), and co-editor with Larry J. Reynolds of "These Sad but Glorious Days": Dispatches from Europe, 1846-1850 by Margaret Fuller (Yale, 1991); she is the editor of Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern (Penguin, 1996) and co-editor with Elizabeth Ammons of Approaches to Teaching Uncle Tom's Cabin, (MLA, 2000). With Kenneth Price she co-edited Periodical Literature in Nineteenth-Century America (Virginia, 1995). Recently Belasco co-edited, with Ed Folsom and Kenneth Price, Leaves of Grass: The Sesquicentennial Essays (Nebraska, 2007), and edited Stowe in Her Own Time (Iowa, 2009). For the Whitman Archive she is the editor of Whitman's Poems in Periodicals .

Katherine L. Walter is chair of Digital Initiatives & Special Collections (DISC) in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Libraries, and co-directs UNL's Center for Digital Research in the Humanities with Kenneth M. Price. Walter has been co-principal investigator of two Whitman-related research projects funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services: A Virtual Archive of Walt Whitman's Manuscripts and Interoperability of Metadata for Thematic Research Collections: A Model Based on the Walt Whitman Archive. She currently serves as co-chair of the steering committee of centerNet, an international network of digital humanities centers.

Stacey Berry is project manager for Civil War Washington: Studies in Transformation at the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities and post-doctoral research associate at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition, Stacey continues to serve as an assistant editor for the Whitman Archive, a position she has held for five years. Berry received her Ph.D. in English from UNL in August 2007. Her dissertation, The War Zone, examines the relationships between violence, space, and oppression in post-1945 American fiction.

Janel Cayer is a Ph.D. student in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is interested in nineteenth-century American literature and culture, with a focus on women authors. Janel is particularly interested in formations of gender in fin-de-siècle scientific and medical professions as well as depictions of gender in relation to domestic spaces. Her work for the Whitman Archive includes locating and transcribing Whitman's Civil War era journalism as well as image processing.

Matt Cohen, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Duke University, focuses on tool development and digital archival theory. With the assistance of a Digital Humanities Start-up grant from the NEH, he is doing work on interface development and markup approaches for Whitman's marginalia. In addition, he is currently working as the editor in charge of adding Horace Traubel's nine-volume With Walt Whitman in Camden to the Whitman Archive. With Rachel Price, he edited and introduced the Archive's digital version of Álvaro Armando Vasseur's 1912 selection from Leaves of Grass, the first book-length translation of Leaves into Spanish.

Tim Jackson, CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow, is an assistant editor of the Walt Whitman Archive, focusing on Whitman’s Civil War prose. He earned his Ph.D. in editorial studies from the Editorial Institute at Boston University. His dissertation, Selected Lyrics and Dramatic Verse of Edna St. Vincent Millay: A Critical Edition, addresses Millay's activity in revising her poems and the publication history of her works, and provides a reliable text for these poems.

Andrew Jewell is the editor of Whitman's Blue Book and a contributing editor for the Whitman Archive. In addition, Andy is editor of the Willa Cather Archive, co-editor of the forthcoming book The American Literature Scholar in the Digital Age, and writer of several articles on American literature and digital humanities. He received his Ph.D. in American literature and is Assistant Professor of Digital Projects at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries as well as a faculty fellow at the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at UNL.

Elizabeth Lorang is project manager and senior assistant editor of the Walt Whitman Archive and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. With Susan Belasco, she edited Whitman's Poems in Periodicals , an important collection of first printings of Whitman's poems that have never before been systematically gathered, edited, and studied. Elizabeth's dissertation, "American Newspaper Poetry from the Rise of the Penny Press to the New Journalism," examines the cultural work of newspaper poetry and argues that scholars must evaluate these poems based on their own generic qualities rather than by aesthetic or cultural values tied to other forms

Beverley Rilett is a Ph.D. student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an assistant editor with the Whitman Archive. Her field of interest is late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British and American literature, with a focus on biographical reassessments of the literary work of several major authors including George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, Willa Cather, and Walt Whitman. At the Archive, Bev's responsibilities include staff and operations coordination, as well as image processing and text encoding.

