Rachel Donelson Jackson: The Lesser-known and Profoundly Misunderstood Wife of Andrew Jackson
Panel
1B: A New Model for Digital Editing: Founding Women and Federated Documentary Edition
Abstract
Rachel Jackson (1767-1828), was the famous but little-known and profoundly misunderstood wife of controversial U.S. President and General Andrew Jackson. This paper stresses how looking at Rachel Jackson's papers offers a very different version of Rachel usually promoted by presidential historians. It then comments on the usefulness of her papers to a range of scholars. The federated model within the born-digital framework provides a framework to edit and publish this small edition apart from Andrew Jackson’s papers. Looking at Rachel’s correspondence and other documents as distinct from her husband’s allows scholars to view them within the context of her larger life an experiences rather than as an addendum to Andrew Jackson’s life and presidency. The wide variety of her documents including: newspaper articles, correspondence, sermons, financial records, marriage and divorce records, wills, and land claims also present a challenge within the digital format. In seeking to develop digital solutions for providing useful and readable transcriptions of Rachel’s documents, Founding Women will consider how her papers fit into the larger whole of the project and how best to develop answers that not only assist in the Jackson edition, but also work for the other five editions.
Rachel Donelson Jackson: The Lesser-known and Profoundly Misunderstood Wife of Andrew Jackson
Rachel Jackson (1767-1828), was the famous but little-known and profoundly misunderstood wife of controversial U.S. President and General Andrew Jackson. This paper stresses how looking at Rachel Jackson's papers offers a very different version of Rachel usually promoted by presidential historians. It then comments on the usefulness of her papers to a range of scholars. The federated model within the born-digital framework provides a framework to edit and publish this small edition apart from Andrew Jackson’s papers. Looking at Rachel’s correspondence and other documents as distinct from her husband’s allows scholars to view them within the context of her larger life an experiences rather than as an addendum to Andrew Jackson’s life and presidency. The wide variety of her documents including: newspaper articles, correspondence, sermons, financial records, marriage and divorce records, wills, and land claims also present a challenge within the digital format. In seeking to develop digital solutions for providing useful and readable transcriptions of Rachel’s documents, Founding Women will consider how her papers fit into the larger whole of the project and how best to develop answers that not only assist in the Jackson edition, but also work for the other five editions.