Editor's Notes

Sandra Gustafson, Book Review Editor of EAL, chaired a lively and well-attended conference entitled "Histories of Print, Manuscript, and Performance in America" at the American Antiquarian Society on June 10–12, 2005. A highlight of the proceedings was her Wiggins lecture "The Emerging Media of Early American Studies." Next year's symposium, scheduled for June 14–16, 2006, in Worcester, is entitled "LIBERTY/ ÉGALITÉ/ INDE-PENDENCIA: Print Culture, Enlightenment, and Revolution in the Americas, 1776–1826." The meeting will explore the circulation, translation, revision, cross-cultural interpretation, and influence of key texts inciting revolt against colonial dominion and establishing independent states in the western hemisphere during the first age of Revolution. Matters to be treated will include the effect of European Enlightenment books and pamphlets on independence movements throughout the Americas; the representation of revolutions in North America, France, Haiti, and Central and South America, and the 1808–1814 Spanish War of Independence against France in the press; the publication of public documents, charters, and political declarations and their international influence; print and the reaction against revolution in the Americas; the literature of revolution and the creation of the "vox populi" in new American nation-states; the role of print in defining norms and excesses in liberated polities—particularly in respect to Jacobinism, factionalism, radical libertarianism, and filibusterism; and print's function in highlighting the problem of slavery in newly independent American nations. Send inquiries about the conference to David Shields at dshields@gwm.sc.edu.

On June 15, 2005, Readex announced its creation of the Digital Edition of American Broadsides and Ephemera. It will be released in fall 2005. Based on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collections—the most extensive in existence—this digital edition will offer fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1876 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1876. The launch of this digital edition will mark 50 years of collaboration between Readex and the American Antiquarian Society.

Please note on your calendars the forthcoming conference: "Early American Cartographies,"March 2–4, 2006, The Newberry Library. The meeting will be sponsored by the Society of Early Americanists and the Newberry Library's Center for Renaissance Studies, Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography, D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History, Dr. William M. Scholl Center for Family and Community History, and the University of Notre Dame. It investigates the enduring significance of space and place in scholarship of the early Americas against the backdrop of the Newberry Library's world-class cartographic holdings. Papers and panels will explore the materials and metaphors of mapping of the early Americas from march lands to middle grounds, from borderlands to contact zones, from frontiers to public spheres. Those interested in reserving a place at the meeting should contact the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library at renaissance@newberry.org or 312-255-3514.