Sabrina Ehmke Sergeant is a Ph.D. student in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is interested in twentieth-century American literature, with a focus on the World War I era. Her dissertation examines often overlooked contributions to WWI literature including the work of women and African American writers. She served as an editorial assistant for the Willa Cather Archive's digital edition of A Calendar of the Letters of Willa Cather. Currently, Sabrina is preparing the Blue Book for the Archive's Whitman's Civil War Writings grant project.

Vanessa Steinroetter is a Ph.D. student in the English Department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century American literature and culture, and she is especially interested in transnational and interdisciplinary approaches. As an editorial assistant for the Walt Whitman Archive, she has, among other things, worked on the contemporary reviews section of the Archive website, encoded Hans Reisiger's German translation of Whitman's poetry and prose, and is currently preparing Whitman's outgoing correspondence during the Civil War for electronic publication.

Joshua Ware is a PhD student in creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals, such as 580 Split, Bat City Review, Caketrain, New American Writing, New Orleans Review, Packingtown Review, and Sleepingfish. He is the co-author of the forthcoming chapbook I, NE: Iterations of the Junco (Small Fires Press, 2009). Prior to his interest in studying poetry and poetics, Joshua received a BA in Management Information Systems from Miami University in Ohio, and a BA in English from the University of Colorado.

Brian Pytlik Zillig is Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Among other various contributions to the Archive, he has done much of the work to display our XML-encoded texts using XSLT stylesheets.


Others have also made important contributions to the Archive.

We list Charles Green first because of his key role in the early development of the Archive. Other current and past staff members follow in alphabetical order:

Charles B. Green contributed to the Whitman Archive from its inception until 2006. He served as Project Manager from February 1996 until July 2000 when he shifted to the role of Technical Editor for the project. Green is the author of several articles published in the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review as well as essays in the Walt Whitman Encyclopedia. In 2005 he earned a Ph.D. in American Studies at the College of William and Mary, writing a dissertation entitled "Passing into Print: Walt Whitman and His Publishers." He currently serves as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Information Technology Services, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  • Roger Asselineau (a founding member of the Advisory Board who served until his death) 1997-2002
  • Zach Bajaber (web design and programming) 2004-2008
  • Robbie Bingler (programming; database management) 2000
  • Mary Bolin (creation of MODS records) 2005
  • Jennifer Borgerding (transcription; proofreading) 2000-2001
  • Stephen Boykewich (scanning of manuscripts; proofreading; encoding) 2002-2004
  • Blake Bronson-Bartlett (transcription and encoding of notebooks and other tasks) 2007-
  • Sandy Byrd (encoding of prose texts) 2006-2008
  • Michael Carmody (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003-2004
  • Terry Catapano (SGML and EAD consulting) 2001-
  • Nicole Cloeren (scanning; transcription) 1999
  • Eric Conrad (encoding prose manuscripts) 2005-2006
  • Jean Dickinson (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2000-2002
  • Todd Diehl (revision; updating of bibliography) 1999-2001
  • Stephen Disrud (proofreading and correction of texts) 2006
  • David Donlon (transcription) 1995
  • Mary Ellen Ducey (creation of EAD finding aid for poetry manuscripts) 2002-2005
  • Allison Dushane (transcription, encoding, and proofing of With Walt Whitman in Camden) 2003-2006
  • Erica Fretwell (encoding and project management for manuscript annotation interface development) 2006-2008
  • Amanda Gailey (database and image management; transcription; training) 2002-2006
  • Ted Genoways (editorial contributions on Whitman's correspondence and photographs) 2003-
  • Cindy Girard (programming; development of search engine) 2003
  • Matthew Gold (Unix editing; formulation of teaching unit questions) 1997
  • Ramon Guerra (transcription of poems in periodicals) 2003-2004
  • Melody Han (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003-2004
  • Kirk Hastings (creation of stylesheets and customization of document type definition) 2001-2002
  • John Havard (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2005
  • Whitney Helms (transcription and encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2006-2007
  • Peter Henry (project manager; encoding of poetry manuscripts; EAD encoding) 2002-2003
  • Amy Hezel (transcriber and encoder of poetry manuscripts) 2004-2005
  • Chris Higgs (transcription of texts, XML encoding of various documents) 2005
  • Leslie Ianno (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003-2004
  • Patrick Jagoda (transcription, encoding, and proofing of With Walt Whitman in Camden) 2003-2006
  • Michael Jamieson (encoding of criticism) 2008-2009
  • Chris Jessee (digital imaging consulting) 2002-2005
  • Nick Krauter (encoding of prose texts) 2006-2008
  • Kathryn Kruger (encoding of correspondence) 2007-2008
  • Robert LaCosse (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2004
  • April Lambert (encoding of Whitman family correspondence) 2006-2007
  • Farrah Lehman (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2006-2007
  • Margaret Loose (revision of bibliography; transcription of poetry) 1999
  • Thomas Lukas (SGML consulting) 1996
  • Megan Maher (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003
  • Josh Matthews (transcription and encoding of notebooks) 2005-2008
  • Jason McIntosh (database development for the gallery; encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2001-2002
  • Jon Miller (coordination of revision and updating of bibliography; encoding of bibliography) 1999-2000
  • Matt Miller (created searchable database of bibliographic citations and database of Whitman images; encoded Whitman's notebooks) 2007-2008
  • Heather Morton (assistant project manager) 2003-2005
  • Rob Nelson (project assistant and then project manager; site design; database development) 1997-2000
  • Alyssa Olson (Civil War Washington; editing photo metadata) 2007-2009
  • Jennifer Overkamp (transcription and encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2002-2003
  • Megan Peabody (photo processing) 2007
  • Heather Peltier (encoding) 1997-1998
  • Heidi Peters (transcription of reviews; checking of Rhys edition of Leaves; encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2005
  • Daniel Pitti (SGML and EAD consulting) 1997-
  • Ashley Price (transcription of poetry manuscripts; updating of database) 2003-2005
  • Gillian Price (transcription of poetry manuscripts; proofreading and encoding of Vasseur's translation of Whitman) 2006
  • Rachel Price (preparation of Vasseur edition) 2006-2007
  • Wesley Raabe(developed a prototype web site and information architecture for the Civil War Washington project) 2007-2008
  • Joshua Ranger (EAD encoding and encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003
  • Lisa Renfro (grant writing; editing and blessing of poetry manuscripts) 2004-2007
  • Katrina Robertson (transcription and encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2001-2002
  • Susan J. Rosowski (a member of the Advisory Board who served until her death) 2001-2004
  • Alice Rutkowski (project manager; helped with the development of the Whitman DTD and the encoding guidelines) 2000-2002
  • David Seaman (conversion of texts from Borland database format into TEI Lite and SGML/XML consulting) 1998-2001
  • Amy L. Scherdin (encoding) 1998-1999
  • David Sheesley (development of scripts for file conversion; database development) 2002-2003
  • Nina Shevchuk-Murray (preparation of Ukranian and Russian editions) 2007-2008
  • Tracy Simmons (transcription of interviews; image processing) 2005-2006
  • Janel Simons (Cayer) (research assistance on periodicals; proofreading; encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003-2005, 2008-
  • Melissa Sinner (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2000-2003
  • Jonathan Soma (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003
  • Justin St. Clair (transcription of poetry manuscripts) 2000-2001
  • Nicholas Swiercek (transcription and encoding of interviews)
  • Sarah Synovec (transcription and encoding; image processing) 2008-
  • Elliot Tally (scanning of various editions of Leaves) 1997-1998
  • John Unsworth (general consulting) 1995
  • Bart Welling (EAD encoding) 2002-2003
  • Sarah Weinert (photo processing) 2007
  • Frank Wheeler (encoding of criticism) 2008-2009
  • Jessica Williams (encoding of prose texts) 2007
  • Leslee Wright (transcription of poetry manuscripts; resizing of images) 2003
  • Zane Zimbelman (encoding of poetry manuscripts) 2003

Advisory Board

  • Edward L. Ayers, University of Virginia
  • Julia Flanders, Brown University
  • Robert A. Gross, College of William & Mary
  • Walter Grünzweig, University of Dortmund
  • Jerome McGann, University of Virginia
  • Joel Myerson, University of South Carolina
  • Daniel Pitti, University of Virginia
  • David S. Reynolds, City University of New York
  • Martha Nell Smith, University of Maryland
  • John Unsworth, University of Illinois

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© 1995–2009 Walt Whitman Archive, Ed Folsom & Kenneth M. Price, editors